Lucy Powell has hit out at what she describes as the “sexist” framing of her campaign for the Labour deputy leadership, amid claims that she and rival Bridget Phillipson are acting as proxies for a future battle between Andy Burnham and Sir Keir Starmer.
The MP for Manchester Central, who lost her role as Commons leader in the recent reshuffle, told the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast that the focus on two men rather than the two strong women candidates was “just Westminster bubble obsession”. She said: “Instead of talking about the two strong women, everybody’s talking about this being a sort of proxy for war between two men, which, quite honestly, I find kind of sexist.”
Powell, who is reportedly 17 percentage points ahead of Phillipson in a LabourList survey, warned previously that the contest must not become a shadow battle between Burnham and Starmer. She told the Manchester Evening News: “Woe betide anyone who wants to try and tell me that I’m subservient to some other man. I’m probably more alpha male than most men I know.”
Insisting her aim is to unite Labour’s values with the voters it serves, Powell declined to propose alternative policies before Rachel Reeves’s budget, but said the party should communicate its values more strongly. She described lifting the two-child benefit cap as “the single biggest policy we could do to address child poverty” and urged ministers to be clearer about wanting to scrap it.
Reflecting on her sacking, Powell said it was “a kind of shock but not a total surprise”, adding that she may have passed on too much honest feedback to No 10. She said: “I know I’m not really in the in-crowd… maybe I thought I was doing the job I was supposed to be doing – but maybe that wasn’t feedback people wanted to hear.”
