Labour’s Deputy Leadership election has sparked bitter divisions and claims of a “stitch up” just says after it was kicked off by Angela Rayner’s resignation. The party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) will today draw up plans for the election of a new deputy leader after Ms Rayner quit the job for underpaying stamp duty by up to £40,000. Sir Keir Starmer has appointed a new Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary, other roles held by Ms Rayner, but the choice of deputy leader is down to party activists.
However, left-wingers have responded angrily to suggestions that the contest could be fast-tracked. MP Richard Burgon, who was a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, said on X: “I’ve been warning about attempts to fix the Deputy Leadership election – and what I’ve heard is now being proposed is the mother of all stitch-ups. Just a couple of days to secure MPs’ nominations! This is a desperate move to keep Labour members’ voices out of this race and to dodge serious discussion on what’s gone wrong over the last year – from the positions on disability benefits cuts, on winter fuel payments, on Gaza and more.
“This outrageous timetable shows a leadership that’s unwilling to listen and to learn the lessons needed if we’re to rebuild support and stop Nigel Farage.”
The contest threatens to be a huge headache for Sir Keir as senior figures are demanding it should become a debate about the direction of the party.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham suggested Labour needed “a different style” with MPs listened to more. He said in a BBC interview: “I think we need to recognise that having a leadership contest for the deputy leader in a period of government, you know, you don’t want everything sort of opened up on what the government’s doing but I think it is right to have a discussion about the internal management of the Labour Party and in a time where the scale and the nature of the challenge we face is such as it is, you need everybody pulling together, all parts of the party pulling together and that points to a party management style that is less factional and more pluralistic.
“Labour MPs need to be, they need to listen to them more and respect them more. You know, they were the ones who if you like caused the change in terms of winter fuel and disability benefits but, you know, they shouldn’t be punished for that. I see good people, good MPs losing the whip, people like Rachel Maskell, that doesn’t seem fair to me. It didn’t happen in the governments I was in, in Gordon Brown’s government or Tony Blair’s government. We need a different style here so that everyone is included and we pull together.”
Labour MP Liam Byrne said Labour should resist the temptation to move to the right to take on Reform. He said on X: “I see speculation fast building about runners & riders for Labour’s deputy leadership.
“With Reform’s rise it is easy to lose sight of a simple truth: Labour is losing far more votes to Lib Dem’s/ Greens than Reform. Reform must be taken on – & there’s a way to do that – but we HAVE to re-mobilise the Coalition of Decency to win again.”
There are also calls for the next Deputy Leader to be a woman. Sir Keir has caused concern among some colleagues by naming Justice Secretary David Lammy his new Deputy Prime Minister, a post that many would have expected to go to the next deputy leader of the party.
Baroness Harriet Harman told the BBC Radio’s Today programme on Monday: “I think that, in terms of extending the breadth of the leadership, it probably needs to be somebody from outside London and it definitely needs to be a woman.
“I don’t think we can have a male Prime Minister, a man as deputy prime minister and a male deputy leader of the party.
“We need somebody who is not a counterpoint to the leader, but is complementary to the leader, will broaden the reach of the leader and galvanise the party.”
She added: “I’m very dismayed and disappointed that Angela Rayner, who was an enormous figure in the party and an incredibly important minister in Government, is no longer here.
“This is an election for the deputy leadership that nobody wanted, but I think that an election for the deputy leadership when Labour is in Government, just shortly after our first year of government, is very different than a deputy leadership election when you’re trying to set out a new direction for the party, rebuild the party after an election defeat.
“I think if the party are getting on with it rapidly, that’s right.”
New Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who has been tasked with tightening the Government’s grip on immigration, has not yet made a decision on whether to run, it is understood.
Foreign Affairs Committee chairwoman Dame Emily Thornberry became the first high-profile figure to announce she was thinking about a bid on Sunday.
The contest was triggered by Ms Rayner’s resignation following an ethics investigation which found she had breached the ministerial code over her underpayment of stamp duty on a seaside flat earlier this year.
Sir Keir Starmer has sought to draw a line under the scandal, completing a major Government reshuffle on Sunday night and telling his new-look Cabinet to “go up a gear” in delivering on Labour’s pledges.
But he now faces the prospect of a party conference overshadowed by manoeuvring for the deputy leadership role.”