Following a surprisingly crushing defeat in the 2015 general elections, Ed Miliband stepped down from his seat of power at the head of the Labour Party, paving the way for the upcoming 2015 Labour leadership contest. The party has been left out to dry following the elections, forcing it to regroup, lick its wounds and head back to the Acme drawing board to decide what new new new Labour will look like in the run up to the 2020 election.
Jeremy Corby went on to win the Labour leadership contest in 2015 before naming his new shadow ministers, sweeping out the old order to some extent. However, below is a rundown of the key dates and main contenders that preceded his victory.
2015 Labour leadership contest dates:
14th August – Ballot papers send out
17th August – Leadership contest debate on Channel 4 News at 7pm
25th August – Leadership contest debate on BBC Radio 5 Live at 8.30am
3rd September – Leadership contest debate on Sky News at 7pm
10th September 2015 – Last day to return vote slips
12th September 2015 – Winner announced
Who can vote?
All members, registered supporters and affiliated supporters can vote, which includes anyone joining through their Union. If you want to vote, but you’re not currently a member, you’ve got until 12pm on the 12th August 2015 to join.
What’s the voting process?
Voting is by post or online. The process follows the Alternative Vote system so it’s a case of listing out the candidates by order of preference as part of the Alternative Vote system.
Second preference votes will count only if no candidate gets 50% of the votes. If this happens then the last place candidate will be eliminated and their second preference votes will be added to the votes of the final three, but again 50% is needed for a winner to be announced at this stage. If none of the remaining three candidates achieve this, the third place candidate is knocked out and their second preference votes are added to the remaining two candidates. Whoever of the two has the most votes is confirmed as the winner of the Labour Party leadership contest.
Who are the candidates?
The four candidates running in the 2015 Labour Party leadership contest are Jeremy Corbyn, Yvette Cooper, Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall and one of them will be the head of the opposition over the next four years. You can read a summary of each below:
Jeremy Corbyn:
(Image above, third from the left) The rank outsider had been gaining ground on his competitors in the weeks building up to the Labour leadership election with the press and Party getting into the swing of what is starting to be known as Corbynomics. However, you can probably reshape that term in your head quite easily when you take into account the fact that the left-wing MP for Islington North is also affiliated with the Socialist Educational Association and the Socialist Health Association. Suddenly Corbynomics becomes socialist economics and in all fairness to him it had a bit of a buzz to it.
In his profile on the Labour Party website he talks about ironing out the “inequalities in society”, but the reality is that he goes much further than that, championing socialist ideals like free education, public ownership of banks, transport – railways included – energy and infrastructure and his staunch anti-austerity approach to economics. Add to that his calls to end the UK’s nuclear arms investment and belief in protecting the environment, diversity, peace and human rights and you’ve got the most left-wing of the three candidates.
As a former trade union official he was well versed in the importance of their impact on the leadership race, and it went on to be a factor that worked in his favour, as it had been for Ed Miliband in the last Party election to beat his brother David. However, the big difference is that the 2015 votes were much more resounding in favour of Corbyn.
Yvette Cooper:
(Image above, second from the left) The Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford MP has had a raft of top level jobs both in government and opposition, including public health minister, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Work and Pensions Secretary and more recently as the Shadow Home Secretary. She talked less about massive, wholesale change, and more about her intention to take the fight to the Conservative Party in the run up to the 2020 general election, stating that, “ultimately it is a choice about who will be the best Labour Prime Minister”.
She had a strong promise of hope is her big statement for the Party, looking back on the recent defeat in the 2015 general election. Child care is a big policy topic for the mother of three and she also recently called for the minimum wages of care workers to be increased and a freeze on the appointment of new peers until the House of Lords has been reformed.
Andy Burnham:
(Image above, far left) MP for Leigh since 2001, Andy Burnham was also a prominent member of both Labour Government and opposition as the Secretary of State for Health, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Chief Secretary to the Treasury and current Shadow Health Secretary. His profile note on the Labour website talks about helping everyone get on in life, finding a secure job, a decent home, good standard of living, prospects for kids and care for the elderly and retired. He’s also keen to talk about getting away from the Westminster bubble and reconnecting with the Party’s strongholds in England, Wales and Scotland, but with the strength of the SNP, it’s not going to be an easy task for the latter for Labour going forward.
Like Jeremy Corbyn, he’s opposed to the government’s focus on austerity and also had an eye on elements of nationalisation for rail services. He’s against the Welfare Bill, has proposed a graduate tax to replace university tuition fees and he want to lower the voting age to 16.
Liz Kendall:
(Image above, a little on the right) Leicester West MP and Shadow Minister for Care & Older People, building on her affiliation with medical care. She’s probably the closest of the three candidates to the middle ground, calling for the party to be more about helping people get on than promoting policies on welfare. She pitched herself as a bridge to the middle England, middle ground that Labour struggle to attract, despite her belief that their values are also the same values that she is convinced run through the Labour Party; work hard, take responsibility, try your best and help those around you.
She wants Labour to build back the trust of British voters that they can be responsible with public finances, which implies that she’s less severe in her criticism of austerity measures.
