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Wes Streeting welcomes ‘brilliant’ Bridget Phillipson standing for deputy leader – but without confirming he will vote for her
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has welcomed Bridget Phillipson’s decison to stand for Labour deputy leader – but without confirming that he will actually vote for her.
In an interview on the Today programme, asked if he would be voting for Phillipson, Streeting replied:
I haven’t decided yet. I’m delighted Bridget Phillipson has thrown her hat into the ring. She is a brilliant education secretary. We come from very similar working class backgrounds, Bridget in the north-east of England, me in east London, and she has made a big contribution to the Labour party’s success getting elected into government, and she is part of the team that is now delivering change.
There are other candidates who I think also have that kind of background, that kind of campaigning record.
Like other Labour MPs, I’ll be listening intently as they set out their stores this week, and then deciding who I’ll cast my nomination for.
When it was put to him that Phillipson was clearly the leadership candidate, and that he would be expected to vote for her, Streeting disputed that, and said “we’re not afraid of debate”.
Asked to explain what the role of deputy leader meant, now that Keir Starmer has decoupled it from being deputy PM, Streeting replied:
Campaigner in chief is the job of the deputy leader, to ensure the electoral success of the Labour party at the ballot box, in order that we get permission to change communities, locally or the country in the case of general elections, or the Scottish and Welsh elections that are coming up.
That does mean helping Labour’s appeal. It does mean making sure that we are holding our coalition of voters together, and that is the fundamental job.
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Bridget Phillipson becomes first minister to enter race to become deputy Labour leader
Good morning. Yesterday around a dozen Labour MPs were being named as potential candidates for the deputy leadership, but it is mathematically impossible for more than four of them to get the required number of nominations and quite possible that only two or three will manage it. And, with hustings scheduled for tomorrow, any serious candidates are going to have to declare today.
This morning Bridget Phillipson has announced that she is standing. As a woman, who is not from London (she is MP for Houghton and Sunderland South) and a loyalist (she is education secretary), she has all the qualities mentioned by Harriet Harman yesterday as ideal for the next deputy leader.
Here is the statement Phillipson has issued:
Today I am putting myself forward as a candidate for the deputy leadership of the Labour party, to unite our great party and deliver for working people.
I am a proud working-class woman from the north-east. I have come from a single parent family on a tough council street, all the way to the cabinet, determined to deliver better life chances for young people growing up in our country.
I’ve taken on powerful vested interests in the education sector – and even as they threw everything at me, I have never taken a backwards step. I will bring that same determination to every battle ahead of us.
Because make no mistake: we are in a fight. We all know the dangers Reform poses our country.
But not only am I ready for it: I’ve proven we can do it. I’ve shown we can beat Farage in the north-east, while staying true to the Labour party’s values of equality, fairness and social justice.
With me as deputy leader we will beat them right across the country and unite to deliver the opportunity that working people across this great country deserve.
The only other candidate to have formally declared so far is Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a leftwinger, who may struggle to get the 80 MPs nominations needed.
As a cabinet minister, Phillipson will be seen (fairly or not) as the leadership candidate. In the current climate, that is probably not an advantage in an election open to all Labour party members, but a lot will depend on who is on the final ballot. It is hard to imagine that Phillipson won’t get the 80 names. There is less clarity about who else might be there.
Phillipson has got an ideal platform today; she is speaking at the TUC conference in Brighton.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet.
10am: Tim Davie, director general of the BBC, gives evidence to the Commons culture committee.
11am: Kemi Badenoch gives a speech on welfare.
11.30am: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, takes questions in the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 12.30pm: MPs debate the Diego Garcia military base and British Indian Ocean Territory bill, that implements the treaty transferring sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
Afternoon: Phillipson speaks at the TUC conference in Brighton.
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Updated at 03.37 EDT
