Labour is wrong to look for a ‘Northern working-class woman’ to prop up Sir Keir Starmer - Jayne Dowle

But what a circus, what a stereotype.

If this is what Labour politics has come to, a tick-box exercise to make sure flailing leader Sir Keir ‘son of a toolmaker’ Starmer is propped up for the regional/female/trade unions vote, then we really do live in tragic times.

It’s reported that a number of figures within Labour have said the deputy leader should be a humbly-born woman, and from the North, to balance out the leadership of Starmer and his new deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, both former lawyers, and male MPs representing London constituencies.

The call reminds me of medieval heralds galloping desperately around the country to find a virgin bride to marry a prince. And it’s about as anachronistic.

These days, does it really matter where you came from, as long as you know where you’re going? And in politics, this should mean you come with that elusive ‘X’ factor, that extra 10 per cent of magic, chutzpah, call it what you will. Former PM Tony Blair, to the despair of many Labour left-wingers (northern, working-class etc) had it, and used it to transform a battered country with New Labour back in the 1990s.

And, crucially, New Labour came with ideas. Not just colourful suits and big sunglasses, but seriously considered ideas for education, investment, regeneration, ideas which incidentally, often benefited the North of England. The current Labour government has ideas too, but so lacking in ballast few ever turn out to be more than damp squibs, and dangerous ones at that.

Rayner got where she was by sheer force of personality; this was her downfall. If I was writing the job description for deputy leader of the Labour party, I’d forget sex, class and regional identity, and simply say ‘wanted, clever, charismatic person with deep thinking skills, must be patient with unruly backbenchers, restive trade unions and Jeremy Corbyn’. And leave it at that.

Remember, this is all largely for Starmer’s benefit, not yours or mine. It plays well for him to romanticise the past, as we know. Rayner, with her tough start to life in Stockport, colourful past, three kids to two different fathers and proclivity for trips to Ibiza, vaping and vodka shots, was a middle-class person’s idea of what a working-class person should be.

The working-class people I know – women and men – were either appalled that she managed to get so far in life and then showed herself up so badly (huge working-class sin) or didn’t even know who she was.

And should they find this Angela Mk II, just like that, will Labour’s fortunes be transformed? Why should the new job holder be obliged to carry all that responsibility on her shoulders? What if her appointment is another disaster? Would all working class Northern women in politics be doomed for ever after?

It really would be preferable for the Labour high command to be honest with itself. It’s not an Identikit figure they need, it’s deep contemplation about why and how so many working-class voters no longer trust them, and are turning instead to the dubious charms of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Technically, I fit the brief, but somehow I don’t think Starmer would like me snapping at his heels. I might have a fancy university degree and a middle-class job, but I really was born proper, bona fide, Northern working class. Which is one of the reasons why I find this pigeon-holing especially difficult to stomach.

It’s certainly not that I’m ashamed of where I came from and what my parents did for a living. Rather, I’m angry that women of my kind are being trotted out to mop up the mess that those in charge have made of things. Guess some things never change.

My dad worked at the steelworks as a fitter for more than 40 years, went on strike, stood on picket lines. My mother worked in sewing factories, as a cleaner, in a hospital kitchen and in shops. I grew up in a terraced house with coal fires and we knitted our own whippet (only joking about the last bit).

But still, I don’t welcome this expressed need for a ‘northern working-class woman’ as the missing piece in the toxic jigsaw of Labour in government. In fact, I’m finding this political shorthand to be extremely wrongheaded, out of date and patronising, totally un-representative of today’s complex, diverse and multi-layered society. The narrative needs challenging, and fast.