Lucy Powell has been elected as Labour deputy leader after a vote among Party members and trade union affiliates.
Over 160,000 ballots were cast, with Powell, the MP for the Manchester Central constituency, winning 54% of the votes to defeat Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson on a turnout of 16.6%.
The election was triggered by the resignation of former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s resignation in September, after she admitted that she had failed to pay enough tax on a flat in Hove, East Sussex.
Phillipson, a close ally of Sir Keir Starmer, had been seen as Downing Street’s preferred candidate for the role, particularly given Powell’s criticism of certain aspects of government policy.
During her campaign, Powell called for more openness from Downing Street, including better communication with MPs and greater accountability within the Labour Party. She pledged to act as “a bridge between our movement and our leadership.”
Powell, like Phillipson, has also called for the removal of the two-child benefit cap, a policy that caused a parliamentary rebellion among MPs within weeks of Labour taking office last year.
Powell, who has been closely associated with Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, said she would be a “champion for our Labour values” during her victory speech. She said the government needed to be bolder to deliver the change it promised at last year’s general election.
She also focused on Reform UK, saying that a lack of a strong government agenda has “let Farage and his ilk run away with it”, although she was quick to state that Labour could not hope to win back support by “trying to ‘out-Reform’ Reform.” She added that focusing on transparency and rebuilding trust with voters should be the priority.
Sir Keir Starmer congratulated Powell on X, saying she has “always been a proud defender of Labour values” and that they would fight “for decency and national renewal” together.
The role of deputy leader is one of importance within the Labour Party. Powell will sit on Labour’s National Executive Committee and will seek to unite the party ahead of the local elections in England, as well as the elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd (Welsh Parliament), all scheduled for May 2026.
This set of elections is expected to be difficult for Labour, with the party being well behind Reform UK in public opinion polls, as well as behind the Conservatives and even the Greens in some recent ones.
Born in Moss Side, Powell attended Parrs Wood High School in Didsbury then moved to Xaverian College in Rusholme to take her A-levels.
Having graduated from the University of Oxford and King’s College in London with a degree in chemistry, Powell first stood as a parliamentary candidate in 2010 in the Manchester Withington constituency, finishing a narrow second behind the incumbent Liberal Democrat MP.
Powell became an MP in 2012, when she won the Manchester Central by-election, and has comfortably held the seat since, being returned in 2024 with a majority of almost 14,000.
She served as Leader of the House of Commons from July 2024 until her removal from the position during the cabinet reshuffle of September 2025.
