Emily Thornberry knocked out of Labour leadership race

Emily Thornberry has been knocked out of Labour’s leadership race after failing to secure the number of nominations required to get through to the final stage of the process.

The Shadow Foreign Secretary gained 31 nominations from local parties – two fewer than needed to reach the threshold of 5% that is now called for by the party rules.

Thornberry won the support of the following Constituency Labour Parties: 

Arfon; Bishop Auckland; Brentwood and Ongar; Broadland; Canterbury; Cardiff North; Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire; Cowdenbeath; Eastleigh; Esher and Walton; Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire; Falkirk East; Forest of Dean; Gateshead; Guildford; Horsham; Islington South and Finsbury; Labour Party of Northern Ireland; Midlothian North and Musselburgh; Newbury; North Cornwall; Reigate; Rugby; Rushcliffe; St Ives; South Ribble; Southport; Surrey Heath; Totnes; Vale of Glamorgan; West Lancashire.

Keir Starmer is the frontrunner in the main leadership race, having amassed the support of 374 local parties, as well as affiliated trade unions UNISON, Usdaw, SERA, Community, Musicians’ Union and TSSA.

Rebecca Long-Bailey was nominated by 164 local parties across the country, plus Unite the Union, BFAWU, FBU, CWU, ASLEF, Socialist Educational Association and Disability Labour.

Lisa Nandy gained 71 local party nominations, as well as passing through the affiliates route thanks to GMB, Chinese for Labour and the NUM.

A total of 641 out of 648 local parties chose to cast nominations in Labour’s leadership contest, which for the first time gave the constituency organisations an official role this year.

Each candidate had to get nominations from either 5% of local parties or three affiliated organisations, including two trade unions, comprising 5% of Labour’s affiliate membership.