More pressure to put Labour candidates on list
8:00 am - May 27th 2010
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Another letter has been signed by prominent Labour voices calling for all six leadership candidates to be put on the ballot to ensure a wide debate.
The Guardian publishes this letter today:
The electoral college process for electing Labour’s leader and deputy leader strikes a balance between MPs, members and trade unions. However, this and the previous leadership election have shown there are problems with the nomination process to get candidates on the ballot for all sections of the party to vote on.
Labour is a coalition of individual members, trade unions and other affiliated socialist societies. At its best it represents a broad church of opinion on the left. We welcome the extension of the nomination period, which now gives MPs the opportunity to consult with their local parties, trade unions and communities. However, we believe that with six candidates in the race the 12.5% threshold – meaning candidates must secure the backing of 33 MPs – is too onerous.
In future we believe there should be a procedure to give sections of the party (members and trade unions as well as MPs) the opportunity to nominate candidates. For this contest we call on MPs to nominate to give all parts of the party a choice. We believe that MPs should ensure that all six declared candidates receive sufficient nominations to be on the ballot paper. In this way MPs can be the protectors of democracy.
We are asking Labour MPs to co-ordinate their nominations and give all members and affiliates the broadest possible choice in the fullest debate representing all shades of opinion within our party and among our supporters.
It is signed by
Andrew Fisher – Labour Representation Committee
Neal Lawson – Compass
Peter Kenyon – Save the Labour Party
Sunder Katwala – Fabian Society (but signing in a personal capacity)
Alex Smith – LabourList blog
This follows a letter sent earlier by activist Duncan Hall which gathered nearly a hundred signatures from CLPs across the country.
Left-winger John McDonnell has also declared three names who support his nomination: Frank Field, Kate Hoey and Dai Havard.
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Reader comments
Frank Field supports John McDonnell? I didn’t expect that.
What happens to his nomination when Labour remove the whip from Field and he defects to the Tories, I wonder.
I hope that we get a plural debate going on for the Labour Leadership, but it looks like its going to be a bunch of male, oxbridge, PPEers who were all seriously invovled in the New Labour project, joy.
The three nominations mentioned above have since been joined by Jeremy Corbyn, Ronnie Campbell and John himself. 6 – 27 to go! We need that other thread back up and running!!
“Frank Field supports John McDonnell? I didn’t expect that.”
Why not? If I were friends with Cameron that’s who I’d nominate.
And if you can’t find 33 colleagues who think you’re up to the job then I think you’re wasting your time and ours.
I must admit Hoey and Field are strange bedfellows.
Perhaps it is their last gift before trotting over to the Tories.
If I was a labour mole in the tory camp I would have endorsed IDS
Reactions: Twitter, blogs
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George M-Baker
RT @libcon: More pressure to put all Labour candidates on ballot http://bit.ly/9ZI9Rk < lets hope they listen. #labourleadership
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Nautilus in Red
RT @libcon: pressure to put all Labour candidates on ballot http://bit.ly/cFo3Rv – the other letter mentioned is better: waive the rule!
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Malcolm Evison
RT @libcon: More pressure to put all Labour candidates on ballot http://bit.ly/9ZI9Rk
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Alex Holland
RT @libcon: More pressure to put all Labour candidates on ballot http://bit.ly/9ZI9Rk
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Justin Baidoo
RT @libcon: More pressure to put all Labour candidates on ballot http://bit.ly/9ZI9Rk
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Jo and Joe Bloggs
RT @libcon: More pressure to put all Labour candidates on ballot http://bit.ly/9ZI9Rk
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Liberal Conspiracy
More pressure to put all Labour candidates on ballot http://bit.ly/9ZI9Rk
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Liberal Conspiracy, George M-Baker. George M-Baker said: RT @libcon: More pressure to put all Labour candidates on ballot http://bit.ly/9ZI9Rk < lets hope they listen. #labourleadership [...]
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Samuel Tarry
RT @libcon: More pressure to put all Labour candidates on ballot http://bit.ly/9ZI9Rk
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MMC-NEWS
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