Being from a working class background outranks other factors
Labour’s election for its new deputy Labour leader is now well under way, with the deadline for nominations from MPs (80 are required) closing this evening. Angela Rayner, who resigned last week following revelations about her having underpaid stamp duty on a second home, has left big boots to fill, and there’s been much debate in the party about which characteristics the new deputy leader should have.
Former deputy leader Harriet Harman has said that the next deputy leader “definitely needs to be a woman” and “probably needs to be somebody from outside London”, while frontrunner Bridget Phillipson stressed being “a proud working-class woman from the north-east” when announcing her candidacy. But which characteristics do Labour voters see as most important?
Class is key for Labour voters, with 62% saying it is at least fairly important that the next deputy leader is from a working class background, the greatest share saying so out of the six characteristics polled.
Around half (48%) see being from outside London and the South of England as important for Rayner’s successor to be, while Labour voters are split 42% to 38% over whether or not it is important for the next deputy leader to be from the left of the party.
Being a woman is seen as less of a necessity, with just a quarter of Labour voters (26%) saying it is important in the search for the next deputy leader, while 62% say it is a not very or not at all important factor in the contest. Nonetheless, all the confirmed candidates for the deputy leadership are women.
Just three in ten Labour voters (29%) believe it’s important for the next deputy leader to be a current cabinet minister, while 18% say it’s important for them to be from an ethnic minority background.
Britons as a whole are more likely than Labour voters to say each of the characteristics polled are not important, though half (49%) still feel it is important that the next deputy Labour leader is from a working class background.
Half of Northerners (52%) say it is important the next Labour deputy leader is from outside London and the South of England, while belief it is important that Rayner’s successor is a woman is higher among women (20%) than men (12%).
Green voters are particularly more likely to think it is important that the next deputy Labour leader is from the left of the party, with 60% saying so.
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Photo: Getty
