We can’t fight Reform if we are fighting each other
4 min read
I joined the Labour Party at 15 years old, having grown up on a tough council street.
I joined because the Labour Party is the greatest vehicle for social justice this country has ever known. I joined because Labour governments change lives.
That’s why this deputy leadership contest is such a crucial moment – not just for the future of our party but also for our country. Divided parties don’t win elections. We need to unite, beat Nigel Farage and win that second term.
I am seeking a mandate from our members to deliver more hope, more opportunity for young people, and push forward even more transformative policies that will improve life chances for everyone.
Don’t be fooled by Farage and his Tory tribute act when they talk about freedom. Only a Labour government offers the freedom to choose your course in life. Labour governments lift children out of poverty – that’s why I came into politics, and that’s why in our first year in government I have been working hard to deliver better life chances for our children.
I want to make Labour members proud of our party; proud to campaign, proud to knock on doors and talk about the difference a Labour government makes to all our communities.
I’ve rolled out free breakfast clubs, revived the best of Sure Start for a new generation in our Best Start Family Hubs, opened new school-based nurseries, secured free school meals for half a million more children and invested in state education by ending private schools’ tax breaks.
I know what it means to push against powerful vested interests to deliver progressive change. We faced day-after-day of scare stories about the impact of ending private school tax breaks from a powerful lobby. We stayed true to our values and delivered it in government. We don’t have to choose between our values and delivery – that’s why I voted against attempts from Tory Lords to water down the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation.
We’ve done much, but there’s more to do. We need a second term.
The path to victory runs through all of our regions and nations, towns and cities, countryside and coastlines. But we won’t if we’re not united. Divided parties don’t win elections.
We cannot afford to hand Farage and Reform UK a crucial advantage with elections in Scotland, Wales and local elections right around the corner. We can’t afford to lose votes to parties who might claim to offer hope but can never deliver change. We need to make sure we are – always – the party of hope and justice, the party with not just a dream but a plan for a better future.
That’s why I will continue Angela Rayner’s campaigning role as deputy leader, focusing on getting our Labour councillors, MSPs, MSs and MPs re-elected, and listening to members to give them a strong voice at the Cabinet table so we can make a difference at the kitchen tables of families across the country.
We cannot afford to go back to the days of a divided Labour Party, to re-open old wounds. We won the last general election because we came together to show the country a different vision of the future.
We must come together again because, make no mistake, the alternative is the same disunity that mired us in opposition for 14 long years. We must not hand the advantage to parties that offer neither change nor hope but only snake oil.
Our movement – making change together in government, bringing together members, unions, councillors and mayors, our regions and nations as well.
I will unite our party around our common values, and I will never lose sight of the country that our movement seeks to build.
We can’t fight Reform if we are fighting each other. We can’t fight poverty if we are fighting each other. We must unite to win the future.
Bridget Phillipson, Labour MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, Education Secretary and deputy leadership candidate
