Candidates from the Corbynite wing of Labour, including Momentum chief Jon Lansman, have won the race for nominations for elections to Labour’s ruling body.
The three activists, backed by the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance, emerged well ahead of Eddie Izzard, activists from the centre-left tradition and lower-profile independents in the final total of endorsements from constituency Labour parties (CLPs).
The alliance slate of Lansman, Manchester councillor Yasmine Dar and national policy forum representative Rachel Garnham now appear favourites to claim the three new places on Labour’s national executive committee (NEC).
The longstanding activists – all backed by Momentum and the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy – are up against Izzard, former NEC rep Johanna Baxter and Sikhs for Labour vice-chair Gurinder Singh Josan.
Izzard, Baxter and Josan describe themselves as independent pro-diversity candidates but rivals have pointed out their names appear on the same campaign website.
The final result is far from a foregone conclusion because voting is carried out on a one-member-one-vote basis and candidates such as Izzard have a huge national profile.
A recent ballot of the Labour International CLP, which serves an informal opinion poll, showed a far narrower gap between the Momentum-backed slate and the centre-left candidates.
Yasmine Dar – 206.
Rachel Garnham – 188.
Jon Lansman – 182
Eddie Izzard – 71.
Johanna Baxter – 67
Gurinder Singh Josan – 55
Sarah Taylor (Project 125) – 11
Nick Donovan (non-aligned) – 8
Nicola Morrison (Project 125) – 7
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