Another letter has been signed by prominent Labour voices calling for all six leadership candidates to be put on the ballot to ensure a wide debate.

The Guardian publishes this letter today:

The electoral college process for electing Labour’s leader and deputy leader strikes a balance between MPs, members and trade unions. However, this and the previous leadership election have shown there are problems with the nomination process to get candidates on the ballot for all sections of the party to vote on.

Labour is a coalition of individual members, trade unions and other affiliated socialist societies. At its best it represents a broad church of opinion on the left. We welcome the extension of the nomination period, which now gives MPs the opportunity to consult with their local parties, trade unions and communities. However, we believe that with six candidates in the race the 12.5% threshold – meaning candidates must secure the backing of 33 MPs – is too onerous.

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. For this contest we call on MPs to nominate to give all parts of the party a choice. We believe that MPs should ensure that all six declared candidates receive sufficient nominations to be on the ballot paper. In this way MPs can be the protectors of democracy.

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.

It is signed by
Andrew Fisher – Labour Representation Committee
Neal Lawson – Compass
Peter Kenyon – Save the Labour Party
Sunder Katwala – Fabian Society (but signing in a personal capacity)
Alex Smith – LabourList blog

This follows a letter sent earlier by activist Duncan Hall which gathered nearly a hundred signatures from CLPs across the country.

Left-winger John McDonnell has also declared three names who support his nomination: Frank Field, Kate Hoey and Dai Havard.

Reader comments

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2. Nautilus in Red

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