Final messages to Labour members from deputy leadership candidate Lucy Powell

Throughout the race to be Labour’s Deputy Leader, LabourList have published a range of pieces from supporters of both candidates, as well as offering a platform to both candidates to share their pitch to Labour members.

This isn’t a race any of us expected, but it comes at a really important time for the country, our Party and our Labour Government.

The politics of division and hate are on the rise, and it is up to us, the Labour Party, to stand firm against it, and show that progressive, mainstream politics can make the change people have voted for again and again.

I want to help Keir and our Government to succeed. But we all know that we must change how we are doing things to turn things around – more in touch with our movement, and the communities and workplaces we represent, more principled and strategic, less tactical, and strongly guided by our values.

READ MORE: ‘A mandate from the members’: Challenge, responsibilty and speaking truth to power– the LabourList deputy leadership interview with Lucy Powell

Elect me to be your strong independent voice and to help bridge the divide, reconnecting our membership and leadership.

I’ve written my own job description in this contest. After speaking to MPs, and members, who want a shop steward, their voice in the room. I’d be full time, on your side, putting the politics back in the conversation, seizing back the political megaphone from our opponents and shouting about what Labour is doing to improve the lives of ordinary people.

We need to be much clearer about our purpose as a Party and government, and whose side we are on.

This is a Party job not a government one. This is not Deputy PM.

I’ll be without the constraints of running a department but working alongside the government, inside every constituency, every community, every council. Everyone recognises that what we need right now is more politics in the conversation and in the decision-making. That’s what I bring.

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It’s not divisive to be honest about where we are, it’s the only way we can collectively face up to it and change course. Blindly following along is not unity, it’s a dereliction of our duty to defeat the politics of hate and division.

Command and control is not the culture that will help us succeed. We need to take people with us to rebuild our broad voter coalition and bring about the change people voted for. We’ve made mistakes and missteps that have drowned out all the good things this government is doing to rewire the country in the interests of working class people.

Let’s be honest we have been losing support to all sides. Trying to out Reform Reform doesn’t work and loses us more the other way. We need to seize back the political megaphone and stop following the agenda set by others. To do this we must tell a much stronger story about what is really wrong with this country and how we are fixing it. I will help with this.

This campaign has been powered by amazing volunteers who like me, want Labour to be the best we can be. So please do all you can in these final hours to spread my positive message about the kind of full time Deputy Leader I’d be, working flat out to get our Party back on its feet, and on course to win again.

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