A view from the NEC – and the two options for the leadership timetable

By Ann Black

Truly a week is a long time in politics. Thanks for all the comments so far – I’m still analysing them, but overall the mood is positive, with national results better than the doomsters predicted and hundreds of council seats gained. Thousands of people have joined or rejoined Labour since the election, so please welcome them to your local parties.

The NEC has been trying to keep up. Last Tuesday we discussed mechanisms for safeguarding Labour’s programme in any arrangement with the Lib Dems. We agreed to trust our negotiators, but as in my feedback, serious concerns were expressed. These were not primarily tribal in nature, but based on practicalities. The two parties together would have no majority, giving the tiny nationalist groups protectionist vetoes. And a coalition of the parties which had lost seats, with a second prime minister unelected by the British people, would have been criticised as lacking legitimacy and punished by the voters if it fell apart.

Later that day the talks came to nothing anyway, and the Cameron-Clegg team took power. Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister and as party leader, and many of you have praised his dignity, his statesmanship, his courage and his service over many years.

We now move to choosing his successor, and on Tuesday this week (May 18th) the NEC will agree a timetable. There are two main options, and I’d like to know which you prefer:

Option A: hustings meetings and a ballot of all members and affiliated trade unionists during June/July, with the new leader announced at a special conference at the end of July.

Option B: hustings in June/July, followed by a ballot in August/September, with the new leader announced at the annual conference in September, two weeks before parliament returns.

(Please email me at [email protected] with your preference. If you’ve already emailed me about this, there’s no need to write again.)

In either case the NEC is expected to waive the six-month membership requirement, as for the 2007 deputy contest, so that new members will be able to vote immediately.