When Lucy Powell got a phone call from a withheld number in her constituency office in Manchester on the day Angela Rayner resigned, Powell told her staff: “This is me getting the sack.” Never would the former Commons leader have believed less than two months later that she might be on the brink of returning as Labour’s deputy leader.
Her rival, Bridget Phillipson, also never expected to be in this position. Hurt by some of the internal briefing against her position as education secretary, she debated for more than a day whether to join the race at all. Being cast as the favoured candidate has not been comfortable.
