Bridget Phillipson secures place in race to replace Angela Rayner as Labour deputy leader

Cabinet minister Bridget Phillipson has secured a place in the race to succeed Angela Rayner as Labour's deputy leader.

The Education Secretary comfortably passed the threshold of 80 MPs backing her bid with 116 supporters. Lucy Powell, who was recently sacked as Commons leader in Keir Starmer's reshuffle, was just three nominations away from making the ballot on 77.

In a boost to Ms Phillipson, the Housing Minister Alison McGovern dropped out of the contest, and endorsed the Education Secretary as "the best placed to unite our party". In a statement, Ms McGovern said: "Despite picking up support today it is clear that the momentum of this contest has shifted and I am not going to progress to the next stage."

The Labour MP for Birkenhead added: "I will be nominating my friend and colleague Bridget Phillipson as the candidate best placed to unite our party and take the fight to our opponents." She also pledged to continue making a "progressive argument" regardless of the outcome of the contest, saying it was the only way of "standing up to the far right and the populists".

The other candidates - Dame Emily Thornberry, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, and Paula Barker, are now battling for the remaining MPs' support before tomorrow's 5pm deadline. As of 7pm on Wednesday, Dame Emily had 13 nominations, Ms Ribeiro-Addy was on 15 and Ms Barker secured the backing of 14 MPs.

The five female MPs are all expected to take part in a virtual hustings - setting out their pitches to MPs - on Wednesday evening.

It came as the first ever woman to hold the post as deputy leader - Labour veteran Dame Margaret Beckett - described the job as "terrible" and "really ghastly".

Dame Margaret, who served in the role between 1992 and 1994, told the BBC she was "pushed" into running as John Smith's deputy. She said: "It's a lot of time, it's a lot of work, it's a lot of responsibility, and it's thankless."

She added: "What you've got to do is to make a constructive leadership team that can help and support getting the party in the right place, so that the government can be in the right place, so that the country can be in the right place. That's what's important, not childish games."

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