West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker: ‘I stand with Bridget’

Throughout the race to be Labour’s Deputy Leader, LabourList will be publishing a range of pieces from supporters of both candidates as well as offering a platform to both Bridget Phillipson and Lucy Powell to share their pitch to Labour members. 

This deputy leadership election is not about personalities. It’s about the direction of our party and the lives of millions of families across Britain. We are at a critical moment. People are struggling with the cost-of-living, low pay, public services that have been hollowed out through years of neglect and we have child poverty levels that shame a wealthy country. Labour cannot afford to turn inwards. We need leaders who will fight for people’s everyday battles and fight back against the dangerous politics of division peddled by Reform.

Reform want to divide our most vulnerable communities and turn them against each other. They want to stoke anger instead of fixing the complex challenges our country actually faces. They offer excuses, not solutions. If Labour is to govern in a way that changes lives, we need a deputy leader who knows how to take that fight to our opponents, expose their falsehoods and show there is another way.

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Bridget Phillipson has already proven she can deliver Labour policies that impact real people’s lives. She has brought in free breakfast clubs, expanded childcare to give parents a fair chance at work, capped the cost of uniforms and pushed through thousands more free school meals. Each of these is not just a policy – they are weapons in the fight against inequality, child poverty and the cost-of-living crisis. They are proof that Labour is delivering change. And changing lives for the better. 

In the West Midlands, I see every day how poverty crushes ambition and limits opportunity. In parts of our region 50% of children are in poverty. 15,000 are growing up in temporary accommodation, and when parents are forced to choose between heating and eating, they know that Reform’s soundbites suggesting ‘quick fixes’ are an insult. People don’t need slogans, they need serious delivery. They need a government that takes the side of working class communities, not those who profit from their decline.

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Inequality isn’t just a moral problem, it’s an economic one. It’s a barrier to growth – denying people good, secure jobs. When young people are denied education, decent homes or access to transport, our whole economy suffers. Bridget has driven a renewed skills agenda to address this – driving up attendance to reduce NEETs, tearing out red tape from training to open up access and building new foundation apprenticeships to get people into the workplace.

This election is a test for our party. Do we choose a deputy leader who will look outward, who will fight the real battles – against child poverty, against division, against the hollow promises of Reform – or do we turn inwards and lose the momentum of real change?

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I know where I stand. I stand with young people who need a good start in life. I stand with the families in my region who need a decent home. I stand with communities that deserve opportunity. And I stand with Bridget because she has shown she can deliver true Labour policies, take the fight to our opponents and win for working people.

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