Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour moderates were wrong to fear a leadership contest stitch-up

Despite the muttered predictions from some of the leadership campaigns, Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee has today decided on a set of rules for its leadership contest that even a really committed conspiracy theorist would struggle to badge a ‘stitch-up’.

The timetable is very slightly longer – Jeremy Corbyn will remain Labour leader until 4 April when his successor is announced – and the rules on registered supporters applying to be able to vote are the same as in the 2016 contest. Candidates have a week to get enough nominations from MPs and MEPs (the threshold is 22). If they succeed, they progress to a second phase, lasting a month, in which they either need the backing of five per cent of the vote held by trade unions or affiliated organisations or at least 33 nominations from constituency Labour parties.

With just a week to secure the backing of MPs and MEPs, some candidates will struggle, though this is probably a sign they would fare poorly in the wider contest. There is little appetite this time around for MPs to lend their support to wildcard candidates in order to ‘widen the debate’: they’ve learned their lesson from the 2015 contest, when Corbyn only made it onto the ballot paper thanks to the generosity of colleagues who have spent the ensuing years trying to atone for their naivety.

The biggest challenge for centrist candidates such as Jess Phillips and Lisa Nandy will come in the second phase. Given Momentum has a strong presence in many local parties, Phillips may struggle to get the minimum of 33 CLPs backing her.

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