'Lets make politics mean something': Labour's Stella Creasy on her bid to become deputy leader

Fresh from a devastating election defeat, that saw it sink to its lowest number of MPs since 1987, Labour is tearing itself apart over who will lead it.

The deputy leadership contest, however, seemed a much more straightforward affair.

Black Country MP Tom Watson became the front runner almost immediately. The MP for West Bromwich East has ticked a lot of the right boxes for standing up to the Murdoch media empire, raising the first allegations of paedophilia within the establishment itself and fighting against controversial surveillance and snooping laws.

But there is a challenger among the other four contenders - Walthamstow MP Miss Creasy, who found herself slightly ahead in a survey. Just a survey, mind, and not a full opinion poll .

Her enthusiasm for her party is obvious and boundless. She talks of her belief that somewhere in her constituency is a child who could one day cure cancer, with the right support from a government that gives people from all backgrounds the best chances.

The MP who brands the House of Commons 'Hogwarts gone wrong' – will have to work hard to win the hearts and minds of the Black Country, particularly if she wants to beat Mr Watson.

She is not exactly unfamiliar with our neck of the woods, working for 18 months at the turn of the century with Sir Ross Cranston, the former MP for Dudley North, who is now a High Court judge.

Just before meeting with members of the New Park Village Tenant Management Co-operative in Heath Town, Miss Creasy announced on Twitter how she was after a chip butty.

Her friend, the Wolverhampton-born author and Times columnist Caitlin Moran, recommended Charlie's Fish Bar in Lichfield Street.

The MP, however, is intrigued by tales of Major's in Bilston and its orange, battered chips.

"Give me the address, please."

She was born in Sutton Coldfield but her family left before she started school and they moved to Manchester and then to the south for her mother's job as a special school headteacher.

Her work with Sir Ross, however, made Dudley a place she got to know quite well.

"Ross Cranston is an amazing man. I was proud to help with the campaign for vaccine-damaged children. I worked for him while I was studying and came to Dudley quite a bit to work with him and he was an inspiration.

"I still keep in touch with him. He was so passionate about never forgetting a detail.

"Some people think the only job of MPs is sitting in the place I call Hogwarts gone wrong and shouting at each other.

"Ross was so passionate about helping everyone and he took a long time to think over everything and he taught me the importance of that diligence."

Miss Creasy was back in Dudley two years ago, helping Sir Ross' successor Ian Austin with his campaign to drive payday lenders off the high street.

"We went all over the country. It wasn't about saying this is what I want you to do, it was about people chipping in with their ideas on how to win that battle."

She praises Sandwell's Six Towns Credit Union for offering an alternative to payday lenders at a better rate.

"It was showing there were answers to that. We are winning that fight. The number of people getting into debt because of payday lenders is declining. It shows when we stand for what we believe in we can win those arguments."

Labour, however, has arguably not been standing for what its supporters believe in. Four fifths of MPs abstained in a vote on more welfare cuts for fear of being branded the party of benefits.

There was a lot of anger among opponents and Jeremy Corbyn, the hard left candidate for the leadership has surprised his party by going into the lead.

"One of the reasons I'm standing is I want to make Labour a movement again," says Miss Creasy. "We all heard people saying 'you're all the same'.

"Too many people think we're just a machine that turns up at election time, asks for your vote and and goes away to do a deal in a smoke-filled room."

She says it is not a fair reflection of the work done by people like former Wolverhampton mayor Milkinder Jaspal, who has invited her to the co-operative, to hear how two thirds of voters in New Park Village turned out to vote on keeping their Co-operative and 92.5 per cent were in favour.

"What I want us to do is work with everyone. Most of my adult life in the Labour party has been defined by people being in tribes and therefore cut out – 'you're Blairite, you're Brownite, you're a Trot' – I'm not tribal, I'm ideological. Politics can make a difference.

"The government's response to child poverty is to try to get rid of the term. There are different choices we can make. But we need to show we're not just an opposition, we're an alternative.

"Jeremy Corbyn is tapping into that feeling that people want more than a leaflet round – they want it to mean something.

"The idea that a movement that 300,000 people agree with each other all the time – that's not a political party, that's a cult.

"It's fine to disagree and debate. But whether they think themselves on the left or the right of the party, they want this to mean something.

"We've got to put the fire and faith back into the Labour movement.

"David Cameron and George Osborne want to divide the country into winners and losers. There are too many talented people in this country who will miss out if we don't fight for them."

The MP says Labour will win if it shows people what it can do even in opposition.

"People said to me in 2010 don't bother with the payday lenders because you're in opposition and there's nothing you can do. Well we proved them wrong. We mustn't mourn the General Election result, we need to organise."

She understands the concerns many people in Labour have that the leadership campaign is becomingly increasingly divisive but thinks the party will re-unite.

"We can't afford to work in tribes," she says. "I don't think you have to agree. But you do have to set your priorities.

"People are worried. They do feel that some of the language and debates have become heat, not light.

"Rather than a national manifesto we should have a set of priorities and every group with a good idea and a good campaign that will achieve that aim, we should match fund to achieve that.

"Whatever wing of the party someone comes from , if you show them they can achieve it, they come with you."