Labour’s leadership contest has been attracting less and less media interest as it goes on. Despite this, Jeremy Corbyn’s successor won’t be announced until April so there’s still over a month of the contest to go. Part of the reason for the lack of excitement is a growing sense that it isn’t really a contest anymore; barring a major upset, Keir Starmer will be the victor. Starmer has a significant lead on Constituency Labour party nominations at 280, to Rebecca Long-Bailey’s 132 (as of the weekend). And he even won in Jeremy Corbyn’s Islington constituency.
His main rival Long-Bailey’s campaign is yet to achieve the levels of excitement that Corbyn’s triggered in 2015. Meanwhile Lisa Nandy appears to be generating more attention in Westminster than across the country – with a respectable 56 CLP nominations. In the 2015 contest, the point where people really began to believe Corbyn could win was when CLPs started to nominate him.
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