Last push for Labour Party leadership hopefuls in the UK
Around three million cast their vote
Supporters of each of the five candidates for the Labour leadership were yesterday making a last-ditch effort to secure votes before polling closes.
MPs, MEPs and party members had until 5 p.m. to cast their ballots, and votes were cast electronically via the Labour website right up until the last minute. Voting for members of trade unions and affiliated organisations closed on Tuesday.
Polls suggest that shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband had closed the gap on brother David as the race came to the wire. But bookmakers Ladbrokes still made shadow foreign secretary David 1-2 favourite last night, ahead of his younger brother on 6-4.
Labour’s complicated electoral college system and the redistribution of votes to second-preference candidates makes accurate prediction of the result all but impossible.
Around three million people were expected to have voted by the end of yesterday, and their ballot papers will be counted by the independent Electoral Reform Society before the announcement of the successor to Gordon Brown on Saturday.
The candidates – also including Ed Balls, Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott – will be informed of the result shortly before the winner is unveiled in Manchester at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
The winner will be plunged straight into Labour’s annual conference in Manchester, using his or her first leader’s speech to try to rally the party’s troops and restore unity after a three-and-a-half month contest which has seen rows over whether to stick to the New Labour agenda.
Meanwhile, Harriet Harman will return to the post of deputy leader, after four months as acting leader.
Voting also closes today in the race for Labour’s nomination for the London mayoral elections in 2012, with former mayor Ken Livingstone and ex-MP Oona King believed to be frontrunners. The party’s choice will be announced tomorrow.
The announcement of the new leader will trigger a ballot for the shadow Cabinet, with around 50 MPs expected to put themselves forward when nominations open on Sunday.
The chief whip will be voted in separately, while the leader, deputy leader, Lords chief whip, leader in the Lords and chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party will have places in the shadow Cabinet by right.
Would-be shadow Cabinet members have until September 29 to throw their hats into the ring, and MPs will vote for up to 19 candidates – including at least six women – the following week.
The results, expected late on October 7, could cause a headache for whoever is elected leader this weekend, as the shadow Cabinet is almost certain to include members with whom he or she does not see eye-to-eye politically.
Ms Abbott, who is well to the left of her leadership rivals, is thought almost certain to secure a slot in the shadow Cabinet thanks to her well-received campaign for the top job. Labour does not hold elections for the Cabinet while in power, giving the leader free rein to exclude political opponents and place allies in key posts. When shadow Cabinet elections were last held in 1996, Tony Blair was forced to give jobs to left-wingers like Michael Meacher, Gavin Strang and David Clark.
However, the leader does have the power to shape the political complexion of the party’s top team with the distribution of jobs to shadow Cabinet members. He or she is not required to assign a policy portfolio to all 19 of those elected, and may choose to allocate a portfolio to non-members who will be allowed to attend shadow cabinet without joining it.