Sacked Cabinet minister Lucy Powell and former shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry have emerged as early frontrunners in the battle to succeed Angela Rayner as the elected deputy leader of the Labour Party.
Thornberry was first out of the traps canvassing support by sending a video of herself from Sunday appearing on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg show, attacking the Government’s domestic agenda.
David Lammy, the new Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, has not declared either way and was said to be focusing on his new briefs.
It has left Alison McGovern, who was promoted to Housing Minister in last week’s reshuffle, as Downing Street’s preferred candidate. She is believed to be considering her options.
Of those that are likely to cause the biggest headaches for Starmer’s government is Rosena Allin-Khan, who was stripped of her trade envoy role earlier this year for voting against the Government.
The high 20 per cent threshold of backbench MPs coupled with the short timeframe to enter the race, has prompted some Labour insiders to claim No 10 has seized control of the contest.
Nominations will be open for just 72 hours – meaning No10’s favoured contender would be able to bank the support of scores of Starmer loyalists who sit on the government benches, while their opponents would be having to pitch for backers among the less organised backbenches.
Timetable favourable for Downing Street
The six-week timetable is also being seen as favourable to Downing Street, as it is relatively quick and would give a contender from the left of the party less time to drum up support among constituency parties than the government machine.
One insider said it looked like the field could be narrowed to two fairly quickly – between the government candidate and a contender from the backbenchers and soft left, either Powell or Thornberry.
She is currently the chair of the powerful Foreign Affairs Select Committee and has gradually been ratcheting up her criticism of Starmer.
A Labour frontbencher said the tight timetable showed No10 did not want the contest to “be a festival of internal democracy”.
It opens up the race for Powell, whose seat is in Manchester, McGovern, who represents Birkenhead and Haigh, whose seat is in Sheffield.
Labour MP Lewis Atkinson said he would backing a “non-London woman” adding: “Given the geographical distribution of other leading members of the party & Government, it would not be acceptable to have a London Deputy leader.”
““But “Lucy has been really generous with her time to everybody and she’s quite popular in the PLP, people like her – and she doesn’t have a scandal,” they said. “Quite frankly, at the moment, being somebody who Keir fired – but not for scandal, for whatever else – is not a bad place to be when you’re going out to the membership.”
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Read MoreIn a sign of the frustrations among the Left, Richard Burgon attacked Downing Street’s apparent involvement telling grassroots site Left Foot Forward: “They don’t want Gaza on the ballot paper. They don’t want the winter fuel payment cuts on the ballot paper. They don’t want disability benefit cuts on the ballot paper.”
And in a further sign of the divisions within the party, Lord Glasman, founder of the Blue Labour movement, warned the appointment of someone for the progressive left would result “in the extinction of the party”.
“It’s life or death for the party now,” he said.
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