Rival deputy leadership candidates Bridget Phillipson and Lucy Powell went head-to-head in a hustings at the very end of the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
Education Secretary Phillipson and former Commons Leader Powell both wore dark blue dresses as they sat to one side of the giant stage, with a large podium standing empty in the middle.
This is a contest the Labour leadership did not want to have, in case it highlighted internal divisions when the party is behind in the polls.
So the hustings – where the two candidates set out their stalls and answered members’ questions – was shunted beyond the official end of the annual conference, with no TV camera access, although it was streamed on Labour’s YouTube channel.
As the session began the audience were asked not to applaud because “cumulatively applause could knock out a whole question,” in a hall that was far from full.
Phillipson and Powell are vying to replace Angela Rayner as the deputy leader of the party, after she resigned over what she insisted were mistakes in paying her stamp duty.
The pair were each given two minutes to make their cased to the membership, with Phillipson stressing how, as education secretary, she would be a voice “at the heart of government” and would deliver the Employment Rights Bill in full.
She spoke of the need for unity but how she was a candidate who would push the government to be bold and took a swipe at her competitor, suggesting she was the candidate of “division and disunity” and that Labour could not afford to look inwards.
By contrast, Powell said she would be a “full time deputy” who would be able to “wrestle back the megaphone” and set the terms of the debate as the party’s “campaigner in chief”.
She highlighted how the deputyship “is a party role, not a government one” and said her focus would be bringing the voices of councillors, members and communities to the attention of government.
However, she said she would not “shy away” from difficult conversations because the government would make better decisions “when we reflect the views of our broad movement and when our values shine through”.
She added: “Having this debate is not dissent but an important conversation about how we can be better – because we need to be.”
There was consensus on some issues – that in taking on Nigel Farage, Labour should not “ape” Reform but there was a different emphasis from each candidate on what the Labour government had got wrong.
Both said winter fuel cuts had been a mistake but Phillipson said the party should focus on “the 90% of things it got right” – including family hubs and workers’ rights -while Powell said that it wasn’t possible to “sugar-coat” big errors, adding that voter disillusionment needed to be addressed.
Team Powell seem confident of their prospects with the membership, but the Phillipson campaign point to her greater number of nominations from the trade union movement.
Labour members have until 23 October to vote for their preferred candidate and the result will be announced on 25 October.
