![\"Lucy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4797.jpg\")
Lucy Powell has been elected as Labour\u2019s new deputy leader. Photograph: Michael Bowles\/ShutterstockShare<\/a><\/p>\nUpdated at\u00a005.09 EDT<\/p>\n
Key events<\/p>\n
Show key events only<\/p>\n
Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature<\/p>\n
You can follow the announcement of Labour\u2019s new deputy leader and speeches via the live stream in the video below:<\/p>\n
Keir Starmer, Lucy Powell and Bridget Phillipson have now all arrived at the venue where the result of the deputy leadership contest will be announced.<\/p>\n The result of the contest is expected to be announced at 10am and will be followed by a speech from the winner. Starmer will also speak after.<\/p>\n Share<\/a> Inside No 10, there is disquiet among some strategists about Lucy Powell as deputy leader. Relations with Keir Starmer\u2019s team were particularly frosty over the welfare vote.<\/p>\n Powell was a key figure in the cabinet underlining the possibility that the government could lose the vote \u2013 and the first to tip off No 10 about the possibility of a reasoned amendment to kill the bill.<\/p>\n Some of Starmer\u2019s team then suggested they believed she was in cahoots with some of the welfare rebels, which was fiercely denied. Trust was never regained \u2013 Powell was furious that her information led to her being cast as disloyal.<\/p>\n But a source close to Powell said she intended to be as collegiate as possible \u2013 and said she would expect to attend political cabinet, warning there would dire consequences if there was any attempt to ban her. They said Powell had declined numerous media offers to make explicit criticism of government mistakes.<\/p>\n The prime minister\u2019s allies believe that blocking a return to Westminster by Andy Burnham would be more difficult with Powell as his deputy. Photograph: House of Commons\/PA<\/p>\n Being the only candidate with the ability to influence cabinet decisions, Bridget Phillipson has made a number of firm commitments to members. She will sit on the future of work committee that oversees the workers\u2019 rights legislation \u2013 promising she will veto any attempt to water down or slow the proposals.<\/p>\n She said she would formally seek members\u2019 and trade unionists\u2019 views each quarter and report them directly back to the cabinet. And she has argued she has the credentials to fight Reform, in a north-east seat that looks at risk in the next election.<\/p>\n There is no love lost between the two candidates, especially as the race has gone on. Powell is irritated at being seen as the proxy candidate for the leadership ambitions of Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n But there is a fear among Starmer allies that should Burnham seek to return to Westminster as an MP, blocking his candidacy would be harder with Powell as deputy leader, as she would sit on the national executive committee, which oversees selections.<\/p>\n Share<\/a> There will be no big event to mark the new deputy leader result on Saturday, just a camera in Labour HQ with the results and a short speech from the winner. Some of Lucy Powell\u2019s backers are irritated by the low-key plan. There are fears that she may be in effect frozen out \u2013 and uncertainty over whether she would be able to do her own broadcast rounds or election organising. \u201cThey need to respect the mandate if she wins,\u201d one ally said.<\/p>\n Senior strategists had hoped five weeks ago to avoid a contest altogether, with a high threshold for MP nominations. Keir Starmer<\/a> made appointments in the reshuffle for the party chair and the deputy prime minister, crowding out the role of deputy leader.<\/p>\n But with a restive parliamentary party a fix looked unlikely even though some ministers and aides piled pressure on MPs to back Bridget Phillipson.<\/p>\n After the first polls dropped, amid the turmoil over the departure of both Angela Rayner and Peter Mandelson<\/a>, Powell looked unassailable with a 17-point lead. But the race has a number of unknowns.<\/p>\n Phillipson\u2019s team have made a number of strong policy interventions including on child poverty. Low turnout is expected from an apathetic party membership. And Phillipson, who has close union relations, has gained the endorsements of three major trade unions that have a vote in the deputy leadership \u2013 and which have never been polled.<\/p>\n She has more endorsements in London \u2013 with a higher membership \u2013 and will also be likely to command loyalty in the north-east, which also has high membership numbers. But even with all of those caveats, most Labour<\/a> MPs believe Powell will win.<\/p>\n The leadership race has pushed both to be more publicly radical. Powell has pushed for an end to factionalism and a louder assault on <\/a>Nigel Farage<\/a> and the politics of division, warning about the voters being lost on the party\u2019s left flank. She also made an early call for the end of the two-child benefit limit \u2013 a tank on Phillipson\u2019s lawn.<\/p>\n Phillipson has made concrete policy commitments, which hold more weight as a cabinet minister, saying she will work to end to the two-child limit and will be the bulwark in government against the watering down of Labour\u2019s workers\u2019 rights package.<\/p>\n \u201cThe stakes are, on the surface, incredibly low,\u201d one MP said. \u201cBut it has the potential to have huge consequences if Lucy wins. But for a hell of a lot of my members, believe it or not, they aren\u2019t even that engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Prime minister Keir Starmer and justice secretary David Lammy should take responsibility for the error which led to a former asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a woman and a teenage girl to be accidentally released from prison, Epping Forest\u2019s Tory MP said on Saturday.<\/p>\n Ethiopian asylum seeker Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, was jailed for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, a crime which triggered protests at the Bell hotel in Epping where he had been staying.<\/p>\n Epping Forest MP Neil Hudson told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today:<\/p>\n This sounds like an operational error, but the buck has to stop somewhere, and it has to stop at the top, at the justice secretary, the home secretary and the prime minister.<\/p>\n They have said that they are livid and appalled. Well, quite right, they should be livid and appalled. But that\u2019s that\u2019s not good enough, and the Labour government needs to get a grip of this issue.<\/p>\n They need to apprehend this man, but they\u2019ve got to sort this issue out, and that\u2019s what my constituents, who are deeply distressed and upset are saying.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n In case you missed it, in this previously published piece from the Guardian Bridget Phillipson and Lucy Powell answered reader questions on wealth taxes, Brexit, the climate crisis and the far right:<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a003.51 EDT<\/p>\n Today’s agenda<\/p>\n Here is today\u2019s politics agenda, according to the PA news agency\u2019s schedule:<\/p>\n 10am: Labour\u2019s new deputy leader will be announced in central London. Speeches are expected afterwards from the winner of the contest and from the prime minister.<\/p>\n 1pm: Protesters from opposing groups are expected to descend on different sides of London after police banned Ukip supporters from gathering in Whitechapel, an area of the capital with a large Muslim population, because of what officers called a \u201crealistic prospect of serious disorder\u201d. Ukip supporters are expected to gather in west London at 1pm.<\/p>\n Saturday: Counting is to begin today to reveal who the Irish public have voted to be their next president.<\/p>\n Epping Forest MP Neil Hudson is on the morning media rounds for the Conservatives.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Labour’s new deputy leader to be announced today, as polling puts Powell ahead of Phillipson<\/p>\n Labour\u2019s new deputy leader will be announced today, with polling suggesting Lucy Powell enjoyed a healthy lead over education secretary Bridget Phillipson as voting closed on Thursday, reports the PA news agency.<\/p>\n During the campaign, Powell frequently referred to \u201cmistakes\u201d made by the party on issues such as the winter fuel allowance. And in a final message to supporters this week the Manchester Central MP appeared to criticise a \u201ccommand and control\u201d culture within government, arguing that \u201cblindly following along\u201d was \u201ca dereliction of our duty to defeat the politics of hate and division\u201d.<\/p>\n Lucy Powell (L) and Bridget Phillipson (R). Composite: UK Parliament\/The Guardian<\/p>\n If Powell does emerge victorious, the result is likely to be seen as a rebuke to Keir Starmer\u2019s leadership from Labour members, more than half of whom now believe the party is heading in the wrong direction, reports the PA news agency.<\/p>\n The prime minister has already endured a difficult week, dominated by a row over the grooming gangs inquiry and capped with defeat in a Senedd byelection in Caerphilly, a seat held by Labour<\/a> for a century.<\/p>\n Labour\u2019s struggles in the polls have already led to some questions among backbenchers about Starmer\u2019s leadership of the party.<\/p>\n Powell has stressed that she wants to \u201chelp Keir and our government to succeed\u201d but also told supporters the party \u201cmust change how we are doing things to turn things around\u201d.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Phillipson, seen as No 10\u2019s preferred candidate for the deputy leadership, has stressed unity, warning that voting for her opponent would result in \u201cinternal debate and divisions that leads us back to opposition\u201d.<\/p>\n The result of the deputy leadership election is expected to be announced on Saturday at 10am BST. I\u2019ll bring you updates on the results and reaction as they come in.<\/p>\n Here are some other headlines from UK politics:<\/p>\n Cutting the annual cash Isa allowance will not encourage many savers to switch to shares but could push up mortgage costs, MPs have warned the chancellor. Earlier this year, Rachel Reeves paused plans<\/a> to limit the cash Isa allowance but in the run-up to next month\u2019s budget there has been renewed speculation that it could be reduced to \u00a310,000 in an attempt to promote growth.<\/p>\n A wipeout for Labour in next May\u2019s local elections would spell the end of Keir Starmer\u2019s premiership, MPs have said, after the party suffered a crushing defeat in its traditional heartland in Wales. Though Plaid Cymru beat Reform UK<\/a> to capture the Senedd seat in Caerphilly, the result highlighted a striking collapse of Labour\u2019s vote, prompting fears in Westminster that Labour could be reduced to third place in Wales, a loss that would leave the leader\u2019s position unrecoverable.<\/p>\n Rishi Sunak was the only politician to be sent a witness statement<\/a> by the deputy national security adviser at the centre of a controversy about the collapse of a case against two British men accused of spying for China. According to letters sent to the joint committee on the national security strategy, the statement from Matthew Collins in December 2023, which was sent to the then prime minister and his advisers, did not describe China<\/a> as an enemy, another key element of the case.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761383828_737_3543.jpg\")
The Labour Party announces a new deputy leader \u2013 liveShare<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Jessica](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761383829_157_Jessica-Elgot,-R.png\")
Jessica Elgot<\/p>\nJessica Elgot<\/p>\n