The battle to become Labour’s next deputy leader is moving fast, with hopefuls needing to amass at least 80 MP nominations by Thursday evening. With several people having already ruled themselves out, here are some possible, and probable, runners:
Emily Thornberry
As someone from the backbenches who is nonetheless of cabinet-level heft, and who is seen as independent but not a recreational rebel, Thornberry is one of the more likely people to reach the nomination threshold.
An MP since 2005, Thornberry was shadow attorney general for nearly three years – only to be dumped from the frontbench by Keir Starmer after the general election. She has since become chair of the foreign affairs select committee.
One possible barrier for Thornberry is the fact that, like her leader, she is a north London MP. In fact, their constituencies adjoin. Some MPs and members may prefer a wider geographical spread.
Bridget Phillipson
Yes, she’s the education secretary, one of the few cabinet ministers to stay in the same job after last week’s reshuffle prompted by Rayner’s departure, and this could count against her if MPs want their deputy to be more of a voice for the rank and file.
But in Phillipson’s favour, she would in some ways be a like-for-like replacement for Rayner, representing a northern seat (Houghton and Sunderland South), and growing up in a council home in Washington, making it from a state school to Oxford University.
Generally liked by many MPs and the membership, Phillipson has been a dynamic minister, even if her flagship schools bill attracted some criticism.
Lucy Powell
Powell would bring a similar geographical balance to Phillipson, given her Manchester constituency, but also some of Thornberry’s outsider status, having lost her job as leader of the Commons in last week’s reshuffle.
Her former job helped Powell make links with Labour MPs, and as someone on the party’s soft left she would most likely be seen as sufficiently independent of Downing Street without panicking the team around Starmer.
Alison McGovern
In what is becoming something of a theme, the newly minted housing and communities minister (moved on Friday from her employment brief) also represents a northern seat – Birkenhead – and is sufficiently soft left to potentially make MPs and members think she could offer an alternative view to No 10.
Popular and amiable, McGovern has been an MP since 2010, and was a councillor in Southwark, south London, before then, so knows the party inside out.
Sarah Owen
Only an MP since 2019, Owen is relatively little-known outside parliament beyond her Luton North constituency, but has gained a reputation for being an effective and energetic MP and Commons performer, particularly in her current role chairing the women and equalities committee.
The first MP of south-east Asian background – her mother has Malaysian Chinese heritage – Owen, who is also on the moderate left of Labour, seemed set for a frontbench career but resigned as a shadow levelling up minister in 2023 in protest at Labour’s stance over Gaza.
Stella Creasy
This would not be Creasy’s first tilt at the job, and the Walthamstow MP pointedly refused in a BBC interview on Monday to rule herself out. Back in 2015, she came second to Tom Watson in the members’ vote to succeed Harriet Harman as deputy party leader.
Creasy is a hugely experienced and highly effective backbench MP and a successful campaigner, if not always an instinctive team player.
Richard Burgon
One of a list of possible representatives from the more robust left of Labour, the Leeds East MP was shadow justice secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, but is now one of the more vocal critics of Starmer from the backbenches.
If he did stand, Burgon could struggle to reach 80 endorsements – not least because of the feeling that if Labour still cannot elect a female leader, the deputy should be a woman.
