The Guardian
· collected 2026-09-26 · by Jessica Elgot Deputy political editor
Lucy Powell, Labour’s deputy leader, argues that the party needs to unite progressive voters to win the next election against a divided right. In an interview with The Guardian, she emphasizes the importance of reuniting Labour’s center-left bloc, which has fragmented due to support for other parties like Reform UK, Greens, SNP, and Plaid Cymru. Powell suggests that by clearly showing its values and addressing issues such as racism and misogyny in schools, Labour can attract voters who have grown disillusioned with the status quo and the divisive politics of Reform UK.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-26,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Labour must “reunite the progressive voter coalition” if it is to take advantage of a split on the right and win the next election, the party’s deputy leader has said.
asserted
leader → reunite → election
Lucy Powell, who won the race to be deputy leader 12 months ago with a warning that Labour was losing the fight to be heard as Reform UK surged, said the government now had a second chance under Andy Burnham.
asserted
government → win → Burnham
In an interview with the Guardian, Powell said the party had clearly required a “change of leader” to revive its fortunes and tell a better story, after becoming “too technical and pessimistic”.
asserted
party → say → story
Labour’s improved poll ratings have led to speculation this week that Andy Burnham will call a snap election, but the prime minister rejected that on Friday and said the next contest would be in 2029.
asserted
contest → improve → 2029
However, the Labour conference will get underway this weekend with polls beginning to show for the first time in almost two years that Labour might be within touching distance of winning a majority at the next election – 12 months on from polls that suggested Reform UK could win a huge victory.
uncertain
UK → get → victory
Powell said Labour was beginning to get a hearing again and should not be embarrassed to show its values clearly.
“If you look at the evidence from recent elections – right across the board – it’s clear that whichever party manages to unite its voter coalition is the one that wins.
asserted
that → say → coalition
And for us on the left, that means bringing our centre-left bloc back together,” she said.
asserted
she → mean → bloc
But she added that “includes some who have considered Reform as they have lost faith in the status quo”.
asserted
they → add → quo
She said Labour would bring progressive voters who had turned to the Greens, SNP or Plaid Cymru back to trusting Labour over the coming months and years – saying they had not always seen Labour as the best chance to defeat right-wing politics.
asserted
they → say → politics
“I’ve always thought there was a clear majority in this country who didn’t want the kind of politics of Reform and that divisive blaming of others – they didn’t like it,” she said.
asserted
she → think → it
“The challenge has been that sentiment has not all come to Labour and the progressive coalition was very, very fragmented.
asserted
coalition → come → Labour
And part of our task and challenge is to reunite that progressive alliance and that voter coalition.
asserted
part → reunite → alliance
“I think we can.
asserted
we → think → ?
We’ve got red shoots of hope coming through.
asserted
shoots → get → hope
There are a lot more choices for people [when it comes to political parties] … but the task is to rise above that and to be the leaders of the progressive change.
asserted
task → be → change
Ahead of her conference speech, the education secretary said she will use her new role to announce an expansion of anti-harassment work in schools, having called in her deputy leadership race for Labour to be more explicitly progressive especially calling out racism and misogyny.
asserted
Labour → say → racism
She will say schools must go further than the strategy announced earlier this year to tackle misogyny, where pupils will learn about deepfakes, image-based abuse and online harassment.
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pupils → say → deepfakes
Powell said schools would be required to “embed healthy relationships and belonging into every part of school life, not just RSHE [relationships, sex and health education] lessons” and show they were helping to create real-world, authentic community.
asserted
they → say → community
“We simply cannot just teach our way out of misogyny,” she said.
asserted
she → teach → misogyny
“Schools with strengthened RSHE teaching but no wider culture shift will not shift attitudes.”
asserted
Schools → strengthen → attitudes
She said Labour was now “on the front foot” and the party would talk more boldly about choices like workers’ rights and free childcare hours.
asserted
party → say → rights
“Let’s not be embarrassed about that, that’s what we are,” she said.
asserted
she → let → that
“We lift children out of poverty, we take the difficult decisions in order to do that.
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we → lift → that
I think at times we’ve been a bit worried about the reaction rather than just being clear about why we’re doing that.”
asserted
we → think → that
Andy knew that that’s what he needed to do.
asserted
he → know → what
That was what the moment required,” she said.
asserted
she → require → what
Powell said it would be obvious under Burnham what Labour’s values were – suggesting he would not make the same missteps on issues like welfare.
asserted
he → say → welfare
“If we’re not for pensioner poverty, and we’re not addressing that, and we are not supporting people who need the safety net, then what are we for?”
asserted
who → ’re → what
She added that the government under Starmer had “lost sight of some of the politics and the purpose” once they came into power.
asserted
they → add → power
“We have to be clear-sighted about what we’re doing, who we’re doing it for and clearly articulate that every single day.”
asserted
we → have → that
“It’s really encouraging to see that people are coming back.
asserted
people → ’ → ?
Andy’s shown that we can win in places like Makerfield against Reform, and in some key council byelections we previously lost to the Greens in May.”
uncertain
we → show → May
Powell declined to agree directly with the chancellor, John Healey, that Burnham’s government was offering “continuity”.
asserted
government → decline → continuity
“We are on the same manifesto, but look I think people want change.
asserted
people → look → change
We have to seize that opportunity of that second hearing to really punch home with that Labour story and the underpinning of why we’re doing what we’re going.”
asserted
we → have → what
Powell said she wanted to use the social media ban for under-16s as a moment to think about how to help young people to build real life communities that would replace the online world “so that people aren’t just accessing all their content and all their thoughts from social media …
asserted
people → say → media
We’ve kind of ended up with this highly connected world where actually isolation has become a bigger feature.”
asserted
isolation → end → world
The Aporia
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