In her first audition for the job of Labour deputy leader, Bridget Phillipson came to Brighton to woo the trade unions. And she began with a traumatic story about her childhood.

By the time she rose to address the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference at 3.30pm, she was one of no fewer than six candidates, all women, having announced her bid as "a proud working-class woman from the North East from a single-parent family".

And as is the habit of candidates for election to high office these days - Sir Keir Starmer first told the story about his father Rodney the toolmaker in a speech at a TUC conference - she told delegates about an ordeal during her childhood.

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"I grew up on a street of council houses in Washington, in the North East - jus

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