The scramble to replace Angela Rayner as deputy leader of the Labour party is well under way. Apparently, it’s inevitable the role will go to a candidate with similar claims to Rayner in terms of that much-vaunted quality, authenticity. Whether Bridget Phillipson or Lucy Powell, the next deputy leader will also be a woman from a working-class family from the north of England.
In reality, each of their journeys to Westminster (via, crucially, Oxford) differ wildly from that of Rayner and, by extension, from the lives of the majority of working-class women. Those who have pursued these rare routes of social mobility are undoubtedly impressive, but they remain a small minority. I am one of these women, and I am happy to admit it.
