Rebecca Long-Bailey was a fundamental part of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour party, often seen warming up for him at speeches and glued to his side in the Commons. She was one of his most senior female frontbenchers as shadow business secretary and handily added northern working-class credentials to his heavily London-based team. Despite only becoming an MP in 2015, Long-Bailey was a natural choice as the leftwing successor to Corbyn, winning the backing of the union Unite for her “brains and brilliance” and the campaign group Momentum to run for the leadership against Starmer. Her loyalty to her former boss was unshakeable but it also led to ridicule, notably when she rated him 10 out of 10 as a politician just months after his crushing general election defeat.
Born in Salford in 1979 to a docker and trade unionist, Jimmy, and Una, a shop worker, she has spoken frequently about her upbringing, and how growing up she remembered the stress of the constant threat of redundancy facing her father throughout the 1980s. After attending local state schools she went to Manchester Metropolitan University to study politics and sociology. She then trained as a solicitor and specialised in commercial, property and NHS contract law. She joined the party in 2010 and grew more politically active thereafter. Others in the party have often commented on her relative obscurity. Some say she “came up through the unions”, and the latter have continued to loyally endorse her and her strong socialist politics. She was selected for the Salford and Eccles seat when Hazel Blears stood down in 2015, easily winning that year’s election. In parliament she was first appointed shadow minister for the Treasury in John McDonnell’s team. He often spoke of “Becky” having huge potential within the party for her work ethic and being on top of her brief. She became shadow chief secretary to the Treasury and then shadow business secretary in 2017. From that point on she was regularly sent out on the airwaves to represent Corbyn and also deputised for him at prime minister’s questions, after the usual choice, Emily Thornberry, was ditched for criticising the party’s Brexit policy. Her “green new deal” policy, developed under Corbyn, was a key part of the 2019 election manifesto and her own subsequent leadership bid. When she lost out to Starmer, her popularity on the left of the party ensured her a frontbench role, as shadow education secretary, replacing her friend and London flatmate Angela Rayner, who was elected deputy leader. Much has been made of her quiet private life. She said her perfect Friday night was eating a Chinese takeaway and watching Netflix in her pyjamas with her husband, Stephen Bailey, a marketing executive. For some, her home on one of the most expensive roads in Salford, dubbed “Monton Carlo”, did not quite square with her vision of being the party’s next socialist leader. But she is well-liked by councillors and party members in her Salford constituency, where her energies will now inevitably be focused.