Only 33 Labour MPs who have nominated no-one for Leader remain. Andy Burnham is now virtually certain to get enough to be on the ballot paper. Time is running out for John and Diane, at least one of whom cannot get onto the ballot paper, to decide who should withdraw. Between them they now have 27 nominations.
Tomorrow, as there is only a one-line whip on the Identity Documents Bill, there is a danger that many of those MPs will simply not be in the House before close of nominations at 12:30pm. Others may attend the House only to vote in the elections for Select Committee Chairs before leaving for their constituencies – there is only a on-line whip on Thursday too. The time for withdrawal is now.
The remaining MPs who have not nominated are:
Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green & Bow); Graham Allen (Nottingham North); Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West); Margaret Beckett (Derby South); Gordon Brown (Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath); Nick Brown (Newcastle Upon Tyne East); Chris Bryant (Rhondda); Richard Burden (Birmingham, Northfield); Liam Byrne (Birmingham, Hodge Hill); Stella Creasy (Walthamstow); Tony Cunningham (Workington); Nick Dakin (Scunthorpe); Angela Eagle (Wallasey); Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East); Roger Godsiff (Birmingham, Hall Green); David Heyes (Ashton-Under-Lyne); Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch); Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore); Glenda Jackson (Hampstead and Kilburn); Sian James (Swansea East); Graham Jones (Hyndburn); Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central); Denis MacShane (Rotherham); Shabana Mahmood (Birmingham Ladywood); Gregg McClymont (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth & Kirkintilloch East); David Miliband (South Shields); Dawn Primarolo (Bristol South); Jack Straw (Blackburn); Graham Stringer (Blackley and Broughton); Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston); Stephen Twigg (Liverpool West Derby); David Winnick (Walsall North); Phil Woolas (Oldham East and Saddleworth)
We can still have both. Put pressure on the NEC to lower the threshold tomorrow.
Facebook page here (brand new): join up and send the message!
Sorry: here’s the page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/picture.php?id=123588557681233&success=1#!/pages/Labour-NEC-Lower-threshold-to-5-and-allow-all-six-on-Labour-Leader-ballot/123588557681233?v=wall
If one of them withdraws his/her nominees are free to renominate?
Despite no Michael Meacher, or Jon Cruddas the Further Left in the PLP is Still split – incredible!
I doubt that such a candidate would be other than an embarrassment to the Labour Party as a whole mind. But it would be encouraging for their supporters to see them acting in a cooperative spirit, as though they could organise the customary activity in a brewery.
One last try!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Labour-NEC-Lower-threshold-to-5-and-allow-all-six-on-Labour-Leader-ballot/123588557681233?v=wall