Emily Thornberry has this morning dropped out of the race to be Labour’s new deputy leader. The one-time shadow foreign secretary was the first to signal that she wanted the job, using an interview on the BBC on Sunday to politely fillet Keir Starmer’s government. But, in a race dominated by identity politics, she was always going to struggle. Despite her many fans in the media, Thornberry could not muster more than 13 public declarations of support from MPs. Too many of her colleagues reasoned they could not elect a north London lawyer to act as deputy to another north London lawyer. ‘At least Emily has a personality,’ mused one older MP yesterday. Angela Rayner’s departure has left a vacuum that much of the parliamentary party feels can only be filled by another northern woman.
Angela Rayner’s departure has left a vacuum that much of the parliamentary party feels can only be filled by another northern woman
That is a consensus that has been only encouraged by the two frontrunners, Bridget Phillipson and Lucy Powell. The former is the choice of No. 10; the other was sacked by Starmer less than a week ago. Phillipson, a Blairite loyalist, hails from the north east; Powell, an ally of Andy Burnham, from the north west. Fans of both have played the northern angle for all it is worth. The Tribune group of soft-left MPs endorsed Powell partly on that basis while Jo White, the chair of the Red Wall Caucus, said Phillipson’s background was a factor in her endorsement. The pair are the only two candidates who look likely to hit the necessary threshold of 80 MPs by 5 p.m. today. Phillipson was on 116 supporters when the nominations list was updated last night, with Powell on 77. The only other candidate left, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, is on 15 names, after Paula Barker dropped out too.
It therefore looks increasingly like party members will have a choice of only two contenders. There are still 160 odd Labour MPs yet to endorse a candidate and Thornberry’s 13 declared backers can go elsewhere. But, given how the votes have broken so far, a straight Phillipson-Powell fight is the working assumption across much of the parliamentary party. At a hustings last night, the Education Secretary insisted that only she could ‘unite’ the party and see off the threat from Reform, while Powell stressed her campaign record. For now, the contest has been an amicable one. But with six weeks to go and the party conference looming in Liverpool, there is plenty of potential for rancour.
Comments