The Labour Party announced its intention to select a new leader by the end of March at the weekend and already there are a number of potential favourites to succeed Jeremy Corbyn. The most talked about? Rebecca Long-Bailey, MP for Salford and Eccles.
There is a group of strong contenders for leader, including Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips, Angela Rayner, Yvette Cooper and Emily Thornberry. While none of the women are yet to actually announce any intention to lead, a number of their colleagues have discussed their potential.
The leadership contest starts on 7 January and Long-Bailey is yet to formally declare that she's running. However, she has already been backed by shadow chancellor John McDonnell and shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon.
Who Is Rebecca Long-Bailey?
Long-Bailey, 40, is a former solicitor from Old Trafford, Greater Manchester. She describes herself as ‘a mum, wife and Man United fan’ with a love of Star Wars (the old ones). She has been the Labour Party MP for Salford and Eccles since 2015 and is currently the shadow secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy.
Growing up in Manchester, she began her working life in a pawn shop, which she says was ‘an experience that taught me more about the struggles of life than any degree or qualification ever could’. She worked in call centres, factories and as a postwoman before training as a solicitor where she acted on behalf of various NHS bodies.
‘I became interested in politics at an early age because I saw the struggles that my parents and other local families faced,’ she writes on her website. ‘I was angry at the inequality and unfairness I had seen and I wanted to do something about it.
‘A society should be judged on how it treats the most vulnerable in the community,’ she continues. ‘I believe that we should rebuild a British economy with the welfare of the British people at its very heart. The foundation stones of our economic policy should be prosperity and social justice not greed and despair.’
Long-Bailey is married and has one son.
How long has Rebecca Long-Bailey been a Labour MP?
Long-Bailey was elected in 2015 with over 21,000 resident votes – a vote share of 49.4% – and increased that majority in 2017 receiving 65.5% of the vote. While the December 2019 election saw her majority decrease, she was still the overwhelming winner of the vote.
‘We had a fantastic manifesto that really could have transformed people’s lives,’ she said of the overall election result. ‘We’ll have to analyse in a lot of detail what happened; certainly in Salford and across the north Brexit came up on the doorstep.
‘We were a party that tried to bring together those who voted to leave and those who voted to remain,’ she continued. ‘Perhaps that was not a position that satisfied many of our constituents.’
She was appointed shadow chief secretary to the Treasury in 2016 and to her current shadow position the following year.
Will Rebecca Long-Bailey be future leader of the Labour party?
On the night of the election, RLB said running as leader was not on her mind as of yet. ‘It’s not something that I am thinking about,’ she told reporters. ‘We need to get through tonight, see where the chips fall and we will regroup as a party, assess what’s happened and see what the next steps need to be.’
She is yet to announce her candidacy, but with a number of big hitters in the Labour party supporting her she is a strong favourite.
What is Rebecca Long-Bailey's voting record?
According to They Work For You, where you can find out any MPs voting record, RLB has consistently voted in line with her socialist views.
Human Rights
Since 2015, RLB has consistently voted for equal gay rights, same-sex marriage and laws promoting equality and human rights. However, in 2015 she voted against allowing terminally ill people to be given assistance to end their life.
Foreign Policy
She has voted against the use of UK military forces in combat overseas operations. Specifically, she voted against military action against ISIL (Daesh) in two 2015 votes, one declining to authorise UK military action in Syria and one against UK airstrikes on ISIL in Syria. She has also voted against replacing Trident with a new nuclear weapons system.
Brexit
RLB voted for the referendum on the UK's membership of the EU in 2015, but she also voted to remain in the EU when the time came. When the leave outcome was clear, RLB's voting pattern changed, voting in favour of the UK leaving the EU and starting the process by March 2017 in December 2016. She has then consistently voted to empower the Prime Minister to give notice to the EU of the UK's intention to leave but then in January 2018 voted against the UK leaving the EU – and again in March specifying we should not leave without a withdrawal agreement.
Essentially, it seems RLB was and would be a remainer however she was willing to honour the referendum result. In fact, that's one of the reasons she's favoured to win the leadership contest as according to Caroline Flint, former MP in Don Valley, she and Nandy are the only two candidates that weren't complicit in pushing the party towards a remain position despite the referendum result.
When it comes to the specifics of the UK leaving the EU, RBL has voted for a right to remain for EU nationals already living in the UK.
Welfare
She has consistently voted against reducing welfare benefits and for paying more to those unable to work because of illness or disability over longer periods.
Tax
RBL has voted against raising the threshold at which people start to pay income tax, against higher taxes on alcohol and against reducing capital gains tax. She has almost always voted for higher taxes on banks and implementing a series of procedures to reduce tax evasion. She has voted against reducing the rate of corporation tax.
She is against increasing restrictive regulation of trade union activity.
Education
She is against academy schools.
Constitutional Reform
She voted against reducing central government funding of local governments and for more power to local councils. She voted for transferring more powers to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly as well as a lower voting age. She also voted to remove hereditary peers from the House of Lords and for a wholly elected HoL.
Environment
RBL has always voted for measures to prevent climate change, including financial incentives for low carbon emission electricity generation methods and high-speed rails. She is against fracking.
Transport
She is for a publicly owned railway system and high-speed rail infrastructure.
Housing
RBL voted against phasing out secure tenancies for life and charging market rent to high earners renting council houses.
Home Affairs
She voted against a stricter asylum system, against stronger enforcement of immigration rules and against the merging police and fire services. However, she did vote for mass surveillance of peoples communications and activities.
Read More: Inspiring female MPs and what they've achieved in parliament...
Inspiring Female MPs - Grazia (slider)
1 of 10Danielle Rowley, 28, Midlothian Scottish Labour MP
Speaking about her groundbreaking announcement, Danielle perfectly highlighted just how ridiculous it is that it's even a taboo to mention your period. She said on Twitter:'A lot of unexpected coverage of me talking about my period - which is great, but also highlights the need to talk about periods more openly.A woman mentioning her period shouldn't be such huge news - let's use this opportunity and work together to get to a place where it's not!'
2 of 10Jess Phillips, 36, Birmingham Yardley Labour MP
Jess brought social media trolls to account when she called for those who post abusive messages online to lose their anonymity. The MP told parliament that she once received 600 rape threats in one night and is threatened with violence and aggression every single day online. The online community is so hostile towards women that Amnesty International have led a campaign calling for Twitter to take greater responsibility for preventing online abuse. Jess told the House of Commons that people should have to disclose their real identity to social media platforms, with hope that it would not only deter people from abusing women online but also enable us to hold them to account.
3 of 10Heidi Allen, 43, South Cambridgeshire Conservative MP
Heidi, alongside Jess Phillips, shared an emotional account of her own abortion with parliament earlier this month. In an attempt to reform Northern Ireland's abortion laws, she told the Cambridge independent that she felt she needed to share her story:'I had intended to say it because I had a feeling nobody else would.'I thought it probably needed saying.'I suppose it is very easy to make issues like that just about procedure and legislation and words and policy but, actually, it is about people's lives.'Jess Phillips too opened up about her own abortion, also sharing harrowing stories from women in Northern Ireland who had terminated pregnancies.
4 of 10Stella Creasy, 41, Walthamstow Labour MP
The original lead of cross-party calls for Northern Ireland's abortion laws to be brought in line with the rest of the UK's, Stella received tons of hate mail over her campaign to protect women's right to choose. It was in her call for debate over abortion that Heidi Allen and Jess Philips were able to talk about their own terminations.
5 of 10Penny Mourdant, 45, Portsmouth North Conservative MP
The Minister for Women and Equalities, Penny Mourdant launched the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Securitywhich calls for more women to be at the centre of the DFID's peace, security and humanitarian programmes. As secretary of state for international development, she has attempted to reform the aid sector by creating an independent safeguarding unit that prevents exploitation. This comes in the wake of a series of sex scandals against leading charities earlier this year.
6 of 10Wera Hobhouse, 58, Bath Liberal Democrat MP
Wera Hobhouse brought Gina Martin's upskirting campaign to parliament as a private members bill set to outlaw the vile crime. While the bill was subsequently blocked by two male MPs, a third reading of the bill is set to continue on the 6th of July with Gina stating 'the Government Bill will become law as it'll get through the later stages more quickly and won't be objected to.'
7 of 10Maria Miller, 54, Basingstoke Conservative MP
It was off the back of the upskirting bill that Maria Miller and Jess Phillips have met with Wera Hobhouse in an attempt to include a revenge porn amendment. It would ensure there was a blanket ban on voyeuristic images regardless of the intention in taking it, as the MPs feared people would attempt to bend the wording of the upskirting law to avoid conviction by arguing they took the image with no intention of causing distress. They also wanted to introduce an amendment that would ban false pornographic images, in which faces are photoshopped onto explicit images. However, they were told it was impossible to introduce further amendments. This comes after Love Island stars Zara McDermott and Laura Anderson became victims of revenge porn this week.
8 of 10Mhairi Black, Paisley and Renfrewshire South SNP MP
As part of the discussion about classing misogyny as a hate crime, Mhairi Black spoke out about the misogynistic and homophobic abuse she receives online every day. She also asked parliament to reflect on their own environment, stating, 'Only a few weeks ago I was physically pressed up against a Member (of Parliament) in the voting lobby who is accused of sexual misconduct because there's so little room.'Acknowledging she has the 'same right and influence as any other elected man', she spoke up for the female staff who aren't in her position.
9 of 10Melanie Onn, 39, Great Grimsby Labour MP
Leading the charge to make misogyny a hate crime, Melanie highlighted the 'link between low-level harassment of women and more serious sexual assaults' that was found by Westminster's all-party group on domestic violence. In her constituency, the rate of domestic violence is particularly high. As a result, she has called for a law change to have misogynistic acts such as wolf-whistling, leering and sexual comments in public to be made a criminal offence.
10 of 10Monica Lennon, 37, Central Scotland Scottish Labour MSP
Monica introduced a Member's Bill into Scottish parliament that would see the creation of free universal access to sanitary products. Proposing also that schools, colleges and universities provide free sanitary products in their toilets, she led the campaign that stands to end period poverty in Scotland.