Keri Starmer is out of touch with Labour voters and must do more to articulate the party’s ‘purpose’, the favourite to become its new deputy leader has suggested.
Lucy Powell hit out at the Prime Minister in the lead-up to poll closing today in a deputy leadership election that could trigger a major new schism in Labour and see it tack even further to the left.
Ms Powell is up against Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson to take the post vacated by Angela Rayner last month after she failed to pay enough tax on a holiday home.
And the Manchester Central MP used a final appeal to party members on the Labour List website to criticise Sir Keir and his team.
She again warned against ‘trying to out-Reform Reform’, a reference to tough new anti-migrant laws, saying Labour had to be ‘much clearer about our purpose as a party and government, and whose side we are on’.
‘I want to help Keir and our Government to succeed,’ she said.
‘But we all know that we must change how we are doing things to turn things around – more in touch with our movement, and the communities and workplaces we represent, more principled and strategic, less tactical, and strongly guided by our values.’
She also hit out at Ms Phillipson, pointedly saying she would be a ‘full-time’ deputy leader, in contrast to her rival, who will combine it with her Cabinet post.
If Ms Powell is named the winner on Saturday it could trigger a fresh crisis and battle for the soul of the party just weeks before the Budget and at a time when it is struggling in the polls.
A new poll released today showed that she remains on course to win, though her lead has narrowed.
Ms Phillipson used her own appeal to members to say she was ‘impatient foe the change we promised’ before the 2024 election.
But while she admitted the leadership had ‘got things wrong’ she said the best place for the deputy to be was ‘right at the heart of government, not by shouting from the sidelines’.
‘We all know Reform are a clear and present danger which we can’t ignore – so are the Greens peddling their false hope,’ she said.
‘But we’re not going to beat them by having spats in public. We’re not going to beat them by throwing rocks at the leadership just as we’re not going to beat them by straying from our values.’
