Labour deputy leadership contest may only cause more trouble for Starmer
When Lucy Powell got a phone call from a withheld number in her constituency office in Manchester on the day Angela Rayner resigned, Powell told her staff: “This is me getting the sack.” Never would the former Commons leader have believed less than two months later that she might be on the brink of returning as Labour’s deputy leader.Her rival, Bridget Phillipson, also never expected to be in this position.Hurt by some of the internal briefing against her position as education secretary, she debated for more than a day whether to join the race at all.Being cast as the favoured candidate has not been comfortable.
Nevertheless, the outcome is likely to have profound consequences.“The result obviously matters, and the centre know it,” a Labour source said.“Why else would they have gone to bat so hard for their candidate?”It is hard to imagine that any newfound unity will follow the result.Powell’s supporters in particular feel deeply aggrieved by how their candidate has been portrayed as the reckless outcast.Over the weekend Powell was described as “the Momentum candidate” and Phillipson gave an interview saying she would cost the party the election.
“People keep saying the gloves are off – there is only one candidate with the gloves off and it’s not Lucy,” one MP said,Another said: “It’s clear that when the leadership preach unity they only mean one thing – avoid any criticism or debate even when we’re making serious mistakes,”There will be no big event to mark the result on Saturday, just a camera in Labour HQ with the results and a short speech from the winner,Some of Powell’s backers are irritated by the low-key plan,There are fears that she may be in effect frozen out – and uncertainty over whether she would be able to do her own broadcast rounds or election organising.
“They need to respect the mandate if she wins,” one ally said.Senior strategists had hoped five weeks ago to avoid a contest altogether, with a high threshold for MP nominations.Keir Starmer made appointments in the reshuffle for the party chair and the deputy prime minister, crowding out the role of deputy leader.But with a restive parliamentary party a fix looked unlikely even though some ministers and aides piled pressure on MPs to back Phillipson.After the first polls dropped, amid the turmoil over the departure of both Rayner and Peter Mandelson, Powell looked unassailable with a 17-point lead.
But the race has a number of unknowns.Phillipson’s team have made a number of strong policy interventions including on child poverty.Low turnout is expected from an apathetic party membership.And Phillipson, who has close union relations, has gained the endorsements of three major trade unions that have a vote in the deputy leadership – and which have never been polled.She has more endorsements in London – with a higher membership – and will also be likely to command loyalty in the north-east, which also has high membership numbers.
But even with all of those caveats, most Labour MPs believe Powell will win.The leadership race has pushed both to be more publicly radical.Powell has pushed for an end to factionalism and a louder assault on Nigel Farage and the politics of division, warning about the voters being lost on the party’s left flank.She also made an early call for the end of the two-child benefit limit – a tank on Phillipson’s lawn.Phillipson has made concrete policy commitments, which hold more weight as a cabinet minister, saying she will work to end to the two-child limit and will be the bulwark in government against the watering down of Labour’s workers’ rights package.
“The stakes are, on the surface, incredibly low,” one MP said,“But it has the potential to have huge consequences if Lucy wins,But for a hell of a lot of my members, believe it or not, they aren’t even that engaged,”Another MP added: “Members are disengaged with everything frankly – including this – and it’s not good news for the party if that’s the case,”Inside No 10, there is disquiet among some strategists about Powell as deputy leader.
Relations with Starmer’s team were particularly frosty over the welfare vote.Powell was a key figure in the cabinet underlining the possibility that the government could lose the vote – and the first to tip off No 10 about the possibility of a reasoned amendment to kill the bill.Some of Starmer’s team then suggested they believed she was in cahoots with some of the welfare rebels, which was fiercely denied.Trust was never regained – Powell was furious that her information led to her being cast as disloyal.Sign up to Headlines UKGet the day’s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morningafter newsletter promotionBut a source close to Powell said she intended to be as collegiate as possible – and said she would expect to attend political cabinet, warning there would dire consequences if there was any attempt to ban her.
They said Powell had declined numerous media offers to make explicit criticism of government mistakes.Being the only candidate with the ability to influence cabinet decisions.Phillipson has made a number of firm commitments to members.She will sit on the future of work committee that oversees the workers’ rights legislation – promising she will veto any attempt to water down or slow the proposals.She said she would formally seek members’ and trade unionists’ views each quarter and report them directly back to the cabinet.
And she has argued she has the credentials to fight Reform, in a north-east seat that looks at risk in the next election,There is no love lost between the two candidates, especially as the race has gone on,Powell is irritated at being seen as the proxy candidate for the leadership ambitions of Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester,But there is a fear among Starmer allies that should Burnham seek to return to Westminster as an MP, blocking his candidacy would be harder with Powell as deputy leader, as she would sit on the national executive committee, which oversees selections,Tensions were high at the final hustings, hosted by the Fabian Society.
Powell laid bare her own fears for her family over taking on such a high-profile role, especially after the targeting of Rayner – but hinted that supporters of Phillipson were fuelling that,“Do I want my family and myself to be put under the spotlight and face all that … we’ve got to think about how we’re behaving,Some of the things that have been said about me in this campaign by Bridget and her team are frankly appalling as well,”Phillipson doubled down, saying Powell would “risk the division that we will see that potentially puts us back on the path to opposition”,“The members hate disloyalty more than they love any politician,” an ally of Phillipson said.
“We unapologetically prosecuted the argument that if you’re outside the cabinet, and you’re going out there saying: ‘We need to do X, Y, and Z’ – it will create negative headlines.It’s an entirely legitimate point to make in a campaign.”But another Labour source cautioned Downing Street against isolating Powell should she win.“What is needed after this contest is for the Labour family to come together as a broad church.Anyone who thinks the outcome should be to lock people out has not been listening to the broad desire for unity.
”Her team are nervous that her victory is seen as a foregone conclusion.Some MPs are even more worried that it would be yet another destabilising moment should she win.“I am dreading it if Lucy wins, every time she opens her mouth it will be a divisive moment,” one MP said.Powell insists she is not there to cause disruption – but said a victory would be a “mandate for change” in how Labour operated and its messaging.“The country needs us to prove the model that progressive mainstream politics can actually make a difference.
If I win, I’m going to get to work on that straight away,”
China’s economic growth slows amid Trump tariff war and property woes
China’s economy grew at its slowest pace in a year in the latest quarter amid a trade war with the US and long-running woes in its property market.Fragile domestic demand has left China’s economy heavily reliant on manufacturing and trade, at a time of mounting tensions with the Donald Trump administration.GDP rose by 4.8% year on year between July and September, down from the second-quarter growth rate of 5.2%
Gucci owner Kering to sell beauty division to L’Oréal for €4bn
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B&M ousts finance chief as it warns again on profits after £7m accounts error
The discount retailer B&M has ousted its finance chief after reporting a £7m accounts blunder that will cut its annual earnings – its second profit warning within two weeks.The company told investors it looking for a successor to Mike Schmidt, who is stepping down as chief financial officer, after the accounting error.The company, which sells things ranging from DIY, electricals and garden products to toys, pet food and everyday essentials, discovered that £7m of overseas freight costs were not “correctly recognised in cost of goods sold,” after an update to its operating system earlier this year.This means that adjusted profits for the year to March 2026 are now expected to be between £470m and £520m, down from its previous estimate of between £510m and £560m. For the first half, B&M expects profits of £191m, down from £198m
What’s gone wrong at WPP? The crown slips at world’s biggest advertising group
A dark joke is doing the rounds in adland that the original Wire and Plastic Products, the small Kent-based basketmaker that Martin Sorrell bought 40 years ago as a stock market-listed vehicle to build WPP, might outlast the advertising giant itself. Now named Delfinware, and a maker of dish drainers with 10 employees, the business is 56 years old and privately held, while the listed global ads group that was once its parent struggles amid a changing corporate landscape.For decades the financial success and dominance of WPP – its 100,000 employees service global clients from Ford to Coca-Cola – has been the corporate manifestation of Britain’s shining reputation for creative advertising.WPP has housed some of the most prestigious agency networks – from J Walter Thompson to Young & Rubicam – producing globally resonant campaigns such as Dove’s Real Beauty, which challenged stereotypical portrayals of women.Among WPP’s greatest hits are the unlikely pairing of the Sex Pistol John Lydon with Country Life butter, and decades of work for Coca-Cola, including Ogilvy convincing the company to replace its logo on bottles with personal names – a global phenomenon still on shelves 12 years later
Experiential entertainment is having a gold rush but commercial success is far from certain
When the first ever stage adaptation of the global book and film franchise The Hunger Games opens its doors in London next week, fans paying up to £200 have been promised an “electrifying” and “immersive” experience.The show at the purpose-built 1,200 seat Troubadour in Canary Wharf, which features Hollywood A-lister John Malkovich appearing via screen as the evil President Snow who oversees the televised spectacle of teenagers fighting to the death, is the latest in an explosion of launches looking to cash in on a boom in consumer demand for experiential entertainment, often linked to bankable franchises.The boom in the market for experimental, unusual nights out and shows is well established, from escape rooms, axe throwing and slumber parties to Secret Cinema’s Olympic Park takeover to recreate the setting for Back to the Future and the hugely successful Abba Voyage. Recent pop-ups include experiences linked to Minecraft, Jurassic World and Squid Game.As big money has rolled into the sector, so too has a desire from companies to rely on solid gold intellectual property to bring in the crowds – with mixed results
French theme park firm won UK government support despite far-right ties
A French business that is planning to build a vast £600m historical theme park in rural Oxfordshire won help for its plans from the previous government despite its founding family’s ties to the far right and past praise of Vladimir Putin.Correspondence obtained under freedom of information (FoI) laws showed the Conservative peer Dominic Johnson, a business and trade minister in Rishi Sunak’s government, promised to “assist” Puy du Fou – one of France’s most popular theme parks – in finding a UK site.An unnamed UK official later said departmental staff based in France would be available to provide more help, while the company later described the government as having been “very supportive” of its plans.The company subsequently unveiled proposals to build mock medieval castles, hotels and restaurants on farmland near the M40 in Oxfordshire.The project has proved controversial, partly owing to objections from local people based on concerns about traffic, the demand on local water supplies and the potential environmental impact
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