Earlier in the week, I did something that shocked me: I found myself agreeing with my MP Lewis Atkinson. Atkinson and I haven’t seen eye to eye ever since I published my email to him detailing just how much of an impact benefits cuts would have on his constituency and he replied with some Labour Party bullshit about how work is good for you and actually he’d been listening to his constituents – which is news to his constituents who he never replies to unless they publish their emails in the press like I did.

Anyway, on Monday, he tweeted this:

Given the geographical distribution of other leading members of the party & Government, it would not be acceptable to have a London Deputy leader. We need to represent and win across the whole of the UK. I’ll be looking to support a non-London woman.

Weird “non-London woman” aside, Lewis and I were seemingly in agreement here, cos even a broken clock is right twice a day. But when I started seeing rumoured names, the penny dropped: he meant Bridget Phillipson.

Bridget Phillipson makes a bid for deputy leader

Sure enough, the secretary for education, who is also from the North East and represents the constituency next door to mine, announced yesterday that she was throwing her hat in the ring. And sure enough she couldn’t do it without relying heavily on her roots.

Phillipson said:

I am a proud working-class woman from the north east. I have come from a single parent family on a tough council street, all the way to the Cabinet, determined to deliver better life chances for young people growing up in our country.

You don’t get to be working class when it suits you, Bridget

As an actual working-class woman from the North East, I’m sick and tired of women with immense privilege co-opting a huge part of my identity for their own gain. While it’s true that Phillipson used to understand the struggles women in one of the most deprived regions in the country faced, her 15 years as an MP and 5 years on the front benches with the salary attached to that makes it impossible for her to really be in touch with just how soul-crushing it is to be in a working class northern woman in a system that seeks to keep you as low as possible.

While it’s true that Phillipson is from a working-class background, I don’t think it’s fair to still call yourself working class when you earn over £165,000 per year. There’s a huge difference between growing up working class and still being working class, one that many politicians happily forget. Because if she were still working class, she would be absolutely disgusted by the policies that she has put forward and supported in cabinet.

Most recently, she supported huge welfare cuts for disabled people, when the North East has the highest rate of disability in the whole country. 21.2% of people in the north east are disabled, while 7.8% of households have two or more disabled people in them. That’s on top of the 25% that live in poverty. She also voted for means testing of winter fuel payments, which would affect many older and vulnerable people in the North East.

The reality of being from Sunderland

I love being from Sunderland; it’s a city that in recent years has really come into its own. We have an incredible arts and culture scene and incredible places to eat and drink, and our coastline is a true thing of beauty. But all of that is in stark contrast to the level of poverty Sunderland also faces. There’s the fact that despite investment in making our town centre look good, there’s been nothing meaningful done to stop antisocial behaviour. And there’s been no further investment in youth programmes or anything to tackle homelessness.

It’s all well and good spending millions on Keel Square, which in fairness has played host to incredible events, but if you walk down High Street, you’ll find it littered with empty stores because even the bigger companies aren’t prepared to pay the sky-high rents.

Sunderland, by the way, was also the scene of one of the first riots of summer 2024. It’s something Phillipson condemned as “unforgivable violence and thuggery”. But like most local Labour MPs, she has done nothing to tackle why people feel dissatisfied with the way Labour are running the North East, and nothing to really improve the lives of those who live in our region. Though, of course, that doesn’t stop her from popping up at all the local photo ops.

Phillipson claims to have “beat” Reform, also a lie

On the oncoming shitstorm that is Reform, she said:

Because make no mistake: we are in a fight. We all know the dangers Reform poses our country. But not only am I ready for it: I’ve proven we can do it. I’ve shown we can beat Farage in the north-east, while staying true to the Labour Party’s values of equality, fairness and social justice.

Which is almost hilarious when the North East is one of the areas that is being preyed on most heavily by Reform. Every day on local Facebook pages, I see outrage at how little Labour cares about the region and, indeed, the city Phillipson represents, with more and more showing their support for Reform.

The claim we’ve beaten Farage in the North East is absolutely preposterous when Reform completely controls Durham County Council, with 65 of the 98 councillors being Reform. They also came second in most North East constituencies in the 2024 general election.

She continued:

With me as deputy leader, we will beat them right across the country and unite to deliver the opportunity that working people across this great country deserve.

Reform is set to make much bigger gains in local elections over the next five years, and the prospect of huge parts of the North East, especially Sunderland, becoming controlled by Reform is all too real. To claim we’ve beaten Reform in the North East shows just how out of touch with the North East Phillipson actually is. Which is worrying when she’s now claiming that shows Labour can beat Reform across the whole of the country.

The deputy leader race so far

Phillipson is currently winning the election race, with 47 nominations out of the 80 she needs so far. Following behind her is former leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell, who was ousted by Starmer last week with 37 nominations.

Sadly, there is only one left-leaning candidate, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, who was part of the disability benefits cuts rebellion of the summer. She’s in third place but still currently only has 12 nominations. With such a purposefully short time scale for the race, Phillipson could become deputy leader by Thursday without even Labour Party members getting a say.

Phillipson does not hold working class values, or she wouldn’t be part of the cabinet

Being a working-class woman from the North East means more than simply being from here. It’s understanding how much the area fights despite always being taken for granted, listening to your community so that we can all work together because nobody else is doing it, and the resilience to keep going despite all the shit those in power throw at us.

Someone who truly held working class values and anything other than contempt for our region would never be part of a Labour cabinet which has done and plans to do so much harm to working class people in such a short space of time.

As a working class woman from the North East, I’m sick and tired of seeing people like Bridget Phillipson who are so out of touch with what we actually need: people who’ve long turned their back on their North East working class roots, but have no trouble using them for political gain.

Featured image via the Canary