East Midlands Mayor Claire Ward Endorses Bridget Phillipson For Labour Deputy Leader
Claire Ward was elected as the East Midlands' first ever regional mayor last year (Alamy)
4 min read
Exclusive: East Midlands Mayor Claire Ward has endorsed No 10’s favoured candidate Bridget Phillipson as Labour deputy leader, arguing that the party does not need “internal warfare”.
Education Secretary Phillipson and former leader of the House of Commons Lucy Powell are battling it out to replace Angela Rayner as Labour deputy leader. Rayner was forced to resign as deputy leader, deputy prime minister and housing secretary earlier this month after being found by the independent ethics adviser to have breached the ministerial code over unpaid stamp duty.
In an interview with PoliticsHome, Ward said: “I'm going to endorse Bridget because she understands those communities that are very similar to some communities in my region.”
She praised Phillipson’s work on education, free school meals and breakfast clubs, and said these policies showed the education secretary’s understanding of “tangible things that will make a difference to people in those communities”.
“I want somebody who's got some clout, that will work collaboratively, because what we don't need is internal warfare," Ward said.
“We do need people to listen, though. And Bridget understands that message strongly in the party leadership.”
Ward has become the third Labour regional mayor to publicly endorse a candidate, with Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham having announced his support for Powell and North East Mayor Kim McGuinness having endorsed Phillipson. There is widespread speculation that Burnham is preparing to make his own leadership bid against Keir Starmer, amid Labour MP restlessness over the Prime Minister's performance.
While Phillipson – a serving Cabinet minister – is widely viewed as the pro-Starmer candidate, Powell – who was removed from Cabinet in the reshuffle earlier this month – has pitched herself as the candidate who is better-placed to challenge the PM's decisions. The latter's campaign is being led by Justin Madders, who was thought to be very unhappy with his own removal as a minister at the recent reshuffle.
While Phillipson led the way in terms of Labour MP nominations, polling by LabourList and Survation conducted over the weekend showed Powell leading with 47 per cent of party members, compared to 30 per cent for Phillipson.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is widely seen as the pro-leadership candidate for the deputy leadership (Alamy)
Speaking to the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast this week, Powell said she spent months in Cabinet “feeding back, especially around how difficult some pieces of legislation like welfare were going to be to land”.
“I thought I was doing the job I was supposed to be doing, but maybe that wasn’t feedback people wanted to hear,” she said, suggesting that she was sacked because of the opinions she put forward while at the Cabinet table.
Starmer is currently facing one of the toughest challenges to his leadership yet, with ministers and backbench MPs accusing him of poor political judgment over the Peter Mandelson affair.
"There’s a lot of anger, and people don’t understand how this keeps happening,” one minister told PoliticsHome last week.
While Downing Street is making attempts to improve its outreach to backbench MPs, the mood among the Parliamentary Labour Party is palpably grim heading into the party's conference in Liverpool next week.
"As far as whether or not it’s working, I think the empty seats on the government benches during today’s emergency debate speak for themselves,” one Labour MP who was elected last year told PoliticsHome.
Speaking to PoliticsHome on Wednesday, mayor Ward said that while she recognised Labour inherited a “really tough gig” after winning the election last year, she wanted No 10 to get a “better grip”.
“There needs to be better communication to people, and there needs to be an understanding of what people are saying in those communities,” she said.
“That means listening to members, listening to residents, to communities, and to members of Parliament who are seeing and hearing that on a daily basis. They are your eyes and ears.”
She added that the centre of government needs “the right information, good people around them, good advisors and good teams to be able to take that course”.
“It's not just one person.”
The team around Starmer has been shaken up significantly in recent weeks. Nin Pandit, the PM's top civil service aide, is leaving after less than 10 months, to be replaced by Treasury official Dan York-Smith. James Lyons has left his role as Downing Street communications director, with Tony Blair-era press officer Tim Allan coming in.
Paul Ovendon, No 10’s director of strategy and a close ally of both Starmer and his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, has also resigned from Downing Street this week after reports of derogatory sexual remarks he made about veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott in 2017.
