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The Guardian - UK

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Polly Toynbee

Who should be Labour’s deputy leader? Whoever can tell a good Labour story – and take the fight to Reform

Bridget Phillipson Lucy Powell Polly Toynbee Nigel Farage

The Labour deputy leadership candidates, Lucy Powell (left) and Bridget Phillipson. — The Labour deputy leadership candidates, Lucy Powell (left) and Bridget Phillipson. Composite: UK Parliament/The Guardian

You might think the last thing Labour needs now is this deputy leadership contest, the unavoidable fallout from Angela Rayner’s sad plunge from grace. But these two combatants, Bridget Phillipson and Lucy Powell, may ignite exactly the rethinking Labour needs. Like it or not, whoever the contestants were, this would be framed as establishment v insurgent, or as proxies for Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham. It’s for Phillipson and Powell to strike out and show they are their own people. In truth, Phillipson is not very establishment and Powell not very insurgent.

Any party would be in a state of ferment after falling further than any previous government in its it first 14 months, with inflation stubbornly high and growth flatlining. It reels from the shock of scoring 20% in opinion polls while Nigel Farage’s Reform UK rides high on 31%.

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