'We won't win by trying to out-Reform Reform', new Labour Deputy Lucy Powell admits
Lucy Powell said Labour "won't win by trying to out-Reform Reform" after being crowned the party's deputy leader.
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Thew new Deputy Leader beat Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson with 54% of the vote.
Speaking after her victory on Saturday morning, Ms Powell said: "It starts with us wrestling back the political megaphone and setting the agenda more strongly.
"Because let's be honest, we've let Farage and his ilk run away with it. He wants to blame immigration for all the country's problems.
"We reject that. Our diagnosis is different: that for too long, the country and the economy has worked in the interests of the few, not the many."
The Manchester Central MP added: "We won't win by trying to out-Reform Reform, but by building a broad progressive consensus."
The election of Lucy Powell as Labour deputy leader follows a bruising few days for Sir Keir Starmer after the chaos in the grooming gangs inquiry, the return of a small boat migrant who was sent to France under the one in, one out deal, the blunder which saw Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu released from prison, and defeat for Labour in its Welsh stronghold of Caerphilly.
Sir Keir said: "We must press ahead with the renewal that working people need to see.
"Now, this week, we received another reminder of just how urgent that task is.
Read more: Lucy Powell announced as Labour's new Deputy Leader
"A bad result in Wales, I accept that, but a reminder that people need to look out their window and see change and renewal in their community, opportunities for their children, public services rebuilt, the cost of living crisis tackled.
"Renewal is the only answer to decline, to grievance and to division and we have to keep going on that.
"It is the offer we must make to the people of Scotland, Wales and England next year.
"And that means we must come together. We must unite. We must keep our focus on what is, in my view, the defining battle for the soul of our nation."