After a relatively successful Liverpool conference, the Labour Party needs a new deputy leader, and the ballot papers are out. For me, if you want a strong, independent-minded woman with the courage of her convictions, who cares about poverty and who can provide a balance at the very top of the party and the government, it must be Bridget Phillipson.
She’s proved she can deliver, steering the children’s wellbeing and schools bill through the Commons, and it is now before the House of Lords. Beyond establishing breakfast clubs, the bill tightens accountability for academies, ensures all teachers are qualified, taxes private schools and gives local authorities powers to open schools again. Predictably, some vested interests have expressed their disquiet. Yet, the education secretary has held her line despite jittery press briefings from 10 Downing Street which have even suggested her job might be at stake.
If Phillipson wins the deputy leadership contest, she will become an unsackable, credible, northern, female working-class voice with authority at the cabinet table. She will protect not just the education bill: she has also pledged to defend the employment bill, telling the TUC’s recent conference in Brighton that it should not be watered down.
Phillipson’s commitment to reducing poverty
Phillipson has said she is ashamed of the extent of poverty in the UK and is co-chairing a government taskforce, which is due to report soon. She was raised by a single parent and has risen to the top ranks of politics through her own hard work and family support, but also with the support of Labour programmes such as Sure Start. She told the Guardian: “The brilliant state education I received set me up for life and led the shy, quiet girl with the long plaits in the corner of the classroom to where I am today.”
She is adept at loyally backing the government – as every minister must – while subtly testing the boundaries: back in May, she claimed that “nothing is off the table” when asked whether the government was considering lifting the two-child benefit cap.
Phillipson knows her own mind. Raised a Roman Catholic, she has voted to protect abortion rights, while opposing the assisted dying bill. She will take on Reform and the Tories, but choose her words carefully to win back voters who once supported Labour.
Country before party: the need for debate
When serving as a Labour backbencher from 1997-2010 representing Selby, and from 2017-2019 representing Keighley, I saw it as part of the job to challenge the government when I thought it was taking the wrong course: country before party. There was no point in being in parliament just do as you were told.
Sometimes, I voted against the party line, as in the case of war in Iraq in 2003, and in 2017, on Europe, when I thought we were not fighting Brexit vigorously enough. Nobody ever threatened me with suspension from the party whip. Dissent and difference are part of the process, which ultimately strengthens our parliament and our government.
Why choose Phillipson over Powell?
There is no doubt that in office this time, Labour has been far too centralised and controlling in its approach and has paid a big political price for it. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves do not always know best, and there is, I think, a new understanding in the chief whip’s office that MPs have to be treated like adults. Last month, along with other far more prominent Labour figures, I signed up to a new Labour Party pressure group, Mainstream, which aims – by organising within the party– to push Labour to be bolder on key economic, social, democratic and environmental issues.
Supporters of Mainstream might be tempted to vote for Lucy Powell for deputy leader – now on the backbenches after losing her job in the government – to lever change. Truth be told, Phillipson and Powell would probably agree on 90% of issues: this will not be a repeat of the ideological divisions which occurred during the deputy leadership contest between Tony Benn and Denis Healey in the 1980s.
In the end I think it more productive to support the candidate best able to meet the demands of the job: someone at the top table, with a democratic mandate of her own, and a distinctive approach; someone who can step into the leader’s shoes on occasion when needed, while the rest of us keep up the pressure on policy issues from below.
The northern voice we need
I have not long since come back from Norway where a Labour government, which was desperately unpopular some months ago, has retained power in a general election despite a strong rightward surge by a new party. It can be done, but it needs challenge and grit and alternative viewpoints within cabinet to both deliver and, where necessary, change direction. This is one time when Labour in Yorkshire needs to align with the candidate from the north east.
Bridget Phillipson has a similar understanding of working-class aspiration and the ability to articulate it, as former cabinet minister Alan Johnson displayed during the premierships of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Ultimately, he was passed over for the most senior positions in the party – we must not make the same mistake with Phillipson.
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