Only women standing for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party

[IwantToRetire]

Not sure if it is going to make any difference whoever it is.

Bridget Phillipson
Bell Ribeiro-Addy
Dame Emily Thornberry
Lucy Powell
Paula Barker
Alison McGovern

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/all-contenders-replace-angela-rayner-labours-deputy-leader-3904804

(There may be a better article, just happened upon this one first.)

I think, leaving aside political differences, probably only Emily Thornberry would be prepared to take a stand against Starmer if she felt it was important.

Have just seen this, so doesn't look like Thornberry has a chance of being elected! https://labour.org.uk/deputy-leadership-election-2025-plp-nominations/

And Alison McGovern has withdrawn.

https://labourlist.org/2025/09/labour-deputy-leadership-election-candidates/

Why are only women standing, though?

I assume Labour HQ thinks that if both male and female MPs stand more likely a man would win, and then will get cricised for not promoting women to top jobs.

Dont think it is a rule, but suspect a memo went out.

How can we possibly know they are women?

What with sex and gender being so complicated.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy would take a stand against Starmer routinely.

Bell Ribeiro-Addy would take a stand against Starmer routinely.
Yes. Maybe. But she's also full-on TWAW so no f***g use at all.
Mind you, I imagine that goes for the rest of them.

I may be wrong but based on nothing more than a few clips I think BP is very ambitious and would say and do whatever it takes to win the next GE. Is she the front runner?

On another note, the Tories are on their fourth woman leader and their second leader from an ethnic group other than White. Labour has never had a woman leader or a leader from an ethnic minority. Why?

Rosie Duffield tweeted that Bridget Phillipson is the only one who supports women’s spaces and the Supreme Court ruling.

I wouldn't want to volunteer as captain of a rapidly sinking ship tbh. Or deputy.

Unfortunately Emily is a fully paid up member of the TWAW brigade.

Is this definite? I am not sure if I get a vote on this (still hanging in there as a member) but was trying to work out which, if any, I could vote for. Most of the ones I was already aware of have ruled themselves out as straight up TWAWers, I thought Philipson might be the best bet but nice for some confirmation 😊

It’s a kind of unwritten rule that because they’ve never managed a woman leader they’ve got to have one as deputy which is why no men bothered to stand.

It’s only what she said on Twitter @TiredOldHen although I imagine Rosie knows Labour MPs better than most of us. It wasn’t said with any great warmth towards BP, but someone asked her about it and that was the answer.

I’ll dig out the Twitter link although my battery’s about to run out so it might take me an hour or so.

"Taking a stand against Starmer" could well turn out to be rather self indulgent - when what is really needed is a strong and unified response to the threat proposed by Reform. Internal divisions between the 'right' and Left of the party fade into insignificance when you imagine Nigel Farage as the next PM.

It seems a bit anachronistic, now, though to be so consciously looking for a northern woman with a strong accent and a working class background. Been there, done that and we've all seen it is possible.

Yes, they all are except Phillipson....though Paula Barker ( my MP) comes across as quite politically astute and not so wedded to silliness.

Yes, but I think its a bit late to be addressing that now. All I can think of is deckchairs.

Deckchairs with an enormous majority in the House of Commons. Why are they so ineffectual? It can't all be because of the Tories making such a pig's ear of everything for the last umpteen years!

The thought of a Reform government is not a happy one, I agree, but surely they'd make such a mess of things so quickly that the scales would fall from their voters' eyes in short order. You'd hope, anyway. They don't have a good record in local government, do they?

Tokenism, innit? Ideally aim for as many tokens as possible to balance Sir White Man.

My sense is that the majority of UK voters are disenfranchised and don't feel that any political party is working in their interests. It's not a healthy place for a democracy to be.

I think voters still (reasonably) expect politicians to represent their interests, whereas in the majority of cases I can only conclue politicians are responding to/performing for lobbyists, party members, and in response to internal party tensions.

It's the only thing that makes any sense.

Reform will be an utter shitshow, the thought of it makes my blood run a bit cold. But it's looking like an inevitability.

If that's the case, as a Labour member, I'll vote for her.

I checked what Rosie Duffield had tweeted and it's:
'Sadly, Bridget is the only candidate who believes in single sex spaces, and fully supports the Supreme Court ruling.'
https://x.com/RosieDuffield1/status/1965461742777180474

Apologies, I've never figured out how to take a screenshot from Twix.

She's dropped out of the race now. Sad times.

I suspect it weakens them, they should be looking for the best people.