Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2015

Procedure

The leadership election, triggered by Ed Miliband's resignation, took place under the reformed rules adopted from the proposals of the February 2014 Collins Report, which was led by Ray Collins, Baron Collins of Highbury. The plan entailed a shorter election than the one that took place in 2010, with a new leader being in place before Labour's party conference in September 2015.

The review changed the way in which Labour elects leaders. Under the former system, a three-way electoral college chose the leader, with one-third weight given to the votes of the Parliamentary Labour Party (i.e., Labour members of the House of Commons and Labour members of the European Parliament), one-third to individual Labour Party members, and one third to the trade union and affiliated societies sections. Following the Collins review, the electoral college was replaced by a pure "one member, one vote" (OMOV) system. Candidates will be elected by members and registered and affiliated supporters, who all receive a maximum of one vote and all votes will be weighted equally. This meant that, for example, members of Labour-affiliated trade unions needed to register as Labour supporters to vote.

To stand, candidates now needed to be nominated by at least 15% of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), i.e. 35 MPs, at that time. The vote, as in previous elections, was held under the alternative vote (instant-runoff) system. The deputy leadership election was held under the same rules.

The election itself was overseen by Electoral Reform Services.

In late August, the Labour Party reported that about 552,000 members and supporters were eligible to vote; about 292,000 full members, 148,000 affiliated supporters (members of trade unions and socialist societies who opted to affiliate), plus 112,000 registered supporters.

Timetable

A meeting of Labour's National Executive Committee took place on 13 May 2015 to set a timetable and procedure for the two elections.

The deadline on 12 August 2015 to join as a member or supporter was extended by 3 hours due to heavy demand making the party website difficult to use.

Nominated

To be placed on the ballot, candidates for leader had to obtain the nominations of 35 MPs. An MP who nominates a candidate does not have to subsequently support, or vote for, that candidate. Some MPs have stated that they nominated only to ensure that candidate got onto the ballot paper.

The number of MPs next to the candidate's name below includes the candidate, who can count as one of the 35 MPs needed. Public nominations for candidates by MPs were as follows:

Before dropping out of the race on 12 June, Mary Creagh had 10 nominations: Sarah Champion, Jo Cox, Neil Coyle, Thangam Debbonaire, Helen Hayes, Susan Elan Jones, Mike Kane, Stephen Kinnock, Tulip Siddiq

A total of 26 Labour MPs did not nominate any candidate: Graham Allen, Ben Bradshaw, Alan Campbell, Rosie Cooper, Mary Creagh, Stella Creasy, John Cryer, Angela Eagle, Natascha Engel, Caroline Flint, Barry Gardiner, Roger Godsiff, Harriet Harman, Meg Hillier, Lindsay Hoyle, Alan Johnson, Sir Gerald Kaufman, Ed Miliband, Rob Marris, Ian Murray, Graham Stringer, Mark Tami, Keith Vaz, Tom Watson, David Winnick, Rosie Winterton

Withdrew

Declined

Media reaction

Burnham has been praised for having both "a radical left-wing vision" and being credible enough "to unite the party and win back power", as well as for being someone who "actually listens to party members and the public".

Burnham attracted press criticism for claiming £17,000 a year from the taxpayer to rent a London flat, despite owning another within walking distance of the House of Commons. A spokesman for Burnham said that renting out the original flat was necessary to "cover his costs" as parliamentary rule changes meant he was no longer able to claim for mortgage interest expenses. Burnham was criticised for saying that Labour should have a woman leader "when the time is right", with the New Statesman saying that he had "tripped over his mouth again".

Cooper was praised by the Huffington Post for her hard work in local constituencies during the leadership contest and for her preparation for the Local Government Association hustings.

She has been criticised both for thanking David Miliband for putting her as his second choice (after Liz Kendall) and for her "broken, downbeat delivery".

Corbyn's leadership bid has been the subject of fierce discussion within the media. Janan Ganesh in the Financial Times has argued that the election of Corbyn "spells disaster" for the Labour Party. Owen Jones argued in The Guardian that the reason Corbyn was so popular was because he "offers a coherent, inspiring and, crucially, a hopeful vision" addressing social injustice and economic inequality, comparing the surge of support for Corbyn to the popularity of both UKIP in England and the Scottish National Party (SNP) in Scotland.

In June 2015, Kendall's leadership bid received praise from The Sun, who said that she is the "only prayer they [the Labour Party] have". The Sun also praised her for saying 'the country comes first' in response to Andy Burnham who said 'the [Labour] Party always comes first' in the Newsnight Labour leadership hustings. Commentators from across the political spectrum have said that Kendall is the leadership candidate that the Conservatives "fear the most".

However, the Huffington Post criticised her, saying "Liz Kendall just doesn't seem to have it, she seems to be always on the verge of tripping over her own words, as if she is perpetually being caught off guard."

Dispute over election integrity

One of the most notable features of the election was the large increase in Labour Party membership, and the registration of significant numbers of the new affiliated and registered classes of voting supporters, during the period of the campaign. Concern was expressed that the new rules were unfairly benefiting Corbyn, and there might be a legal challenge, but in the event the result was so decisive these concerns were not pursued after the election.

In June 2015, the Conservative-identifying political commentator Toby Young wrote in the Telegraph encouraging Conservatives to join Labour to vote for Jeremy Corbyn, his reason being "to consign Labour to electoral oblivion". This trended on Twitter as #ToriesforCorbyn and the attempt, as well as Labour's response, were subject to criticism. Two days later the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) wrote also in support of Corbyn. Following this, Labour MP John Mann called for the election to be halted. Acting leader of the party Harriet Harman responded by calling on constituency parties to check new members, but stated that Labour has "a robust system to prevent fraudulent or malicious applications." Labour MP Fabian Hamilton stated there was "no evidence" that groups were trying to infiltrate the election. Leadership candidates Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall also responded by saying there was no evidence of infiltration, and while not dismissing the claims, Corbyn stated he only wanted "genuine Labour supporters" to vote for him.

Rejected voters

It emerged in early August 2015 that 260 former candidates from the Green Party, Left Unity and the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition had attempted to become registered supporters but would now be blocked from voting. Shortly before this it was revealed that Conservative MP and former junior minister Tim Loughton had been caught applying to become a registered Labour supporter, subsequently claiming that his intention was to "blow the gaff on what a complete farce the whole thing is". Veteran Labour MP Barry Sheerman also joined calls for the election to be "paused" over the fears of infiltration by other parties. The Labour Party told representatives of the four candidates at a meeting on 11 August that 1,200 members and supporters of other parties had been excluded and a further 800 were under investigation. Harriet Harman at the time admitted that as many as 100,000 people may be blocked from voting.

The number of those rejected would eventually reach 56,000, around 9.1% of the 610,753 considered eligible to vote at the start of the contest. According to the party, 45,000 of those were rejected for not being on the electoral register.

Labour also confirmed that it would cancel supporters' votes after they had been cast if it was found that they were members of other parties. A number of high-profile individuals have been blocked from voting, including Marcus Chown, Jeremy Hardy, Douglas Henshall, Ken Loach, Francesca Martinez, Mark Serwotka, Pete Sinclair, Mark Steel, Luke Wright and Toby Young.

Andrew MacKinlay, a former Labour MP, further alleged that Labour was attempting to rig its own leadership election against Corbyn; a view shared by Jeremy Hardy. Such allegations became known to the media – and particularly Corbyn supporters – as the "Labour Purge", with #LabourPurge trending on Twitter. Claims of such a "purge" of Corbyn supporters were rejected by Harman who insisted that the exclusion processes were impartial to candidates. Scottish newspaper The National printed a page-long satirical cartoon speculating further vote-rigging by Labour's leadership.

Missing ballots

With less than 24 hours to go before the voting deadline, the party closed their telephone helpline. The move came during widespread complaints from "thousands" of voters who were missing emailed or physical ballot papers. The Guardian reported that one of their sources in the leadership camps stated that "the party has basically decided to stop taking calls and if you don't have a vote, you're now basically not getting one." The party refused to confirm how many ballot papers had actually been sent. Andy Burnham publicly criticised the number of missing ballots and the closure of the phone line.

Labour MP David Lammy has called for a full inquiry into the missing ballot papers. Of the 200 people his team phone called in London on the eve of the deadline, one in five were missing their ballots.

Opinion polling

The polls in this section have been undertaken by media pollsters known to use industry standard polling methods.

The polls below were conducted after nominations for the leadership ballot closed.

Where there is more than one line for a poll, this is for when a candidate has been eliminated and their second or third preference votes passed onto another candidate.

The polls below were conducted before nominations for the leadership closed and therefore include Labour politicians who were not in the final four candidates who were nominated.

Result

Source

Turnout for the vote was 422,871 (76.3%) of the 554,272 eligible voters, with 207 spoilt ballots. 343,995 votes (81.3%) were cast online, the UK's largest online ballot.

Domestic

Ed Miliband, former party leader, offered his support to Corbyn and urged other Labour MPs to do so, though he ruled himself out of taking on a position in Corbyn's shadow cabinet, to focus on representing his constituency. Kezia Dugdale, leader of Scottish Labour, declared that "politics has changed" and people desired a "radical change", with Corbyn's election to the leadership showing that Labour had "listened to that call". Carwyn Jones, leader of Welsh Labour and First Minister of Wales, congratulated Corbyn and urged the party to embrace the fact that the campaign had "energised a huge number of people who were previously disengaged from party politics" and unite around their new leader.

Corbyn's rivals for the leadership each reacted to the result. Andy Burnham said that Jeremy Corbyn was a politician with "very deep beliefs, very strong principles" which voters would embrace. Burnham later replaced Yvette Cooper as Shadow Home Secretary after she announced that she would not serve on a Labour frontbench led by Corbyn and that she would instead focus on playing a role in the upcoming EU membership referendum. Following the close of voting, Liz Kendall made a speech reflecting on her campaign stating that, after the New Labour government, there was never any debate in relation to the direction the party should go, and it had created a split "between the party and the country". All three of Corbyn's opponents in the leadership election stated they would support Corbyn, that the result should be accepted and the party should focus on attacking the Conservative government.

During the announcement of Corbyn's victory, Jamie Reed resigned as a Shadow Health Minister, citing his difference in opinion, with the new leader, over the replacement of the Trident missile system. Chris Leslie (Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer), Yvette Cooper (Shadow Home Secretary), Chuka Umunna (Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills), Rachel Reeves (Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions), Emma Reynolds (Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government), Tristram Hunt (Shadow Secretary of State for Education), Mary Creagh (Shadow Secretary of State for International Development) and Liz Kendall (Shadow Minister for Care and Older People) also confirmed they would not serve in Corbyn's shadow cabinet.

David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister, stated that Corbyn's win would make the Labour Party a threat "to our national security, to our economic security and to the security of your family". This echoed the same warning from other Cabinet ministers, including Michael Fallon, current Secretary of State for Defence, and from an email sent by Conservative Campaign Headquarters to party members. However Nick Hurd, former Minister for Civil Society, and Daniel Hannan, MEP for South East England, both warned their party against "complacency". Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, said that the result demonstrated that Labour had given up on being in government, and that many Labour MPs would show "despair at his appointment".

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, congratulated Corbyn but added his concerns about the new Labour leader's immigration policies. Before Corbyn's win, Farage stated that Corbyn's "sweeping emergence on the Left of British politics, where he has helped re-engage many who had given up on politics, is a good thing for our democracy".

Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, commented on the "massive space in the centre ground of British politics" that had been opened up, due to the perceived shift leftwards by Labour, and suggested that the Liberal Democrats would be able to appeal more directly to "sensible, moderate, progressives who are opposed to what the Conservatives are doing, but cannot bring themselves to support a party of the hard left". The President of the Liberal Democrats, Sal Brinton, accused Labour of abdicating "its responsibilities" as a party of effective opposition. Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said that Corbyn's success meant a "return to the damaging see saw politics of the past". Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, attacked Corbyn as the "opposite of what this country needs", accusing Labour of returning to its 1970s policies.

Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales released a statement saying that her party would be "delighted" to work with Corbyn on a range of issues where they share common ground.

Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party and First Minister of Scotland, praised Corbyn on winning the leadership contest but claimed that Labour's failure to defeat the Conservatives at the next general election would further the cause for Scottish independence and leave the SNP as the only real opposition.

Leanne Wood, leader of Plaid Cymru congratulated Corbyn and urged the Labour Party to join with her party's MPs in opposing "Tory policies that are causing great harm to people in Wales and beyond".

Alasdair McDonnell, leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party commended Corbyn on an "incredible election campaign" and urged him to work towards returning Labour to an electable position, as well as opposing Conservative policies.

Mike Nesbitt, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party called on Corbyn to maintain Labour's policy towards Northern Ireland and "support agreements brought forward by the local parties".

International

 Argentina – Then President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner sent her congratulations to Corbyn, hailing him as "a great friend of Latin America".

 Greece – The country's governing party, Syriza, released a statement welcoming the election of Corbyn and arguing that the result would strengthen the "pan-European front against austerity".

 Ireland – Gerry Adams, the President of Sinn Féin, tweeted his words of congratulation to Corbyn.

 Russia – Alexander Yakovenko, the Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, said that he hoped that Corbyn's election would create a "positive change" in the debate around Russia-United Kingdom relations.

 Spain – Íñigo Errejón, the Political Secretary of Podemos, described the result as being part of a "wave of change" across Northern Europe.

 United States – U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, a candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for president in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, announced that he was "delighted to see that the British Labour Party has elected Jeremy Corbyn as its new leader." He added: "We need leadership in every country in the world which tells the billionaire class that they cannot have it all. We need economies that work for working families, not just the people on top."

Analysis

Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman said that it was not surprising that Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership contest, as all the candidates except for Corbyn essentially supported the Conservative government's austerity policies. As Krugman noted, not only the candidates but also the Labour moderates implicitly agreed with their opponents' idea that the government budget should always be balanced by the austerity policies. Krugman argued that it was a false claim that the Labour party, in power during 1997–2010, spent far beyond their means and caused a debt crisis.

Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz argued that the Labour party platform was different from what a leftist party must do, saying that Labour had not opposed austerity programmes. He added that Corbyn's camp offered a left-wing agenda and therefore Stiglitz was not surprised at all that Corbyn became the contender for the leadership contest.