Labour say there are no plans to delay the leadership result

Labour have said that there are no plans to delay the leadership result.

This comes following a story in the Daily Mail, which claims that the result could be delayed by up to three days. The paper claims that one of Labour’s four leadership contenders will call for the vote to be extended as some party members have not yet received their ballot.

It’s reported that a source in one of the leadership campaigns said “there are genuinely lots of people who haven’t had their papers. It’s significant and if the result is close there will be huge problems. It could decide the result”.

The party are not releasing information about how many people have said they are still waiting for their ballot paper. However, they say that it is a small number. Those who have contacted the party to say they haven’t received their ballot will be reissued a ballot paper by e-mail tomorrow.

There are just under 72 hours left to vote – voting closes at Noon on Thursday. A little over over 550,000 people are eligible to vote –  293,000 are party party members, 150,000 affiliated supporters, and 112,000 registered supporters who paid £3 to take part in the contest.

Leadership candidates Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham have both claimed that a significant proportion of members have not yet voted in the contest. Cooper claimed that last week half of members hadn’t voted, while Burnham said around 1/3 had not yet cast their vote. The other two candidates in the running for the position are Jeremy Corbyn and Liz Kendall.

Update: Both Andy Burnham’s and Yvette Cooper’s campaigns have denied that they asked for the leadership race to be extended. It is unlikely that either Jeremy Corbyn’s or Liz Kendall’s campaigns called for this as they have little to gain from delaying the result; it’s thought Corbyn is likely to win and Kendall is likely to come in fourth.

However, Katie Myler who is one of Burnham’s aides denied his campaign made this request:

For the record, Andy’s campaign has not called for a delay in the voting process.

— Katie Myler (@LadyMyler) September 7, 2015

Similarly, a spokesperson for Yvette Cooper’s campaign told the New Statesman they were not behind this call: “It’s the responsibility of the Labour Party to ensure all eligible voters receive their ballots. We are not aware at the moment of significant issues with this.”