Nandslide, “machine politicians” and CLP nominations

Lisa Nandy had a good evening for CLP nominations, picking up six and bringing her total to seven. She already secured her place on the ballot earlier this week, with endorsements from the NUM, GMB and Chinese for Labour. And while Twitter erupted overnight with cries of the “Nandwagon” and the “Nandslide”, Keir Starmer remains out in front by quite a margin on 32 nominations. But the support shown for the Wigan MP last night is an indication of the growing momentum in her campaign, and her seven nominations now bring her level with fellow leadership candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey and ahead of Emily Thornberry – who is behind on three. In the deputy contest Angela Rayner is the clear frontrunner at the moment with 32, Dawn Butler has six, Rosena Allin-Khan and Ian Murray have four, and Richard Burgon brings up the rear on three.

Thornberry threw shade at Starmer and Long-Bailey on ITV’s Calling Peston podcast, calling them “machine politicans”. She commented that she had a “standing start” in the race because she threw “everything into the election”, before adding that “I don’t think that’s necessarily the case with everybody else”. The Islington MP is the only candidate who won’t make it onto the ballot through affiliate backing, and that leaves her relying on local parties. She needs a further 30 at this point, and there are still 599 CLPs yet to nominate. The 49 that have already done so make up just under 8% of the total. They don’t all have to back a candidate – in 2015, 390 chose a leadership candidate and 309 indicated their preference for deputy – but after the rule change in 2018, giving more weight to local party nominations, we can expect to see more do so in this contest.

Starmer’s campaign can be happy with how the nominations panned out last night. The Camden MP is now just one away from achieving the coveted 5%, or 33. Of course, he’s also already guaranteed his place on the ballot since he got the backing of UNISON, Usdaw and SERA. Nevertheless, a big showing of CLP support would be a display of strength for his campaign and the more he can pick up, the more likely it is that he can squeeze out one of the other candidates. With Nandy through already and Long-Bailey likely to be backed by Unite and/or the CWU, this really only presents a threat to Thornberry.

A meeting of Unite’s executive is taking place in London today to decide who the union will back in the contest. Candidates will be interviewed throughout the day, after which the 63-strong body will take a vote and we can expect the result around 6pm. With the Labour-affiliate led by Jeremy Corbyn ally Len McCluskey – and the fact that United Left, a faction with a majority on the executive, has already announced its support for her – Long-Bailey is likely to be the beneficiary of its decision. Meanwhile it could be close for deputy; the Shadow Justice Secretary was also endorsed by United Left, but only by one vote. However, after securing the support of the BFAWU, both Long-Bailey and Burgon are expected to make it onto the ballot as they now only require two of the smaller left-wing affiliates to back them. It has also been reported that Unite officials are “seriously considering” recommending Nandy for second preference votes, apparently as a bit of a thank you on Brexit. It is worth noting that GMB recommended Starmer for second preferences.

Starmer suspended campaigning yesterday following an accident that left his mother-in-law in intensive care, and the LabourList team sends him and his family our best wishes. A spokesperson for the campaign has said that the candidate will not be attending any events this weekend and, in light of this, the procedures committee has cancelled Labour’s hustings event on Saturday to “ensure fairness to all candidates”. The deputy leadership debate will still go ahead as planned and Open Labour has decided to continue with its leadership hustings on Sunday.