The final list of nominations for the constituency party section of Labour’s national executive have now been published. There were a total of 2,104 valid nominations, 9% up on nominations at the previous election, with twenty valid nominations as before. Nominations for centre-left candidates (53% of the total) are up by 45 whilst those for rightwing candidates (35% of the total) are down by 14, with those for independents (11% of the total) up 137, largely due to Johanna Baxter who got the largest increase of 107.
The Centre-Left have an absolute majority of all nominations in seven out of eleven party regions or nations, and are ahead of the right wing in a further two. Only in two regions are the Centre-Left behind the right, by 2% in the north-west (where Peter Wheeler has particularly strong support) and by 19% in the West Midlands.
The figures demonstrate that this contest is being very hard fought. The slate backed by the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance (CLGA) (Ann Black, Christine Shawcroft, Ken Livingstone, Kate Osamor, Darren Williams and Pete Willsman) is almost certain to retain the three seats it has now but is well positioned to win at least a fourth. The right-wing slate backed by Progress and Labour First, on the other hand, cannot bank on winning more than one which would be its lowest total for many years.
The real battle will probably be for the last two places between Johanna Baxter, Pete Willsman, Luke Akehurst and Peter Wheeler, but lower-placed candidates may do better in votes than nominations and the reverse could also be true of higher placed candidates. At the last election there only 3,659 votes (about one half of a percent of the votes cast) between the bottom elected (Luke Akehurst) and the next five candidates (including Pete Willsman and Johanna Baxter who was added to the executive when Oona King was given a peerage).
On the centre-left, Gary Heather, having received a creditable 49 nominations, is nevertheless expected to withdraw from the election having received fewer than his fellow male centre-left candidates. Pete Willsman increased his total nominations and, although he has been overtaken by Luke Akehurst and Johanna Baxter, his nominations probably understate the support he will receive. Only 14 of the 49 CLPs which nominated Gary also nominated Pete, but Gary’s suport is likely to transfer to Pete. And unlike at the last election, there is an agreed centre-left slate of six candidates. Pete will also be pleased that he secured the nomination of his former home CLP of Erith and Thamesmead, which he failed to win last time because of manoeuvres by the right (in collaboration with party officials).
Kate Osamor did extremely well to win 103 nominations at the first time of standing and Darren Williams who received 17 of the 21 nominations from Welsh CLPs also did extremely well with 84 nominations considering Wales is the smallest party region/nation bar one. However, he can be expected to benefit further in the actual election from living and working well outside London.
The full details of nominations to date are as follows (last year’s position in nominations and 2010 nominations in brackets):
| 1 Ann Black (1) | Left | 333 (275) |
| 2 Christine Shawcroft (4) | Left | 203 (160) |
| 3 Ken Livingstone (2) | Left | 195 (235) |
| 4 Ellie Reeves (3) | Right | 189 (182) |
| 5 Johanna Baxter (6) | Independent | 172 (65) |
| 6 Luke Akehurst (8) | Right | 160 (82) |
| 7 Peter Willsman (5) | Left | 149 (137) |
| 8 Peter Wheeler (6) | Right | 147 (132) |
| 9 Kate Osamor (-) | Left | 103 |
| 10 Darren Williams (-) | Left | 84 |
| 11 Joanne Milligan (-) | Right | 76 |
| 12 Ruth Smeeth (-) | Right | 71 |
| 13 Florence Nosegbe (-) | Right | 69 |
| 14 Gary Heather (-) | Left | 49 |
| 15 Lewis Atkinson (-) | Independent | 38 |
| 16 Shukat Ali (13) | Right | 20 (52) |
| 17 Rajwant Singh Siddhu (18) | Independent | 7 (13) |
| 18 Darrell Goodliffe (-) | Independent | 5 |
| 19= Rob Carr (-) | Independent | 4 |
| 19= Lynda Rice (-) | Independent | 4 |
Darrell Goodliffe is from the left of the party as well
Johanna Baxter gets “Special Thanks ” for helping put out the “Labour’s Business” pamphlet , the one that argues “Enterprise must be at the heart of our politics” and has a contribution from A4e – according to the acknowledgements she did so with her husband Mark Glover, he being the founder of lobbyists Bellenden (clients include Serco, Tribal Education, the Qatari Diar) – which all sounds quite Blairite to me, although that isn’t the way she comes across in her campaign at all – am I just reading the signs wrongly ?