Labour can still win in Scotland and Wales, the party’s new Deputy Leader Lucy Powell has claimed.
Ms Powell, who was sacked from the Prime Minister’s Cabinet last month, called for the party to offer the public “hope”, and pledged not to rule out any seat or election the party was fighting in. She defeated the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson by taking a 54% share of the vote compared to 46%.
Speaking to the Sunday Mirror after the result, in a week that saw Labour pushed into third place in the Caerphilly Senedd by-election, Ms Powell insisted there was still time to turn it around before the May elections next year.
She said: “I am not going to write off any seat or any election next May, they’re really important elections and for me they’re not kind of gauge of national mood, these are Labour elected representatives who’ve been delivering real change in their communities and I want to support them and get them re-elected.
“That is what I’m going to be focused on from day one, and that’s why I’ve been out in London today with a lot of our councillors and council candidates because we’ve got all our elections in London.”
Ms Powell explained she’d be going on the campaign trail across the UK “as soon as possible”, and vowed to reinvigorate members after a bruising period which included 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.
She said: “Members are our route into the country, into our communities, into workplaces, and into that national conversation.
“I’ve got a message of hope that the progressive mainstream politics that we represent as the Labour party, we can change people’s lives for the better.
“That’s why we all joined the Labour party because we believe that and we need to show that that’s what we’re doing and that’s what I’m going to help with.”
Ms Powell received 87,407 votes from the Labour Party membership and affiliates while Ms Phillipson received 73,536 votes.
The election result could spell trouble for the PM, with Ms Powell able 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,
Ruling out joining the cabinet, she explained: “I’ve said all along I could do a much more effective job for the government doing this job in a political capacity, and not with the constraints of running a department and government.”
The new Deputy Leader also argued that debate within the party was not division, and actually served to help the Government.
She said: “I am not going to be out on the airwaves throwing stones, my intention is to get stuck in and shape things from within, from within the family. Members have put their trust in me to do that, to be their voice at the top of government at the top of the party and I will be their voice true to their values, true to their hopes and expectations.
“I won’t be going around doing that in public. Having debate, you get unity from unity and purpose. Debate is not dissent, it’s how we make good policy and do good things.”
In her victory speech to the party faithful, Ms Powell warned “we won’t win by trying to out-Reform Reform, but by building a broad progressive consensus”.
The new deputy leader said: “We must give a stronger sense of our purpose, whose side we are on and of our Labour values and beliefs.
“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.”
She said that “people feel that this Government is not being bold enough in delivering the kind of change we promised”.
Speaking at the result, the PM insisted he would deliver the change the public wanted.
He said: “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.”
The contest was triggered by Angela Rayner’s resignation after she failed to pay the correct stamp duty on a property purchase.
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 the PM.
