Five people make it onto the deputy leadership ballot

Five people have made it onto the ballot to be Labour’s deputy leader.

According to Chuka Umunna, Ben Bradshaw, Stella Creasy, Angela Eagle, Caroline Flint and Tom Watson all secured the 35 nominations needed to make it through to the next stage of the contest.

It was clear last week that Watson and Flint would remain in the contest, when they passed the 35 threshold. But it looked like the rest of the candidates wouldn’t make it.

However, at around 11.35 today Rushanara Ali, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, decided to withdraw from the contest to ensure that party members and registered supporters were able to choose from the widest number of candidates possible.

Ali had picked up 24 nominations and many of these went to other candidates; Chuka Umunna was an Ali supporter who lent his backing to Stella Creasy.