By Megan Kenyon
Copyright newstatesman
Six candidates have so far put themselves forward for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party; but Bell Ribeiro-Addy was the first. As the Socialist Campaign Group’s chosen candidate, Ribeiro-Addy represents the left of Labour. But under the terms of the election, she will need to receive the backing of 80 Labour MPs, a threshold she is unlikely to meet.
“It’s made it almost impossible for a left candidate,” Ribeiro-Addy told me when we spoke over the phone the day after she announced her bid. “A lot of members will not be happy.” Though she is aware that she is unlikely to reach the threshold needed to get on the ballot, Ribeiro-Addy made it clear her candidacy is about showing there is still “space for progressive politics” within Labour. “The left in the Labour Party are feeling squeezed, and that’s not a good thing,” she said. “We need our base to work with us to deliver, and at the moment they’re leaving”.
The left would like this to be an opportunity to force a reset within the party. Ribeiro-Addy pointed to the leadership’s shift to the right, bolstered by the suspension of six left-wing MPs from the Parliamentary Labour Party in the past 12 months. “Some people are missing from the party at the moment… so I think this is a moment for re-examining the direction that the party is going in,” she said.
Some have described this election as a potential referendum on Keir Starmer’s leadership, with a chance for members to elect a left-wing candidate. Ribeiro-Addy agrees with this characterisation: “There’s nothing wrong with us discussing it – dissent is not disloyal – we should be able to have those conversations in the way that a family might sit around their table and have a conversation and disagree over political issues,” she said. “As a party, we should be able to do that without any one group or anyone being threatened.”
Ribeiro-Addy has already received backing from several other members of the SCG, including Richard Burgon and John McDonnell. The group met yesterday and decided to back her candidacy. “The Socialist Campaign Group was actually set up to support the deputy leadership campaign of Tony Benn,” Ribeiro-Addy said. “We had our meeting, we discussed, and we decided on a candidate.” But she hopes that her reach will extend beyond her backbench allies to others on the left of the party. “I want to have the opportunity to make my case. In order to do that, I need to get on the ballot,” she said. “Whether or not people are thinking that it should be me, I hope they would at least help me get into that position so we can show people are feeling disillusioned in the Labour membership.”
Though a candidate from the hard left of the party is unlikely to win, Ribeiro-Addy’s concerns are not unique to the SCG. Announcing her candidacy, Lucy Powell, a preferred candidate of the soft left, said her plan if elected is to bring “together all parts of the party and [unite] Labour’s broader coalition.” Similarly, Emily Thornberry said she plans to “be a voice for the membership, unions, PLP, and our constituents – not just nod along.” Whether Starmer likes it or not, this race is firmly shaping up to cause trouble for his leadership. And dissenting voices on the left of the party are not going anywhere.
[See also: Bell Ribeiro-Addy has changed Labour’s deputy leadership race]
