What is the point of Labour’s new deputy leader? Until we know that, the contest isn’t worth having | Neal Lawson

With Starmer tanking and Farage in No 10 a possibility, we need a unifying figure who will wake the party from its slumber, not just a chum of the PMSign up for our new weekly newsletter Matters of Opinion, where our columnists and writers will reflect on what they’ve been debating, thinking about, reading and moreAngela Rayner has gone, and in the blink of an eye, before a timetable has been set, name after name has been bandied about for Labour’s putative deputy leadership election. Lucy Powell, Anneliese Dodds, Louise Haigh, Emily Thornberry, Dawn Butler, Clive Lewis – all have their supporters.But hang on a minute – before we decide who, shouldn’t we be thinking about what? What is the role of a deputy leader of the Labour party, when Labour in government is so clearly lost, is tanking in the polls, and tens of thousands of members are walking away in bitter disappointment? When we are staring down the barrel of a Reform government and a Nigel Farage premiership?Neal Lawson is director of the cross-party campaign organisation Compass Continue reading...

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