Red on red: would Powell be thorn in Starmer's side?

Sean O'Grady on the likely new Labour deputy leader

- Sean O'Grady

Is there no end to the sufferings of Keir Starmer? To borrow the line from the Labour campaign song, it may well be that things can only get worse before they can only get better, and straight after the humiliating loss in the Caerphilly by-election comes the widely expected arrival of Lucy Powell as his deputy. She is on course to beat his preferred candidate, education secretary Bridget Phillipson.

Is there no end to the sufferings of Keir Starmer? To borrow the line from the Labour campaign song, it may well be that things can only get worse before they can only get better, and straight after the humiliating loss in the Caerphilly by-election comes the widely expected arrival of Lucy Powell as his deputy. She is on course to beat his preferred candidate, education secretary Bridget Phillipson. Unlike lost elections, difficult Budgets and policy U-turns that are at least one-off events a leader can move on from, Powell will be a permanent irritation. Or worse.

What sort of a deputy would Powell be?

Awkward. That’s not so unusual in Labour history - indeed Starmer had some clashes with Angela Rayner during their time in opposition — but it’s obviously better if the pair at least get along. Powell was sacked by Starmer in the last reshuffle, so there’s obviously no love lost. Politically, she is close to Ed Miliband (she ran his successful leadership campaign in 2010), and an ally of Andy Burnham, so much so that she’s often seen as the latter’s stalking horse.

An archetypal “soft left” personality, she has said she will be “a shop steward; their voice in the room” for party members and MPs.

What’s the best that can happen?