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In the major reshuffle that followed Angela Rayner's resignation in September, Powell was one of the few ministers to be sacked from government. She described it as "kind of a shock but not a total surprise". Asked if the prime minister gave her a reason for her demotion, she said "No, I did ask but he just said 'I need to make some changes'." Reflecting on the possible reason, she said "I know I am not in the in-crowd. I don't play some of the parlour games". "I have fed back things that in hindsight - I thought I was doing the job I was suppose to be doing - but perhaps it was feedback people didn't want to hear." "Some of what I was feeding back - especially how difficult legislation on welfare was going to be to land - I thought I was doing that to be helpful but maybe it was a message people didn't want to hear." Ahead of the vote, she said that if she did win the deputy leadership, she did not want to be given a government role, adding that she did not want to be "constrained" by a cabinet job. She said she viewed the deputy leader role as being a "bridge between the leadership and the members, a constant feedback loop" as well as a "campaigner-in-chief". Asked about her vision for Labour, she said her Manchester Central constituency was made up of "classic Red Wall constituents - white working class, older voters" and "younger, liberal, left-leaning voters who haven't got that long-standing cultural loyalty to Labour". The question for Labour, she said is "how we unite them together". "I don't think tacking one way or tacking the other is how we do that." She argued that Labour could achieve that by building a "fairer economy, an economy that works in the interests of the many, not the few". Citing decisions to cut the winter fuel payment and welfare, she said: "Some of the mistakes we have made, some of the unforced errors have given a sense that we are not on the side of ordinary people."
