Britain’s opposition Labour Party will elect a new leader after veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn said he would step down following his party’s election defeat by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives.
The Labour leadership ballot will run from Feb. 21 to April 2, with results announced on Saturday, April 4. The party will also elect a new deputy leader.
The next leader and deputy leader will be chosen by a vote of party members and other affiliated or registered supporters.
Here are the likely candidates:
KEIR STARMER
Starmer said he had spent his life fighting injustice, and was now ready to take on Johnson’s Conservatives. Seen as a party centrist, Starmer has warned against overreacting to the party’s election defeat by ditching Corbyn’s left-wing agenda entirely. He describes himself as a socialist.
Starmer is a barrister who served as a senior public prosecutor before entering parliament, and was knighted in 2014 for services to law and criminal justice.
REBECCA LONG-BAILEY
Long-Bailey, 40, is seen as a strong contender because she has strong ties with trade unions, who are hugely influential within Labour, and is close to Corbyn and his senior ally John McDonnell.
She represents the northern English constituency of Salford and Eccles and serves as Corbyn’s business spokeswoman. Her first job was working in a pawnbroker’s, and she went on to become a solicitor in the healthcare sector.
Announcing her candidacy, Long-Bailey said Labour needed a socialist leader committed to delivering the policies developed under Corbyn.
LISA NANDY
Nandy, a 40-year-old former Labour policy chief for energy and climate change, has said the party will become irrelevant unless it changes course. She is running for the leadership.
A lawmaker who has represented the northern English town of Wigan since 2010, Nandy says Labour should focus more on towns, where, she believes “there is a strong feeling … that Labour stopped listening long ago”.
She resigned her energy post in 2016, one of several so-called “shadow ministers” who quit in protest against Corbyn. “He is unable to form a broad, inclusive shadow cabinet that draws on the best of our movement’s left and right traditions,” she wrote at the time.
JESS PHILLIPS
Known for being outspoken and candid, Phillips has long been a Corbyn critic. The 38-year-old ran women’s refuges for victims of domestic abuse before becoming member of parliament for Birmingham Yardley in central England in 2015.
The youngest of four children, Phillips grew up in a Labour-supporting working class household and was given membership of the party for her 14th birthday. It was a childhood ambition to become prime minister.
Phillips said she would run for the leadership to challenge Johnson, and to rebuild trust with voters. Politics needs honest voices, she said.
EMILY THORNBERRY
Thornberry, 59, has represented the seat in north London next door to Corbyn’s since 2005 and is Labour’s foreign affairs spokeswoman. She is running for the leadership.
A strong supporter of a second Brexit referendum and of remaining in the European Union, Thornberry has said the question for the next leader should not be their position on Brexit but what their plan is for taking on Johnson.
Thornberry joined Labour when she was 17, saying she was motivated by her experience of being raised by a single mother in social housing. She went on to become a human rights barrister.
CLIVE LEWIS, a junior finance spokesman for Labour, has withdrawn from the contest after saying “it’s clear that I won’t get on the ballot”.
TIMETABLE FOR THE ELECTION
Jan. 7-13 – Nominations for candidates open from members of parliament and members of the European Parliament.
Jan. 14-16 – People can pay 25 pounds to become a registered supporter of the party to vote in the leadership election.
Jan. 20 – Freeze date after which new members and affiliated supporters will not be eligible to vote.
Jan. 15 – Second round of nominations opens, for local Labour Parties and affiliated organisations such as trade unions.
Feb. 21 – Ballot opens.
April 2 – Ballot closes.
April 4 – Special conference to announce the result.
(Reuters)
