Powell was the right person at the right time to be the vehicle for this discontent. Before entering parliament, she was an aide to Miliband during his time as leader: she is on the soft left. She entered parliament in 2012, becoming the MP for Manchester Central, and when Angela Rayner resigned there was a strong sense that her successor should be a woman from the north of England. And, while Powell has decried as sexist descriptions of her as a proxy for the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, a whole bunch of headlines linking her name to one of the most popular figures in the party doesn’t exactly hurt. She was sacked from cabinet in the post-Rayner resignation reshuffle that took the top team unambiguously to the right: that left her available to run and, presumably, not delighted with the leadership herself.