
One of the candidates in Labour’s deputy leadership race has accused the allies of her rival of anonymously briefing against her.
Lucy Powell told Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast that Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson’s camp in the race to succeed Angela Rayner as Labour’s deputy leader had engaged in underhand tactics.
Speaking to the same podcast, Ms Phillipson insisted the campaign had been “well-fought” and said she had also be subject to claims she was holding back on publishing guidelines about trans people for fear it could harm her place in the race.
Speaking to the Sky News podcast, Ms Powell said the “murky world of anonymous briefings where names aren’t put to things is part of the culture that I really think we need to end”.
The deputy leadership candidate was asked about a Labour source quoted in the New Statesman magazine, who suggested she was sacked from her role as leader of the House of Commons as she had “fundamentally lost the trust of colleagues” as a result of briefing and leaking.
Ms Powell said the claim was “just plain wrong” when asked if it had upset her, and added: “I think some of these things have also come from my opponent’s team as well.
“And I think they need calling out.
“We are two strong women standing in this contest. We’ve both got different things to bring to the job to the table.
“I’m not going to get into the business of smearing and briefing against Bridget at all.”
Asked if she knew that briefing had come from Ms Phillipson’s camp, Ms Powell said: “Well, some of what has been said has come from them.”
She also claimed to have spoken directly to her opponent about it “a little bit”.
But speaking to the same podcast, Education Secretary Ms Phillipson said: “I haven’t spoken to her directly.
“I don’t know if there’s been any discussion between the teams.”
Ms Phillipson added: “I would just, however gently, observe that one of the most vicious stories of the campaign actually came my way with the entirely baseless suggestion in a newspaper that somehow we haven’t published the EHRC’s (Equality and Human Rights Commission) code of practice because I’m holding that because of the deputy leadership contest, which is entirely, entirely false.”
The Education Secretary also told Sky: “I think it has been a well-fought campaign so far.”
Ms Phillipson, who is also the Government’s minister for women and equalities, is currently considering new guidance from the watchdog about how single sex spaces in hospitals, gyms and other public spaces can be used.
The EHRC began work on the guidance following a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that sex in the Equality Act refers to biological sex.
Elsewhere in the podcast interview, Ms Phillipson said it would be “highly unusual” if her opponent were to win, as Ms Powell, who is not a Government minister, would sit outside the Cabinet.
She added: “The way the role has been done in the past when we’re in Government is that the deputy leader is at the Cabinet table, and is in Government able to get things done.”
The senior minister added: “I think it risks being destabilising, I think there is a risk that comes of airing too much disagreement in public at a time when we need to focus on taking the fight to our opponents.
“I know Lucy would reject that, but I think that is, for me, a key choice that members are facing.”
The contest was triggered after Angela Rayner stood down over a row over her tax affairs.
Results are due to be announced on October 25.