Bell Ribeiro-Addy “Not Confident” Of Getting MP Backing – But Says Labour Left Is Not Dead
Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP (Credit: See Li/Picture Capital/Alamy Live News)
5 min read
Exclusive: Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour left candidate for the deputy leadership, has admitted she is “not confident at all” about being able to reach the required number of MP nominations to proceed in the contest.
In an interview with PoliticsHome on Thursday, she even conceded she would “probably” stand aside if it became clear her nominations were needed elsewhere for a backbencher to stay in the race.
The Labour left MP denied that her tradition in the party could be considered dead if she could not proceed in the election, however.
Ribeiro-Addy, the only current member of the Labour left Socialist Campaign Group to stand in the internal party election, is running against Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, local government minister Alison McGovern, select committee chair Emily Thornberry, former Commons leader Lucy Powell, and fellow Labour left MP Paula Barker.
To reach the next stage, all candidates will need 80 MP nominations by 5pm on Thursday 11 September, according to the speedy timetable set by Labour’s ruling body. It is a difficult threshold for Labour left MPs to meet.
On whether she was confident of reaching 80 nominations, Ribeiro-Addy said: “Oh, no, I'm not confident at all. I will say that openly and honestly.
“Remember, it's just in the past few years [in 2021] that they doubled the threshold. If we get to a point in the party where a left voice like mine has no space, you will see it play out in the membership, and that's what I don't want to see. That's the reason why I'm standing.”
Asked whether she would step aside and endorse someone else to give them the nominations required for a non-minister to continue in the race, speaking on Thursday afternoon, she said: “Yeah, probably. But I need to wait and see all the people that are running, because every couple of hours, somebody else joins the race.”
She denied that the Labour left could be considered dead if she was not able to get enough support from her colleagues to proceed.
Referring to the statements made so far by the other candidates in the race, she said: “If the left in the Labour Party was dead, then I'm not sure if they would be leaning that way in their pitches.”
I don't think it's fair to say I'm ‘too critical’ when, at the moment, everyone seems to be saying what I've been saying all along
Ribeiro-Addy also warned that the Labour Party is underestimating the electoral threat posed by Jeremy Corbyn’s new venture, ‘Your Party’.
“I think they are. We're underestimating the electoral threat to our position in government, and it comes from all sides. We are already haemorrhaging votes – we're seeing that in by-elections, in polls. It's not impossible for us to fight on both fronts,” she said.
The left-wing MP said she had no intention of joining Your Party herself. But the deputy leadership candidate, who worked for Diane Abbott before entering Parliament as an MP herself, argued that it was not fair that suspended Labour MPs could not cast nominations in the contest this week.
“It's a huge problem. It’s so unfair,” she said. “I think they should all be let back in the party.”
The deputy leadership hopeful added: “I don't think it's fair to say I'm ‘too critical’ when, at the moment, everyone seems to be saying what I've been saying all along. If ‘too critical’ means I said it first, then sure.”
Ribeiro-Addy is the only Black MP to have put themselves forward for deputy leader so far. While there have been calls for Angela Rayner’s replacement to be female and from outside London, racial diversity or representation have not been a feature of the election so far.
“I have noticed that in other cases, perhaps when there are BAME candidates, they make very clear that we should be making sure that there is a BAME candidate on the ballot paper. I don't think people will be making that argument for me. And I think if they're not going to be making that argument for me, when the time comes for them, they should probably think twice,” Ribeiro-Addy warned.
On the subject of calls for diversity, she added: “I don't think there's much value in being a face in the space if you're not going to stand up for that particular community. Diversity is good, but representation is ultimately better.”
Dissent doesn't have to be disloyalty
Setting out her pitch, Ribeiro-Addy told PoliticsHome: “We just need to have an honest conversation that the direction we've been going in is not working. And members need to be a part of that. Our members get it.”
She is standing on a platform of backing a wealth tax, opposing “genocide, and calling it genocide” in Gaza, and “treating migrants with some dignity”.
“We have a proud tradition of standing up on the issues that maybe might be the most difficult for the public to hear, but we do it well. We need to stop trying to out-Reform Reform and get on with doing what we do best, and that's being Labour,” she said.
“Things like the ending of the two-child benefit cap, UBI [Universal Basic Income], four-day week, all of those things are things that the members of the party want to discuss.”
There are concerns that a Labour internal election, especially at this juncture, will look like navel-gazing to the public, but Ribeiro-Addy disagrees with this view.
“People are concerned about us having an internal conversation whilst we are also running the country, but I don't believe that we're not smart enough to do both things at once,” she said.
Of the deputy leader role, she said: “Some healthy difference is important… Me saying what I'm saying is not about being unnecessarily oppositional. Dissent doesn't have to be disloyalty.”
