Labour deputy leadership contests
A strange feature of Labour Deputy leadership contests in modern times is that they almost always resolve to the same demographic clash: a more middle-class, more right-on woman, usually with a background in the party’s left; against a more working-class, regional man with a union background.
Stella Creasy on the campaign trail in Walthamstowe, she has said she is ‘open’ to the idea of going for deputy leader
Margaret Beckett beat John Prescott (former RMT Official) in 1992, then he beat her two years later; Harriet Harman beat Alan Johnson (former head of CWU) in 2007, and now we have Tom Watson (former official of a predecessor of UNITE) against Stella Creasy.
Whether this is a coincidence, a basic division in Labour ranks, or two key target demographics for them, or perhaps all three, isn’t clear.
Tom Watson is actively campaigning for deputy leader of the Labour party