Labour deputy leadership contender Lucy Powell, who was fired by Sir Keir Starmer in his cabinet reshuffle, has criticised “unforced errors” by the government over welfare.In her first broadcast interview since being sacked, she told the BBC’s Nick Robinson attempts to cut disability benefits and winter fuel payments had left voters questioning “whose side we are on”.She urged the party’s leaders to be clearer about their desire to scrap the two-child benefit cap and move out of a “defensive crouch” on the issue. And she hit back at claims her deputy leadership bid was a “proxy” for a leadership bid by Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham or Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.Powell is running against former cabinet colleague Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, in the contest to replace Angela Rayner as Labour’s deputy leader.She dismissed speculation that she was seeking to pave the way for a leadership bid by her long-time ally Burnham as a “classic Westminster bubble obsession”.The Manchester Central MP praised Burnham as a “great politician” and communicator but said it was “sexist” and “wrong” to suggest Labour members might vote for her to be deputy leader to signal they wanted him to replace Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister.”You’ve got two strong women standing in an open and transparent contest,” said the Manchester Central MP.”And instead of talking about the two strong women, everybody’s talking about this being a sort of proxy for war between two men which, quite honestly, I find kind of sexist, but it’s also co …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnLabour deputy leadership contender Lucy Powell, who was fired by Sir Keir Starmer in his cabinet reshuffle, has criticised “unforced errors” by the government over welfare.In her first broadcast interview since being sacked, she told the BBC’s Nick Robinson attempts to cut disability benefits and winter fuel payments had left voters questioning “whose side we are on”.She urged the party’s leaders to be clearer about their desire to scrap the two-child benefit cap and move out of a “defensive crouch” on the issue. And she hit back at claims her deputy leadership bid was a “proxy” for a leadership bid by Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham or Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.Powell is running against former cabinet colleague Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, in the contest to replace Angela Rayner as Labour’s deputy leader.She dismissed speculation that she was seeking to pave the way for a leadership bid by her long-time ally Burnham as a “classic Westminster bubble obsession”.The Manchester Central MP praised Burnham as a “great politician” and communicator but said it was “sexist” and “wrong” to suggest Labour members might vote for her to be deputy leader to signal they wanted him to replace Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister.”You’ve got two strong women standing in an open and transparent contest,” said the Manchester Central MP.”And instead of talking about the two strong women, everybody’s talking about this being a sort of proxy for war between two men which, quite honestly, I find kind of sexist, but it’s also co …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
