LABOUR’S deputy leadership contest flared up as the frontrunner was accused by her rival of fuelling “division and disunity”.
Downing Street’s pick for the job, Bridget Phillipson, hit out at Lucy Powell, claiming she was stoking party infighting that “fills the pages of the right-wing papers and puts us back on the road to opposition”.
GettyBridget Phillipson, who is No10’s pick for the deputy job, accused Lucy Powell of stoking Labour infighting[/caption]
PALucy Powell, dumped from Sir Keir’s Cabinet last month, told a party hustings in Liverpool: ‘I think people are sick of us just going on about Nigel Farage all the time’[/caption]
But Ms Powell, recently dumped from Sir Keir’s Cabinet, continued to aim fire at the PM for constantly talking about Nigel Farage.
She told a party hustings: “I think people are sick of us just going on about Nigel Farage all the time.
“We’re trying to out Reform Reform.
“Let’s get back on to what we’re actually doing to fix the problems that this country faces.” Ms Powell remains favourite to win the deputy role with Labour members.
Ms Phillipson told the hustings the party must be just as “ruthless” in tackling the Greens on the left as they are with Reform.
Taking another swipe at the PM, Ms Powell accused No10 of “a kind of increasing groupthink”.
And she revealed her 21-year-old son and his friends “have really struggled with me actually being in the Labour government this last 15 months, because we’ve not got some of the politics right to enthuse young people”.
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