Exclusive: All Labour leadership candidates will have to record victory speech videos

Labour’s leadership and deputy leadership election results would have been announced during a special conference held in central London, but the coronavirus lockdown has put a stop to that original plan.

LabourList was told by a source earlier this week that alternative arrangements had been discussed by national executive committee officers, who agreed that the results would be communicated “online only”.

The idea was to have Labour’s general secretary Jennie Formby offering opening remarks at the start of the online live stream, followed by NEC chair Andi Fox unveiling the winners of the two leadership contests.

However, the plan has now been changed. Ballots will still close at noon on Thursday, April 2nd, and the results will still be announced on Saturday, April 4th. But sources say there will no longer be a live feed.

A well-placed source tells LabourList that all three Labour leadership candidates will have to record videos of themselves delivering victory speeches. The videos will be sent to the party. The hopefuls will be told the results just minutes before a press release is sent out to disclose them to the press.

Along with the press release, full voting breakdowns will be available and the video acceptance speech of the new Labour leader will be accessible. LabourList wonders: will we ever see the discarded acceptance speeches of the two other candidates?