It was once regarded as a non-job. But the election for Angela Rayner’s successor as deputy Labour leader threatens to plunge the party into a new civil war.
The contest, whenever it happens, could potentially be the most divisive since the bitter left-right split when Tony Benn challenged the incumbent, Denis Healey, in 1981.
It was the year of the launch of the breakaway SDP by the "Gang of Four" – Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Shirley Williams, and Bill Rodgers – and defections by several more Labour MPs. There was speculation that if Benn – then in his hard-left phase before he became a national treasure in his latter years – there would be far more defections to the SDP.
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This time, however, the threat of defections by Labour MPs comes not from the centre, but from Jeremy Corbyn’s new party, which could be triggered if the left’s candidate is crushed. So many Labour MPs will want to see a candidate elected to replace Ms Rayner who provides a balanced ticket, a left-right combination with Sir Keir Starmer.
Back in 1981, the Benn-Healey battle was fought out in a filthy mood at Labour’s autumn conference in Brighton, with the former chancellor winning by a wafer-thin 50.4% to 49.6%. The mood was so poisonous that Neil Kinnock, who’d refused to back Mr Benn, has claimed he was assailed by a young Benn supporter in the lavatory of the Grand Hotel and boasted: "I beat the **** out of him."
Contrast that with the comradely contest when Ms Rayner beat rivals Richard Burgon, Dawn Butler, Rosena Allin-Khan, and Ian Murray in a ballot of party members in 2020. Of those four, a furious Mr Murray has just been sacked as Scotland Secretary by Sir Keir, while Mr Burgon and Ms Butler are regarded as likely to stand again this time.
Big names and famous faces in the role throughout the years
Over the years, some big names have been Labour’s deputy leader, including Clement Attlee in the 1930s before he became a leader and left-wing firebrand Aneurin Bevan for a year, until his death in 1960. Mr Healey was followed in 1983 by Roy Hattersley, who’d stood on a so-called "dream ticket" with Mr Kinnock. Mr Benn and fellow left-winger Eric Heffer were derided by MPs as "the nightmare ticket".
Then came Margaret Beckett, John Prescott, Harriet Harman, and Tom Watson. But of all Labour’s deputies, Mr Attlee was the only one to go on to become a leader and a Labour prime minister. The post was said to be a non-job under Harold Wilson when his deputy was George Brown, better known for his drinking than his political achievements, and Ted Short, who even called his memoirs "I Knew My Place". It was the bruising Benn-Healey contest that elevated the status of deputy leader. And the two most famous recent deputies, John Prescott and Angela Rayner, went on to become deputy prime minister.
So from a non-job, it’s become a key job. Mr Prescott and Ms Rayner were seen as human shields for Mr Blair and Sir Keir against the left and the more militant trade unions.
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No wonder Sir Keir’s handwritten letter to Ms Rayner after her resignation was so friendly and sympathetic. He didn’t want to lose his human shield. In the Conservative Party, Margaret Thatcher famously said of her deputy William Whitelaw: "Every prime minister needs a Willie." In the Labour Party, these days every prime minister needs a protector, a gatekeeper, a fixer, and a go-between. That’s why there’s so much at stake in the election for Angela Rayner’s successor.