Powell is seeking change of course

LABOUR is “pleasing no one” by trying to “out-Reform Reform”, deputy leadership hopeful Lucy Powell has warned.

- NINA LLOYD

The former House of Commons leader urged Sir Keir Starmer's Government to use its position in power to “set the terms of the debate” as she insisted the party needs a “course correction” to prevent losing votes left and right.

Freed from Cabinet collective responsibility, Ms Powell has pitched herself as an outside candidate who will be able to “speak truth to power”, but insisted she was “not here to make life harder” for the Prime Minister.

Speaking at an event on the fringes of Labour's annual conference in Liverpool yesterday, Ms Powell said: “We're pleasing no one by on the one side trying to sort of out-Reform Reform, and then on the other side we're kind of losing our more progressive voters to the left, and we see that in the polling figures.”