LABOUR needs to pass a second Employment Rights Bill without delay, deputy leadership contender Bell Ribeiro-Addy said today.

Speaking to the Morning Star amid the fight for nominations to enter the contest, the Clapham and Brixton Hill MP said: “There is a lot that we did not get in that needs doing.

“We have to finish the job. This party was founded to represent working-class people in Parliament and I will be a voice for that.”

Ms Ribeiro-Addy, who is backed by the Socialist Campaign Group, also praised the role of the solidarity movement with Palestine. 

“It has changed the conversation round Gaza and although we have got nowhere near enough, the mass pressure is changing policy,” she said.

She also pointedly remarked that while “police on Saturday were arresting people in Parliament Square for holding placards and wearing T-shirts, the shop next to my constituency office was held up at knife-point and they couldn’t get the police to come.”

The left candidate acknowledged that it would be a “miracle” if she were to reach the 80 MP nominations needed to advance to the next stage of the election for deputy leader but said this highlighted the crisis in Labour’s democracy.

“Democracy shouldn’t depend on miracles. We are not trusting our members or listening to them enough. They opposed the welfare cuts, the winter fuel benefit decision and the position on Gaza.

“If members aren’t listened to they will walk away”, she told the Star, adding that many had already done so.

Ms Ribeiro-Addy also called for a clear break with austerity and pointed out that “constituents who need welfare can’t understand why so much money is being spent on warfare,” identifying the military budget as one that could be cut.  

She also urged the introduction of a wealth tax in the autumn Budget.

MP nominations for the deputy leader post close tomorrow. 

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, the Starmer-backed candidate, has a clear lead and is certain to pass the threshold.  

Housing, communities and local government minister Alison McGovern withdrew from the race today, backing Ms Phillipson instead and reducing the candidates to five.

Former Commons leader Lucy Powell was placed second, with the other three candidates running well behind.

Some have nominated Liverpool Wavertree MP Paula Barker. Ms Barker is associated, along with MP Clive Lewis and others, with the new Mainstream group launched last week to unite Labour’s “radical realists” in their own words.

The most likely outcomes are either that Ms Phillipson is returned unchallenged, with the members cut out of the decision, which is the Downing Street preference, or that she and Ms Powell go forward to a vote.

That would not be a contest to evoke any great enthusiasm among the left. While Ms Powell might be described as “soft left,” she was a firm supporter of the government until she was dismissed from it last week. 

She has secured the backing of the amorphous Tribune group within the PLP on the “lesser evil” basis, and is also believed to be supported by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.

Ms Phillipson has a similar background to Angela Rayner, and has overcome comparable challenges in life, but she lacks Rayner’s charisma, relatability and communications skills.

This may commend itself to Mr Starmer, who does not want to be outshone by his deputy in those departments in which he is himself remarkably deficient, but it does not seem to answer any of the problems besetting the government or the party.