Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Lucy Powell possesses a quality that Keir Starmer lacks and which is vital to success in modern politics. Lucy Powell knows who she is and what she believes in. And it is on that basis that, this weekend, she secured her own, fresh mandate from the Labour membership.
Ignore political commentators pontificating on the low turnout or a myriad other excuses for the Prime Minister’s political failures. Keir Starmer put the full weight of the Labour machine behind his favoured candidate - Bridget Phillipson - and he lost. His allies at the top of the biggest affiliated trade unions failed to motivate their members to vote (thus the artificially low official turnout figures, which assumes an electorate comprised of many more voters than there are actual Labour members). Repeatedly putting Phillipson up as the Government spokesperson for the media round didn’t work (some, cruel, close observers claim it may even have lessened her chances). Allowing her to delay controversial policy announcements from her department (on special needs education, for example) made no difference and nor did allowing her to break collective responsibility on the two-child allowance.
Mostly, this is down to Powell herself. From the outset of the campaign she demonstrated a clear understanding of what the Labour Party both wants and needs. The ‘strategy’ of defeating Reform on Reform’s own territory is failing. It isn’t working and it cannot work. So a change of strategy is needed. The result in Caerphilly makes it clear that what is needed is full ownership of the anti-Reform vote, and that isn’t going to happen while the Government dithers about whether or not it’s wrong to deport people who have a legal right to live, work, and love in Britain. And the Party is also very, very fed up of being afraid. From new MPs to hardworking activists, everyone in Labour knows that some members of the current regime can be thin skinned, capricious and cruel. No wonder they wanted a champion from outside the fold as their deputy leader.
The result also demonstrates something important about the shape of the Party as speculation about a future leadership campaign rises. There is, now, arguably an anti-Starmer majority in the Labour Party. In fact, there probably always was. Or rather, the Party elected a man to lead them who is no longer recognisable to many of them - they feel that Keir used the soft-left majority to get himself to the top of his party and then ruthlessly abandoned them. And funnily enough, they’re not particularly happy about it.
As of Saturday, a strange constitutional anomaly has taken hold. Keir Starmer is our Prime Minister but doesn’t really lead the Labour Party. That mantle falls to a woman he sacked from his cabinet just a month ago. Lucy Powell has served him notice.