A day in the race: June 8th

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

Today was a relatively quiet day in the leadership race as candidates concentrated on the end of MPs’ nominations, and further preparation for hustings – with the exception of one candidate who took in some foreign travel.

ED BALLS spoke today to GMB convention, having missed yesterday’s debate due to Education questions in the House. In an attack on the Tories that harked back to election scuffles on party funding, Balls said:

“I would rather be funded by thousands of trade union subs than by a tax exile millionaire.”

Balls has remained on 33 nominations since hitting that target – apparently to be a conscious decision on behalf of his campaign to show that Balls is not ‘hoovering up’ more nominations than are neccessary.

DAVID MILIBAND was in Brussells today to meet the European Parliamentary Labour Party. He reiterated his desire to see the EPLP leader represented in the shadow cabinet, which should help him gain support amongst Labour’s 13 MEPs – all of whom vote in the important MPs’ college of the leadership election.

Miliband recorded the following Audioboo at St.Pancras on his way to the meeting:

Listen!

Sean Woodward has today written in support of David Miliband, saying:

“Skipping a generation has to be the right choice. But Labour also needs a leader who can immediately command not just the attention but also the respect of the Party, and of the wider nation.”

David Miliband will tomorrow be hosting a livechat for supporters, between 2-2.30pm.

ANDY BURNHAM, picked up ten nominations today to surge towards the nominations threshold line off the back of a strong showing at hustings yesterday. He now stands at 31 nominations – only two short, with a day still to collect them. In reality he is only one nomination short, as David Miliband has promised to nominate any candidate stranded on 32 nominations.

JOHN MCDONNELL – despite adding six new nominations today (and therefore adding 60% to his total after yesterday) – has faced calls to stand aside in favour of Diane Abbott.

McDonnell now stands at 16 nominations – 5 ahead of Abbott on 16, leaving their combined total at just 27, still six short even between the two and with less than 24 hours remaining until close of nominations.

DIANE ABBOTT today picked up the high profile nomination of acting leader Harriet Harman. However, having picked up only two nominations today, Abbott remains a long way short of securing the neccessary numbers – she’s in last place with only a third of the nominations needed, and looks unlikely to progress through to the final ballot unless she receives an avalanche of late support tomorrow.

Another quiet day today from ED MILIBAND – although it is believed that his supporters are working hard behind the scenes phone banking. He also continues to pick up support, especially from young, newly elected MPs such as Luciana Berger.

Total nominations for each candidate as of this evening is:

David Miliband — 77
Ed Miliband — 57
Ed Balls — 33
Andy Burnham — 31
John McDonnell — 16
Diane Abbott — 11