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Lucy Powell has come out on top in the Labour deputy leadership election, beating out her opponent Bridget Phillipson.

Election Results and Figures

Ex-Commons leader until a reshuffle in a September reshuffle, was widely considered the leading candidate during the contest. She obtained 87,407 votes, accounting for 54% of the cast ballots, while Phillipson got 73,536. Eligible voter turnout stood at 16.6%.

The result was declared on Saturday following a vote that many regarded as a measure for party adherents on Labour's path under its current leadership. Phillipson, the minister for education, was considered the favored candidate of government circles.

Agreed-Upon Policies

Each candidate advocated for the abolition of the cap on benefits for third children, a policy that provoked a revolt among MPs shortly after Labour took power and is strongly opposed among the party base.

Powell's Victory Address

During her acceptance address spoken in front of the party leader and the home secretary, Powell suggested errors from the government and remarked that Labour had not been assertive enough against Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

She declared, “Victory won't come by competing with Reform.”

She exhorted the leadership to heed the grassroots and parliamentarians, a number of whom have lost party support since the party gained power for defying the party on issues such as welfare spending and the two-child benefit cap.

“Our grassroots and MPs are not a flaw, they’re our greatest strength, delivering change on the ground,” Powell said. “Unity and loyalty stem from shared goals, not from command-and-control. Discussing, heeding and understanding is not dissent. It’s our forte.”

She added: “We must provide hope, to deliver the major change the country is demanding. We need to express a more definite feeling of our purpose, who we represent, and of our Labour values and beliefs. That’s the message I received loudly and clearly throughout the land over the past few weeks.”

She also mentioned: “While we’re accomplishing many positive things … people feel that this government is failing to be daring in delivering the kind of change we promised. I intend to fight for our core principles and boldness in each endeavor.

“It begins with us seizing again the political narrative and establishing the focus more assertively. Because let’s be honest, we’ve allowed Farage and his ilk to dominate it.”

She remarked: “Discord and animosity are growing, unrest and disappointment prevalent, the desire for change eager and tangible. People are searching elsewhere for responses, and we as the Labour party, as the party of government, have to advance and address this.

“We have this single opportunity to show that progressive, mainstream politics really can improve living conditions for the better.”

Leader's Remarks and Labour's Struggles

The party leader applauded Powell’s success, and recognized the challenges confronting Labour, a day after the party suffered a defeat in the Welsh parliament to a rival party.

He cited a pledge made by a Conservative MP who last weekend claimed she believed “a large number of people” living legally in the UK should have their right to stay revoked and “go home” to establish a more “culturally coherent group of people”.

The leader remarked it indicated that the Conservatives and Reform sought to bring Britain to a “very dark place”.

“Our responsibility, every one of us in this party, is to bring together every single person in this country who is resisting that politics, and to defeat it, once and for all.

“This week we had another signal of just how pressing that objective is. A bad outcome in Wales. I acknowledge that, but it is a cue that people need to look out their window and witness transformation and revitalization in their locality, prospects for the young, restored public services, the addressed living costs.”

Election Context and Turnout

The conclusion was more narrow than predicted; a recent poll had forecast Powell would receive 58% of ballots cast. The turnout of 16.6% was significantly less than the last deputy leadership election in 2020, which recorded 58.8%.

Grassroots and labor groups constituted the 970,642 people eligible to vote.

The campaign grew increasingly contentious over the recent weeks. Recently, Powell was called “the Momentum candidate” and Phillipson spoke to the press saying her rival would cost the party the election.

The election was called after the previous deputy leader resigned last month when she was found to have underpaid stamp duty on a property purchase.

Speaking in parliament this week – the maiden speech she had done so since stepping down following a report by the prime minister’s ethics adviser – the former deputy leader told MPs she would pay “any taxes owed”.

Differing from her predecessor, Powell will not be appointed deputy prime minister, with the role having previously assigned to another senior figure.

Powell is seen as being tightly connected with the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who was charged with starting a run for the top job in all but name before the party’s last gathering.

Over the election period, Powell often referenced “mistakes” made by the party on issues such as the winter fuel allowance.