Who will lead the Labour Party? Find out 10.45am tomorrow

BBC reports "Members will learn the outcome via e-mail and the media after a planned special conference to unveil the winner was cancelled due the coronavirus pandemic.

The candidates for leader have each been asked to record victory speeches, one of which will be released alongside details of how many votes each candidate received.

The process of choosing a new leader began in December after Labour lost its fourth general election in a row".

Fingers crossed for you know who....

Last chance to vote for Keir Starmer as our Party Leader & Angela Rayner as our Deputy Leader

On this Thursday 2 April 2020 at 12 noon it will finally be over.

So now is your last chance to vote in the Labour Party Leadership elections.

Obviously there are now far more important matters to deal with than internal party elections but it is now even more vital than ever that we have competent and united Official Opposition leadership team holding the Tories to account.

I have voted for Keir as our leader and Angela as our deputy leader. I doubt that anything I say now will change anyone minds on the wisdom of that choice.
Most people vote in these elections during the first few days but there are many labour Party members and affiliates eligible to vote who have not yet got around to it.

So please vote (regardless of who you support since it is vital for our democratic process that as many participate as possible).

If the Party or your affiliate has an email address check your inbox and spam folder for a communication from labourelections@cesvotes.com. 

Please check and vote online. It only takes a few minutes.

If they did not have an email address you should have been sent you a paper ballot form. Which could be in a drawer at your home somewhere unopened. Fill it out and send back tomorrow morning (with a 1st class stamp and hopefully it will arrive in time).

Keir and Angela are the clear favourites but I was brought up in a hard trade union political school where we were taught that all elections are won or lost by a single vote. So don't take anything for granted, vote for Keir and Angela (and for Carol Sewell for the BAME seat if eligible).

The result is announced on Saturday 4 April. 

My Labour Leadership & NEC by election choices

I have just voted on line:-

Leader

Keir Starmer 1

Lisa Nandy    2

Deputy Leader

Angela Rayner       1

Dawn Butler           2

Rosena Allin-Khan 3

NEC By Elections

Johanna Baxter           X

Gurinder Singh Josan X

For BAME seat consider

Carol Sewell                X

United, we are unstoppable | Keir Starmer for Leader of the Labour Party (and Angela Rayner for Deputy Leader)

Ballot starts today but I have not received anything yet except this email below from the Party. Will post next in support of Angela.

Dear John, The ballot for the Leadership and Deputy Leadership elections as well as the NEC elections and Scottish Deputy election opens today. Here are some things you need to know: Don't panic if you don't receive your ballot today. This is a huge election and it will take most of this week for everyone to receive their ballot. If you have an individual email address on the system you will receive your ballot electronically. Only those who don't have an individual email address on the system will receive a ballot pack in the post. Electronic ballots will come from labourelections@cesvotes.com, with the subject line The Labour Party – Election of Labour Leader and Deputy Leader 2020. If you think you have not received your ballot please make sure you add the email address above to your 'trusted sender' list and check your junk mail before getting in touch with us. Ballot reissue requests open on Monday 2 March. Please do not contact us to request a reissue before this date as we will not be able to help. Once you have received your ballot you will only be able to vote once. You will not be able to change your mind subsequently. You can find further information on our FAQs page. We expect our phone lines and inboxes to be exceptionally busy over the next few days so please bear with us if we are unable to answer your query immediately. Thanks, Team Labour

Paul Mason: I'll be supporting Keir Starmer in the Labour leadership election. Here's 10 reasons why:

1/ We need a leader from the left with the personal attributes of integrity, professionalism and leadership. If you think character doesn't matter, you weren't on the doorstep...

2/ Keir is firmly on the left - albeit a different left than the Corbyn/McDonnell tradition. He will stick by the economic radicalism of 2015-19 - above all Green New Deal - rejecting austerity and fighting for a new economic model...

3/ By the end, under Corbyn, LOTO was being run as a faction, operating against other factions, and excluding even loyal critics. Starmer wants to run the leadership as a leadership, not a faction - which will require persuasion not diktat...

4/ Starmer looks like he has a plan to win in 2024... some of the others, including RLB, don't.

5/ Starmer's name was continually thrown back at me on the doorstep by people who said they wouldn't vote for us under Corbyn. That kind of name recognition is powerful... (though the media will soon trash him, as they did Miliband and Brown...)

6/ Starmer has been clear: Brexit is done. We'll fight for close ties with Europe, but there'll be no rejoin project. Accepting the outcome of the election is key to Labour going forward...

7/ Starmer will not purge the left, and he won't allow others to purge the left. With the right gearing up to shut down Momentum, this is one of the big issues in the election...

8/ He will deal with any recommendations arising from the EHRC report into antisemitism quickly, professionally and decisively...

9/ Professionalism means understanding what you do not know. Listening to expertise. Employing people across the political divide who can actually do the job: it's a big change, but welcome...

10/ Starmer's politics are rooted in the real experience of the 21st century working class - from towns to cities - and he can win.

From his twitter

Keir & Angela have a majority of CLPs supporting them as Leader & Deputy Leader

There are 650 MPs - Labour does not organise in Northern Ireland so take away 18 MPs which makes it 632 CLPs. So half of 632 is 316. The screen shop from CLP nominations shows Keir with 370 and Angela with 355. An overwhelming mandate for both of them.

I suspect that 1 or 2 CLPs may not nominate for various reasons.

Of course the members and individual affiliates votes will decide. So if you have any free time in the next week or so https://keirstarmer.com/phonebank/

Come and Meet Keir Starmer in Stratford Monday 27 January 6.30pm

Keir will be at the historic Old Town Hall in Stratford on Monday 27 January 2020. Arrive at 6.30pm for 6.45pm start.

Please sign up to attend by clicking here and spread the word

(Update -Keir had to pull out of Friday/Saturday events upon the very sad news that his Mother-in-law is seriously ill but so far I assume that Monday is still on. Solidarity to Keir and his famous in this difficult time)

Angela Rayner says Labour ‘must win or die’ as she enters deputy leadership race

Hat tip BBC News about my UNISON comrade. "Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner has announced she is joining the contest to replace Tom Watson as Labour's deputy leader.

She is the fourth Labour MP to declare her intention to run, alongside Richard Burgon, Dawn Butler and Khalid Mahmood.

Ms Rayner said Labour now faced a stark choice following December's heavy election defeat - "win or die".

Both the new leader and deputy leader will be announced on 4 April, the party's ruling body has decided.

Clive Lewis, Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips, Sir Keir Starmer and Emily Thornberry have formally entered the race to replace outgoing leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long Bailey, who is a friend and flatmate of Ms Rayner, is also expected to join the main contest soon.

Launching her deputy leadership bid in Stockport, Ms Rayner said Labour's defeat last month had left the party facing its "biggest challenge in our history".

She said Labour needed to find a "new kind of coalition" to regain power, and needed to "win back" former supporters who had deserted the party.

She said Mr Corbyn's leadership had been a factor in the party's poor performance, but also blamed the election strategy, saying its list of target seats had proved to be "wide of the mark".

"Seats where we suffered catastrophic defeats were seen as secure, while we tried to fight 'target' seats we had effectively already lost. It cannot happen again."

And she continued: "The quick fix of a new leader will not be enough. We must rethink and renew our purpose and how we convince the people to share it.

"Either we face up to these new times or we become irrelevant. The next five years will be the fight of our lives."

Endorsements

Ms Rayner said she would back Ms Long Bailey if she stood for the top job, adding that she wanted the leadership of the party to be a "team effort".

After the launch, Ms Long Bailey tweeted that she would be lending her "full support" to her "good friend" Ms Rayner in her pitch for the deputy's post.

Ms Rayner also unveiled a list of other Labour MPs backing her candidacy, including shadow trade secretary Barry Gardiner - seen as a potential contender himself - and senior colleagues Louise Haigh and Jonathan Reynolds.

Ms Rayner became shadow education secretary in June 2016, just over a year after she became MP for Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester.

After leaving school aged 16, she became a care worker and representative for the Unison union before entering Parliament. She has previously described herself as being on the "soft left" of the party.

At her launch she also called for the party to draw a "line in the sand" over the issue of anti-Semitism within its ranks, so it could "regain the moral authority" to unite the country against racism.

The party, she added, needed to "educate where there is ignorance" and "remove bigotry wherever it is found".