Labour’s new deputy leader Lucy Powell has urged Sir Keir Starmer to be bolder and give a “stronger sense of our purpose”.
Ms Powell, who was sacked from the Prime Minister’s Cabinet last month, said the party had to better demonstrate “whose side we are on”.
And she warned against Labour shifting to the right to counter the threat posed by Nigel Farage, warning “we can’t out-Reform Reform”.
The election result could spell trouble for Sir Keir as Ms Powell will be free to speak out against his Government’s policies from the back benches rather than being bound by collective responsibility like her defeated deputy leadership rival, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson.
She defeated Ms Phillipson by taking a 54% share of the vote against the Education Secretary’s 46%.
But turnout in the contest was just 16.6% of eligible voters, suggesting a lack of enthusiasm among the party’s members and affiliates.
The new deputy leader said: “We have to offer hope, to offer the big change the country is crying out for.
“We must give a stronger sense of our purpose, whose side we are on and of our Labour values and beliefs.”
She said that “people feel that this Government is not being bold enough in delivering the kind of change we promised”.
The contest was triggered by Angela Rayner’s resignation after she failed to pay the correct stamp duty on a property purchase.
Ms Powell received 87,407 votes from the Labour Party membership and affiliates while Ms Phillipson received 73,536 votes.
Labour has tightened up its policies on migration in an attempt to counter the threat posed by Reform UK.
But Ms Powell warned “we won’t win by trying to out-Reform Reform, but by building a broad progressive consensus”.
She said: “It starts with us wrestling back the political megaphone and setting the agenda more strongly.
“Because let’s be honest, we’ve let Farage and his ilk run away with it. He wants to blame immigration for all the country’s problems.
“We reject that. Our diagnosis is different: that for too long, the country and the economy has worked in the interests of the few, not the many.”
Ms Powell’s election follows a bruising few days for Sir Keir after the chaos in the grooming gangs inquiry, the return of a small boat migrant who was sent to France under the one in, one out deal, the blunder which saw Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu released from prison, and defeat for Labour in its Welsh stronghold of Caerphilly.
Sir Keir said: “We must press ahead with the renewal that working people need to see.
“Now, this week, we received another reminder of just how urgent that task is.
“A bad result in Wales, I accept that, but a reminder that people need to look out their window and see change and renewal in their community, opportunities for their children, public services rebuilt, the cost of living crisis tackled.
“Renewal is the only answer to decline, to grievance and to division and we have to keep going on that.”
Ms Phillipson said: “Regardless of today’s result, I will always be a strong voice for our members and trade unions at the Cabinet table and I will still be that powerful campaigning presence at the top of government working to deliver a crucial second term of Labour government.”
Ms Powell lost her seat at the Cabinet table as Commons leader in the reshuffle triggered by Ms Rayner’s resignation from her ministerial and party roles.
Manchester Central MP Ms Powell was endorsed by Mainstream, the group backed by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham – long viewed as a potential leadership rival to Sir Keir.
Ms Powell was forced to apologise in May after appearing to dismiss concerns about grooming gangs as a “dog whistle” issue.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: “Never forget, this is the woman who said that calling for a Grooming Gangs Inquiry was a ‘dog whistle’.
“Now she’s the deputy leader of the Labour Party. It’s shameful, and a testament to the total weakness of Keir Starmer.”
