Lucy

Saturday morning in a back street in south London – and I am leaning on a metal railing.

I am outside the Labour Party’s headquarters, and this is as close to the announcement of the party’s new deputy leader as I am going to get.

This was a contest Labour did not want and its outcome was so underplayed us reporters were not even let in to watch it.

Thankfully, after a bit of to and fro, they did let a few broadcast cameras in so we could watch outside and you could watch too, if you chose to.

Seven weeks ago the prime minister sacked Lucy Powell from his cabinet.

Today she became his deputy leader of the Labour Party.

Politics is a funny old business.

When Angela Rayner resigned Sir Keir Starmer used the moment to embark on a pretty widespread reshuffle of his ministerial team.

The most high profile casualty? Powell.

A month and a bit later she is back.

Not back in government, but back in a directly elected senior role within the party.

But while this is not the result of this contest Sir Keir would have preferred, it is worth briefly dwelling on the numbers in this election.

While Powell was the favourite once this race was down to two candidates and she was the clear victor, it was not a landslide.

It was not a wholesale, overwhelming rejection of Bridget Phillipson, who was seen as the candidate closer to the prime minister as a serving cabinet minister.

After the result, us reporters were still loitering in the street and we were kept waiting ages for the winner, the loser and the prime minister to leave.

Word then came as to at least one of the reasons why – the prime minister and the new deputy leader of the Labour Party were meeting.

Hedgehog diplomacy perhaps? A little spiky?

At least awkward, up to a point, surely.

That said, the expectation from some that Powell will be shooting her mouth off or frequently public disloyal is overdone.

After all, she was in government until just last month – and told me her observations and critiques will mainly be articulated privately.

Let’s see.

Taking a step back from all this today, Labour is a party that knows it is currently losing – losing elections, losing attention, often losing the argument.

Powell’s election is an expression of that fret.

Just think of the rows and bungles of the last seven weeks.

Rayner, Lord Mandelson. Asylum seekers. The China spy case row. The Caerphilly by-election, just for starters.

I asked Powell if things are rescuable – for the country, the government, her party.

Yes, she insisted.

Whether she is right will be the determining factor in the fate of this government.