Blair calls attention to Deputy Leader contest

This week saw the Labour leadership battle wake up from its politcal stupor: on Monday there was the Welfare Bill vote that revealed in an equally vivid and graceless fashion the battle within the Labour Party; whether former PM Tony Blair's intervention on Tuesday at a Progress seminar hekped or hindered is yet to be seen; and then on Wednesday the polling bombshell that the candidate Jeremy Corbyn who got on the ballot with minutes to spare was in the lead on 1st and 2nd prefence votes.

Cliche - yes, but a week's a long time in politics...

Among other topics addressed Blair called attention to the importance of the Deputy Leader contest, and suggested that Labour should pick a woman to be Labour’s next deputy leader.

Three of the five candidates in the running are women, and each of the five candidates are profiled below. Ballot papers for the election will be sent out on August 14 and voting closes on September 10.

Tom Watson

Having served as the MP for West Bromwich East since 2001, Watson was one of the first candidates to gain the 35 nominations needed to run for deputy leader.

At just 48 years old, Watson has been involved in politics since he was a young kid. One of his earliest memories is collecting polling numbers outside of a polling station for the 1974 General Election. At the time, Watson was just seven years old and he has worked every general election since.

A 33-year member of the Labour party, Watson began his career working as a trainee library assistant at the Labour Party library in Walworth Road. While a student at the University of Hull, he campaigned to reform Labour’s youth section and pushed forward the creation of Young Labour in 1992. He worked at Labour Headquarters during the 1997 General Election and was a trade union political officer before being elected as an MP in 2001.

As an avid campaigner, Watson is running for deputy leader because he wants to help the Labour leader, whoever it may be, win the General Election in 2020. He wants to rebuild the Labour party from the grassroots up – listening to its constituents, launching a digital revolution, and standing against injustice. Regarding his campaign, Watson states,

“The Labour Party has always been a movement but a movement without direction is meaningless. We have rebuilt our Party. We will do it again.”

Caroline Flint

Having served as the MP for Don Valley since 1997, Flint was one of the first candidates to receive the 35 nominations needed to run for Labour deputy leadership.

Flint was born to a 17-year-old single mother and learned what it was like to need a Labour government from a young age. Twice during her teen years, she lived away from home, the second time due to her mum’s alcoholism, and attended university not as a privilege, but as an escape. By her mid-twenties, Flint was on her own with two children under the age of two, and knows all too well what it’s like to be on benefits, worry about money, and need a job, childcare and a secure place to live.

Flint is running for deputy leader in order to bring Labour back into power in 2020. She states, “I lead by example. I'm a hands-on constituency MP, a doorstep and community campaigner, a creative policy maker, a Commons performer and someone who has fought our corner on TV and always put the Labour Party first.”

Her campaign emphasizes the need for Labour to gain support from all classes, all backgrounds, all corners of the country. She argues that Labour needs a Deputy Leader with whom voters can connect and who is unafraid to answer questions, even on the most difficult days.

Flint has stated that Labour must be a grassroots movement, not a Westminster elite. And she believes her experience as a trade unionist and 36-year Labour member can help make this change.

Stella Creasy

At just 38 years old, Creasy is the youngest candidate running for Labour’s deputy leadership. Born in the West Midlands and growing up in Manchester before moving to Essex, she has been an active campaigner since joining the Labour party at the age of 17.

During her political career, Creasy has been involved at all levels of Labour leadership. She formerly served as a youth worker, Mayor, and local councillor, and currently serves as the MP for Walthamstow, a position she has held since 2010. In Parliament she has served in the Shadow Home Affairs team and is currently the Shadow Consumer Affairs Minister.

Her campaign emphasizes the need to make Labour a movement, rather than a machine. Creasy wants to change Labour’s relationship with the public by reforming the way that Labour campaigns and bringing the party’s focus back to serving Labour’s causes and the UK’s communities.

Ben Bradshaw

MP Bradshaw was born in the City of Westminster August 30, 1960 and was educated at the University of Sussex and the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg.

Before elected as an MP in 1996 Bradshaw was a journalist starting from the local Exeter newspaper, the Express and the Echo, all the way to Berlin as the correspondent for BBC in 1989. At the time he was elected to Parliament he was working for BBC Radio 4s World at One, PM and World this Weekend Programmes.

Bradshaw is the MP for Exeter where he has advocated for better secure well paying jobs to his constituents as well as supporting business and educational programmes. His interests lie with education, health, justice, the environment, culture media and sport. For education he helped foster the construction of a new medical school in Exeter and has opened five new high schools that were in need of support.

He has served as Minister for Health, the Foreign Office, and Environment Food and Rural Affairs. In addition he served as Secretary of State in the Cabinet for Culture Media and Sport. He coined the term ‘big tent’ approach to politics which uses wealth creation and entrepreneurship to strengthen social justice.

Angela Eagle

MP Eagle was born in Bridlington on 17 February 1961 and was educated at St. John’s College at Oxford.

Before joining Parliament in 1994 Eagle worked for CoHSE as a researcher, press officer, and later a Parliamentary liaison officer. She was involved in politics prior to becoming an MP as a member of the Party’s National Women’s Conference in 1989 and led the National Conference of Labour Women in 1991.

In 1994 Eagle was elected as an MP for Wallasey where she first served as member of the Employee Select Committee which led to her promotion as opposition whip two years later. Eagle has risen through the ranks to serve as Under Secretary for the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions, a member of the Treasury Select Committee, Vice Chair for the Parliamentary Labour Party, and Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (a newly formed position at the time.) After the Labour party lost the general election in 2010 she has served as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Afterward Eagle was appointed as Shadow Leader of the House and in 2013 she became Chair of the Labour Party.

The issues Eagle is passionate about consist of treasury, health, education, work and permits, partnership agreements, race relations and the NHS.

Katie Bergamini and Alexandra Fox