Put all six on the ballot?

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

There’s been a lot of talk this week about the difficulty – considering the domination of the Miliband brothers in the PLP – of making sure a wide field of candidates is nominated for the leadership contest, which is what many people, including the candidates, seem to want. The Milibands currently have 107 MPs’ declared support between them – which represents over 40% of the total available nominations in the PLP, while other candidates are struggling to make the cut.

Today, I’ve signed a letter in the Guardian alongside Sunder Katwala, Peter Kenyon, Neal Lawson and Andrew Fisher which calls for remaining MPs to co-ordinate in order to ensure that broad contest the party needs:

“We are asking Labour MPs to co-ordinate their nominations and give all members and affiliates the broadest possible choice in the fullest debate representing all shades of opinion within our party and among our supporters.”

This is not asking for the NEC to change the rules, or for anyone to lobby now for that change; a rule-change part way through the process is unworkable. But it is evidently important to ensure a wide range of candidates can stand. With just two weeks left to the close of nominations, some coherent action may be needed to ensure that happens. And in the future, the process should be looked at again. As the letter says:

“In future we believe there should be a procedure to give sections of the party (members and trade unions as well as MPs) the opportunity to nominate candidates.”