Education Secretary and Labour deputy leadership contender Bridget Phillipson writes for The Mirror saying she will be a ‘strong voice at Cabinet table’ for members
The Labour Deputy Leadership contest will be a crucial moment not just the future of our party, but also for our country.
My message to Labour members is simple: I want to unite our party to deliver change so we can beat Reform at the next Election and get a second Labour term.
I want a mandate from our members to deliver more hope, more opportunity for young people, and push forward even more transformative policies that will improve life chances for everyone.
I know exactly the good that Labour governments can do: I wouldn’t be here without them. They spurred me on my journey from a tough council street in the northeast all the way to the Cabinet. Only a Labour government offers the freedom to choose your course in life.
Labour governments lift children out of poverty – that’s why I came into politics, and that’s why in our first year in government I have been working hard to deliver better life chances for our children.
I’ve rolled out free breakfast clubs, revived the best of Sure Start for a new generation in our Best Start Family Hubs, opened new school-based nurseries, secured Free School Meals for half a million more children and invested in state education by ending private schools’ tax breaks.
But I want the backing to go further, to make Labour members proud of our party; proud to campaign, proud to knock on doors and talk about the difference a Labour government makes to all our communities.
The path to victory runs through all of our regions and nations, towns and cities, countryside and coastlines. But we won’t if we’re not united. Divided parties don’t win elections. We cannot afford to hand Nigel Farage and Reform a crucial advantage with elections in Scotland, Wales and local elections right around the corner.
It’s why today I pledge to continue Angela Rayner’s campaigning role as Deputy Leader, focusing on getting our Labour councillors, MSPs, MSs and MPs re-elected, giving members a strong voice at the Cabinet table, and ensuring that we get the second Labour term every part of our country so desperately needs.
We cannot afford to go back to the days of a divided Labour Party, to re-open old wounds. Labour Members want hope for the future, not grievance and division. We won the last General Election because we came together to show the country a different vision of the future.
We must come together again because, make no mistake, the alternative is the same disunity that mired us in Opposition for fourteen long years. We must not hand the advantage to parties that offer neither change nor hope. Our country cannot afford that.
I will unite our party around our common values, delivering our common aims and beating our opponents. And I will never lose sight of the country that our movement seeks to build.
Now is the time to come together, to unite so we can win again, so we can deliver more, looking forward and outward, to change Britain for good.
READ MORE: Join our Mirror politics WhatsApp group to get the latest updates from Westminster