A day in the race: July 26th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Today was all about nominations, as the window of opportunity for CLPs, Socialist Societies and Trade Unions to support candidates slams shut. It’s not quite the football transfer window – but leadership election watchers will have found plenty to interest them in the final throes of the nomination period – with a primary, a big union nomination, and backing from a couple of Socialist Societies.

Now we move onto another phase of the leadership election. This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning…

DAVID MILIBAND was celebrating topping the CLP nominations today with 165 – 17 ahead of brother Ed. The cherry on the nomination cake was victory in the Bassetlaw primary (with a crushing first round victory). Not only did this secure him the backing of another CLP, he also won the support of MP John Mann, who was backing his brother until this morning.

David also recieved the backing of Labour Students today, and David responded to a successful day of endorsements, saying:

“I am pleased today to have won the most CLP nominations, to have the backing of Labour Students and to have won outright the support of ordinary voters in the Bassetlaw Primary – the first test of public opinion in this contest. I want to thank all those who have given me their support and I will continue to work for every vote.”

“I am 100% committed to bringing the Labour Party together and leading it to power because Britain needs the values and vision that this great party has to offer.”

David also received the support of noted former Labour supporter (and hopefully future Labour supporter) Gillian Duffy, as well as that of Labour friends of Turkey.

ED MILIBAND secured the nomination of Unite, in what was effectively the formality of an official confirmation, once the intentions of the political committee became clear on Saturday.

Ed also held a press conference in Westminster this afternoon, where amongst other things he sought to set out a vision of how his leadership would look – including constructive opposition where it’s warranted. He was also very careful to avoid being tied down as the union candidate – and in response to his brother’s victory in Bassetlaw, he said simply:

“You win some, you lose some.”

In an email this evening the Ed campaign contacted supporters as they move into the next stage of the leadership campaign, and celebrated getting over 150 CLP nominations. While this is the case, only 148 have actually been counted by the party, due to problems with the paperwork for a small number of CLPs. It’s a technicality, but one that other campaigns may seize on. The email thanked supporters, saying:

“None of this would have happened without the hard work and generosity of ordinary supporters — nearly 2,000 people who have signed up to offer their spare time and some 500 people who have given small donations help support to our campaign. Thank you — your dedication is inspiring.I believe my campaign is picking up so much support because it’s the one that recognises that Labour needs to change in order to win again. We need to change our policy platform, and we need to change our style of politics. We cannot go into the next general election thinking that one more heave of the New Labour dogmas will be enough to see us through. Labour lost one million voters between 2005 and 2010; but we also lost 4 million voters between 1997 and 2005. And we lost those voters because we lost touch with people’s lives.”

ED BALLS and Vernon Coaker wrote to all Lib Dem MPs urging them to vote against the academies bill. In a letter released today, they said:

“As you will know many members on all sides of the debate remain concerned about the lack of a clear role for local authorities in the school reforms proposed by the government and the major centralisation to Whitehall this will result in.”

“It is important that the house has the chance to vote on the issue of whether local authorities should have a role in ensuring, as your manifesto puts it, a level playing field for admissions and funding.”

Later, Balls campaign manager Jim Knight blogged on the way forward for the campaign, saying:

“Ed has never been the front runner in this race, we did not have the early organisation of the other candidates, and Ed and his team have spent much of the last few weeks opposing and exposing this government in Parliament.”

“This means we have some catching up to do, but all of us should remember that not a single vote will be cast until September and there are over eight weeks to go before the ballot closes. Our canvassing shows a large proportion of party and union members are undecided and support amongst the party membership as a whole is more evenly spread between the candidates than formal CLP and union nominations would suggest.”

DIANE ABBOTT today picked up the support of BAME Labour. Their chair Ahmad Shazad, said:

“Diane is not only the most experienced candidate of all, but her record of fighting for liberty and justice since her election 23 years ago, is outstanding.”

“Diane would make an excellent leader and Prime Minister. She is the first black person in Britain to go for leadership of a political party, which makes this a historical election.”

“It would be a great thing for Britain to have a black Prime Minister and BAME Labour is proud to be backing Diane for Leader.”

ANDY BURNHAM was meeting health organisations today to discuss the government’s plans for the NHS. Later this week he’ll be launching a campaign to stop the break up of the NHS – although it’s unclear whether this will be a party campaign, or an Andy campaign. Either way he’ll be hoping for the same level of exposure over this issue as Ed Balls got over BSF. If he gets that, he might get catapulted back into the race.