MPs battle it out in PLP elections as Starmer allies seek NEC return

MPs old and new will vote to elect their representatives within the Parliamentary Labour Party on Wednesday, with two new MPs seeking an immediate return to the national executive committee.

A ballot will be held in Parliament for Labour’s 411 representatives (excluding the Speaker) to choose a PLP chair, three representatives on the NEC and six backbench representatives on the party’s parliamentary committee.

Three of the four MPs nominated and therefore on the ballot for the NEC places are new members of the House. LabourList can reveal two were until recently members of the NEC as Constituency Labour Party representatives: Luke Akehurst and Gurinder Josan.

Both are strong supporters of Keir Starmer’s leadership, and part of self-described moderates’ campaign group Labour First. Another is Melanie Onn, who recently returned to the Commons after losing her seat in 2019.

A fourth is Kim Johnson, the most left-wing of the four candidates and a member of the Socialist Campaign Group.

READ MORE: PLP elect new chair as Efford and Morden battle it out

Meanwhile several new MPs are also among those nominated in parliamentary committee elections. Those on the ballot paper are Emma Foody, Paulette Hamilton, Dawn Butler, Gareth Snell, Kim Leadbeater, Satvir Kaur, Polly Billington, Adam Jogee, Zubir Ahmed and Nadia Whittome.

In the PLP chair elections, Clive Efford, chair of the Tribune group of MPs, is running against Jessica Morden, parliamentary private secretary to Starmer in opposition.

One Labour insider suggested the speed of Josan’s and Akehurst’s bid to return to the NEC made it look like a “pre-planned operation”.

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Former PLP chair John Cryer stood down at the last election; so too did two former PLP NEC representatives, George Howarth and Margaret Beckett.

Angela Eagle, now a Home Office minister, was previously the third PLP representative on the NEC.

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