Alan Johnson confirms he will not run for leader

Alan Johson will not run for leader of the Labour Party, he has confirmed. In an article for The Guardian, Johnson says he doesn’t possess the appetite for the role, and that as 64 he feels he is too old for the long-term nature of the job. He writes:

“This is a job requiring an appetite for leadership that I don’t possess, and a commitment to the next 10 years that my age precludes. Fortunately there is an abundance of talent in the parliamentary party capable of ensuring that if this election has been reminiscent of 1992, the next election will recall the one that followed 1992.”

The rest of the piece, however, is not without advice for potential leadership candidates. His analysis of the party’s defeat is that the Conservatives managed to prevail in the argument about Labour’s pre-2010 spending – using the example of the Question Time audience in Leeds attacking Miliband over the topic last week.

“The public became convinced that Labour had indeed driven the car into the ditch and declined to return the keys. While Miliband was valiantly attempting to own the future, he lost the core argument about the past.”

Johnson was tipped as possible leadership contender last October, during a period where it looked likely that Labour MPs could attempt to oust Ed Miliband. On that occasion, Johnson dismissed the rumour. Meanwhile, the local paper of Johnson’s constituency The Hull Daily Mail has published an editorial today saying that Labour should “make a call and beg Hull West and Hessle MP Alan Johnson to accept a role as interim leader of the opposition in Westminster”. However, this is as unlikely as a Johnson leadership bid – Harriet Harman has confirmed she will fulfil her role as stand-in leader until a replacement is elected.

See our list of the potential leadership candidates here.