labour leadership contest
After a protracted three months, balloting for the Labour leadership is underway with the new leader being chosen from one of five possible candidates; the winner will be inaugurated at the Labour Party conference.
The media has been staging the election as a two-horse race between the Milliband brothers as ‘Blairite versus Brownite’, yet the result is far from a foregone conclusion given past leadership battles where the seeming underdog has managed to come through. The complex system of voting in which second and third-order preferences are taken into account if no one candidate manages to secure a majority makes calling the leadership an unpredictable pastime.
The outcome will be announced on Saturday 25 September, but as the votes are cast, there is no consensus about the best route back to power. No contender has managed to engage and connect with the media, the party and the electorate in the way that Tony Blair did, posing a fresh challenge for whoever wins. / Read more