Lucy Powell is elected Deputy Leader of the Labor Party

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Lucy Powell has been elected deputy leader of Britain’s ruling Labor Party just weeks after she was sacked from government, a victory built on support from left-leaning party members frustrated with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s record.

The party announced that Powell received 87,407 votes from party members on Saturday, compared to 73,536 votes for his rival, Bridget Phillipson, Minister of Education.

Powell was dismissed from the government last September as part of a cabinet reshuffle following the resignation of former Vice President Angela Reiner due to a tax scandal.

Speaking after her victory, Powell said voters felt the government had not been “bold enough” in delivering the change it promised after returning to power in a landslide victory last year.

“We have a huge opportunity to show that mainstream progressive politics can actually change people’s lives for the better,” she said.

Her victory comes after the Labor Party suffered a crisis Historic defeat In the Welsh by-election for the nationalist Plaid Cymru party on Thursday.

The loss underscored the government’s weakness after a difficult 16 months in power marked by lackluster economic growth, MPs’ rebellion over welfare reform, and a shift to the right on immigration to counter the threat posed by Nigel Farage’s UK Reform Party.

“We will win not by trying to out-reform, but by building a broad progressive consensus,” Powell said.

After a seven-week leadership contest in which she criticized Starmer, Powell on Saturday called on the party’s leadership to listen to members rather than impose “command and control” from the top.

Starmer praised Powell as a “proud defender of Labour’s values” and congratulated the Manchester Central MP on her victory.

Powell’s election as deputy party leader will not see her return to government, but she will have influence with MPs and the wider Labor Party. The position also carries a seat on the National Executive Committee, the party’s rule-making body.

Kevin Hollinracke, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, said: “A weak Keir Starmer got the candidate he did not want, the one he sacked last month, and the one imposed on him by Labour.

“He didn’t have the backbone to stand up to Lucy Powell on social care spending before, and he won’t have the backbone to stand up to Lucy Powell now.”

Powell’s promotion comes a month before a tough Budget, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves expected to raise taxes to plug a fiscal gap that economists estimate at between £20bn and £30bn.

In June, the government was forced to reverse cuts to social care spending, a disaster that Powell said was caused by Starmer’s team failing to listen to MPs.

She has suggested that her own opposition to welfare cuts – and criticism of the leadership for suspending several rebellious MPs over it – may have led to her removal from government.