Keir Starmer has made it by way of to the ultimate spherical of the Labour management contest, having secured the backing of store staff’ union Us
Keir Starmer has made it by way of to the ultimate spherical of the Labour management contest, having secured the backing of store staff’ union Usdaw. The social gathering’s guidelines state {that a} candidate must get the backing of three affiliated organisations, of which two have to be commerce unions (or the nomination of not less than 33 constituency Labour events), and together with the sooner backing of Unison and Labour’s Setting Marketing campaign SERA, Starmer has made it.
Usdaw additionally nominated Angela Rayner for the deputy management, and he or she is now additionally by way of to the ultimate spherical of her contest.
It is a huge week for nominations from associates, with each the GMB and Unite unions holding hustings with the candidates on Tuesday and Friday respectively. We’re additionally anticipating an announcement from CWU on its nomination, and Starmer is up towards Rebecca Lengthy-Bailey for the TSSA nomination. The deadline to safe both affiliate backing or CLP assist is 14 February, so the opposite candidates do have some time, however the backing of this reasonable union comes as a blow to Jess Phillips, who had additionally been hoping to get its nomination. With Starmer the clear frontrunner, there’s a threat that many CLPs will nominate him as nicely (he’s presently forward on this measure too, with 11 nominations, whereas Lengthy-Bailey has three and the others haven’t had any in any respect), making it a lot more durable for Phillips – in addition to Lisa Nandy and Emily Thornberry – to get onto the membership poll in any respect.
If Nandy doesn’t make it by way of on the affiliate route (she has the NUM within the bag and is hoping for the GMB nomination), she may be capable to shock and impress members sufficiently to get their backing at CLP stage, given she is presently not very well-known among the many membership. Phillips and Thornberry are higher identified however members don’t appear to love what they see thus far, that means each are extra reliant on MPs who’ve backed them persuading their CLPs to assist them. That is not at all a given: not all Labour MPs, notably these supporting Phillips, have loved superb relationships with their native events over the previous few years and their assist for a candidate might in reality deter members.
But it surely’s presently troublesome to shake the impression that the management contest is heading for a two-horse race, and that many inside the motion see a Starmer/Rayner prime crew as one thing of an inevitability.