A former chairwoman of the Labour Party has given her verdict on Lucy Powell returning to the top ranks of Sir Keir Starmer’s team, firmly refuting any tensions.

On Saturday morning in central London, the former Leader of the Commons ascended to the position of deputy leader after going up against Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson to replace Angela Rayner.

In her acceptance speech, Ms Powell offered a staggering assessment of Sir Keir’s record in Government so far.

“It seemed to me that there were quite a lot of rather thinly-veiled digs at the Prime Minister from Lucy Powell in that speech,” GB News star Olivia Utley put to Baroness Hayter on Saturday Morning Live.

“Stuff about ‘debating is not dissent, it’s our strength’. While Keir Starmer is often accused of being too tight knit of not listening to other voices, she said that the party isn’t being bold enough.

“This is a really bad result for the Prime Minister, isn’t it? Exactly what he didn’t want – he sacked her a few weeks ago and now she’s back.”

The former Labour chairwoman firmly refuted the accusation, curtly responding: “I couldn’t disagree more.”

“Good luck with your digging. But I really didn’t see that,” she added.

“What I saw was a woman who’s a great campaigner. You know, she’s been out amongst party members. She’s won the vote.

“In fact, they both did very well. You know, there’s a lot of votes out there for both of them.

Ms Powell secured 54 per cent of the vote from Labour Party members, while Ms Phillipson lagged behind on 46 per cent.

But Ms Phillipson was deemed the Prime Minister’s loyalist ally in the race, topping the poll of Labour MPs before party members chose to promote Ms Powell.

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“We must give a stronger sense of our purpose, whose side we are on and of our Labour values and beliefs,” the Manchester Central MP declared on Saturday morning.

“People feel that this Government is not being bold enough in delivering the kind of change we promised.”

Ms Powell was not believed to be No10’s top choice for the job.

But the newly-elected deputy leader appears to have the fierce backing of Baroness Hayter.

“She obviously has the edge. She’s out there campaigning. She’s speaking about the values. She’s speaking about what she wants to do,” the ex-chair told Charlie and Olivia.

Recalling the controversy when Ms Powell dubbed the grooming gangs scandal as a dog whistle issue, Baroness Hayter insisted that that would be “nobody more sensitive to these issues than women in the Labour Party”.

“Thank goodness another woman is our deputy leader,” she exclaimed.

She added: “I mean, what she has said is that, and quite rightly, along with Keir Starmer, they both said we are more than slightly on the back foot at the moment.

“We’ve got a task in front of us and we have a united party to be taking forward lessons from the past. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

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