Have you ever been to a Summer friendly football match or seen one of those exhibition tennis matches between the top stars at a Saudi Arabian venue?  Labour’s deputy leadership contest in some ways feels like a similar staged performance.

For a start it is precisely managed by the sponsors. The link to combining the job with a cabinet position as deputy prime minster has been broken.  The post is defined as a link smoothing relations between MPs and members and the leadership as well as being a campaigning ‘attack dog’.

Moving the goalposts

In particular, the Starmer leadership had fixed the rules by making it practically impossible for a credible left candidate to get on the pitch. They had moved the goalposts so instead of 40 nominations from MPs you now need 80. 

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a Socialist Campaign MP, was allowed to be in the game for just three days. In that time she was able to at least raise important issues and score points on the national media.

She was the only candidate to call for an immediate inquiry into the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the United States.  Bell alone pointed out the contest’s anti-democratic stitch-up.  Apart from the unfair nomination threshold, the time allowed was truncated to just 3 days. 

This meant Labour members were given no opportunity to consult their MPs and indicate a preference over who they nominated. Her tally of just 24 nominations indicates the current weakness of the left inside the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) and among the membership.

Morgan McSweeney Labour’s  chief of staff wanted a quick contest, done and dusted well before the budget. The actual vote finishes at the end of October so around 5 or 6 weeks for hustings and meetings of members.  The Starmer leadership was happy to see just two candidates make the race.  

Rumours of a coronation of just one would have incensed a restless PLP and a shrinking but still quite critical membership. If you cannot have a coronation the next best thing is to set up a Putin style electoral contest where the official candidate faces an artificial ‘opposition’ party that is allowed some derisory vote but is just a well rewarded stooge of the regime.

Keep it friendly, no hard tackles

Bridgit Phillipson against Lucy Powell is not as fixed as a Putin election but it is the one the leadership is relaxed about. It would prefer not to have a contest when there is so much ferment but Angela Rayner messed up their plans. Phillipson is the education minister inside the cabinet and Powell is a recently sacked minister. Neither of them voiced opposition to:

• the proposed removal of the universal winter fuel allowance,
• welfare/disability cuts,
• Labour’s refusal to call out genocide in Palestine,
• Selling arms to Israel,
• the anti-migrant/refugee policies,
• the harsh disciplinary measures taken against left MPs like John McDonnell,
• the anti-democratic proscription of Palestine Action.

From their campaign material and statements so far this is unlikely to change.

Lucy’s line

Lucy Powell has called for ‘a change of culture at number ten’. She would transmit concerns of backbenchers, be an honest messenger:

“What I don’t want to do is stand at the sidelines, filling the airwaves with criticism of the government,” she said. “I really want this government to succeed, but I’m not afraid to speak truth where that truth needs to be spoken. In the main, I would hope to do that within the family – and let’s have a broad family.

“People are frustrated at the moment. There are issues, no doubt about that. I want to make sure that our MPs and our Labour members feel proud and enthused with what this government is doing, so they can be the best champions for it they can be.”

Guardian 13 Sepember

Bridgit’s pitch

Bridgit Phillipson, on the other hand, wants to look forward rather than back, unite the party, defeat Reform and win the next eleciton:

we need to unite the party to deliver real change and win a second Labour term. By backing me, you can be part of this change.

But I know we need to go further. At the last election we knocked on doors offering people hope for a brighter future. Together we can deliver it.

Email to LP Members

She makes much more of the measures she has taken as Education minister such as expansion of free school meals and makes a lot of her personal story coming from a working class background and understanding how to beat Reform in the north east. Indeed, Powell has tried to trump Phillipson by saying in her Manchester constituency she is able to beat both Reform and the Greens!

Both of them also pose as honest women of the north who can improve Labour’s profile.  As if the decisive problem of Labour’s policy is a geographical North vs South split rather than a failure to really defend the interests of the many not the few.

So there is very little political difference between the candidates and it is hard to see how the marginally more critical Powell line will actually shift the government from its anti-working class strategic alliance with capital. Expect a polite contest; neither will be going in hard.

Lots going on off the pitich

However, there are other political battles and maneuvering going on behind the scenes that partially affects the official ‘friendly match’ between the two women.  Even friendly matches can get lively at times.

Powell is an ally of her local mayor, Andy Burnham, a perpetual leadership contender. He was roundly defeated by Jeremy Corbyn in 2015. He has his own power base as an elected mayor and likes to embellish his ‘King of the North’ tag.  Also, he is one of the main movers of a new Labour political current called Mainstream. This is an attempt from outside the Socialist Campaign Group to set up a formation that can act like a new broad church centred  on the soft left. 

Neil Lawson’s Compass, Open Labour and the Chartist group are the main movers behind it.  The relative success of the hundred or so MPs who campaigned against the cuts to disability PIP payments has emboldened this initiative. If you read the statements on their site once again there is little reference to politics in the real word such as Palestine, rather there are platitudes.

Consequently, a big vote or victory for Powell will be seen as an endorsement of Burnham and the Mainstream project of tweaking Labour policy to be a bit more progressive and even to dump the McSweeney group.  In fact their defining narrative is to be against the Starmer line without saying that openly. So they are for unity, for a positive story about Labour but against the Number Ten advisors who are not listening to MPs and members concerns. 

Philippson echoes this idea that the policies are fine but that ‘we are not communicating them well enough’. Neither of them really takes up the political reality that Labour’s migrant baiting and flag waving to try and win back Reform voters is not even working on its own terms.

Pick up the ball and run with it

Any discussion about the politics of the government is better than none.  Everyday business in most constituencies has been set by the new regional and local right wing leaderships to avoid discussions about issues like a wealth tax, Palestine, migrants or repressive legislation.

Meetings have also been shortened and made infrequent – so a few hustings meetings are to be welcomed. It will be illuminating to see how many take place and how many people bother to attend. The votes in the end will be revealing, too. Official membership figures have been suppressed recently but the voting figures will tell a story.

Momentum has saved its honour by refusing to make any recommendation for a vote between the two candidates:

Labour members are left with two candidates in the race with little track record of representing genuine Labour values. Thus while we encourage Labour members to use the upcoming CLP nomination meetings to raise key issues, such as those raised by Bell in her campaign, at the present time we are not recommending a vote for either candidate.

Socialists should support this position. Mainstream does not appear to have taken a position yet but it is likely its members will be backing Powell.  If it does not take a position to support Powell you wonder what sort of impact it is going to have. Its refusal to a take an official line would not be on the same critical basis as Momentum.

Mandy’s dark shadow

Mandelson’s sacking has coloured the race because it has pushed more MPs to privately or even publicly voice their concerns about Starmer’s judgment.  It looks like he knew about the relationship with the convicted paedophile but took a risk on Mandelson. Remember that the latter played no small part in the prime minister’s rise to power. It is reported Starmer did not even tell him directly he was being sacked. 

This adds a further element to the mix.  The McSweeney team will want to block Burnham from beating Starmer in a leadership challenge.  These people will dump Starmer in favour of a right wing candidate (Streeting?) if they know Starmer will lose.  Mandelson from the shadows could play a part in pullng this off.

They also know that Burnham has to wangle himself a parliamentary seat. He has already got one lined up in Manchester as an ailing MP is ready to step down for him. This takes time.

Most people think a leadership challenge would probably come when Labour takes a caning in the May local, Scottish and Welsh elections. But it could come earlier if the budget and conference fails to give Starmer a boost. Does the right wing move earlier to pre-empt Burnham before May? Mandelson might be happy to offer his services to any plot.

A further complication is that if Phillipson wins the Deputy Leadership she might also fancy her chances in a race to be leader. It would confirm her popularity among members and the unions.  It would further emphasise the retreat of the left, even the soft left.  If Powell were to win it might encourage the Mainstream current, help Burnham and increase debate.

It would also perhaps make her or other soft left candidates think they could run for the main job. Burnham would not be happy but many Labour people think a woman should have a turn to lead Labour.

Real struggle is on another pitch

The absence within this charade, dominated by personal ambitions, of any political solutions to the crisis facing working people and the environment means the foundation of the new left party is more urgent than ever. 

Dawn Butler and Rachel Maskell, two Socialist Campaign group MPs had joined the Mainstream grouping which suggests that inside Labour there is a recomposition going on towards the centre while the new party and the Green’s new leader represent a radicalization to the left.

Socialists support any challenge within Labour against the line of the government. But let us have no illusions about where this is going. If it leads anywhere it might mean Burnham becomes leader and this is possible but not probable.  Socialists still inside Labour should use the deputy leadership campaign to raise the real issues.

But at the same time why not campaign on the real pitch with people building the new party or in the Greens to defend migrants, defeat Reform, resist austerity, save the environment and support democratic rights. These battles are harder and harder to take up inside Labour.

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