Though Keir Starmer has filled the vacancy left by Angela Rayner as deputy prime minister, it is up to Labour members to choose who should replace her as the party’s deputy leader. And while the race has yet to begin, it is already causing trouble for the Prime Minister.
At lunchtime today, Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) will set the terms for the deputy leadership election. But reports have already suggested that MPs will have only a few days to secure nominations; to pass the eligibility threshold, candidates must secure the nomination of 80 MPs by Thursday. Such a high bar will certainly be difficult for those on the left of the party to meet in less than four days.
This timetable has sparked deep fury on the left. Richard Burgon, the MP for Leeds East and member of the Socialist Campaign Group, is thought to be the most obvious candidate for deputy leader from Labour’s hard left. He described the proposed timetable as “the mother of all stich-ups” and added, “This outrageous timetable shows a leadership that’s unwilling to listen and to learn lessons needed if we’re to rebuild support and stop Nigel Farage.”
Burgon is not alone in his frustrations. John McDonnell, the former Labour shadow chancellor who has been without the Labour whip for more than a year, also criticised the proposed timeline. “Nominations close on Thursday. So, no time for party members to meet in constituency Labour parties to discuss who their MP should nominate. Pretty clear leadership wants to bounce their own candidate thru,” he said in a post on X.
Though these critiques have come from ‘usual suspects’, they speak to a wider sense of concern across the party that if the new deputy leader comes from the right of the party, or is a government loyalist, it will narrow the party leadership. As one Labour figure told me, “there is a real feeling in the PLP and party that the government needs ideological balance in the ministerial ranks” and this also applies to the deputy leadership.
More will become clear later today once the NEC has met and decided, but battle lines are already being drawn. If the party leadership goes ahead with the planned timetable, Starmer will likely face a mutiny within his ranks.
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