2015 Labour Party leadership election (UK)


The 2015 Labour Party leadership election was triggered by the resignation of Ed Miliband as Leader of the Labour Party on 8 May 2015, following the party's defeat at the 2015 general election. Harriet Harman, the Deputy Leader, became Acting Leader but announced that she would stand down following the leadership election. It was won by Jeremy Corbyn in the first round. In the 2015 Labour Party deputy leadership election, which was run simultaneously, Tom Watson was elected to succeed Harman as deputy leader.
Four candidates were successfully nominated to stand in the election: Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Corbyn, and Liz Kendall. The voting process began on Friday 14 August 2015 and closed on Thursday 10 September 2015, and the results were announced on Saturday 12 September 2015. Voting was by Labour Party members and registered and affiliated supporters, using the alternative vote system.
Support for Corbyn, who entered the race as a dark horse candidate, and the release of opinion polls which showed him leading the race, led to high-profile interventions by a number of prominent Labour figures including Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, Jack Straw, David Miliband, and Alastair Campbell, among others, many of whom argued that Corbyn's election as leader would leave the party unelectable.
Despite these interventions, Corbyn was elected in the first round receiving 59.5% of the votes, winning in all three sections of the ballot. Less than a year later, a leadership challenge saw another leadership election, where Corbyn again won, with an increased share of the vote.

Procedure

The leadership election, triggered by Ed Miliband's resignation, took place under the reformed rules adopted from the proposals of the February 2014 Collins Report, which was led by Ray Collins, and was itself partly the result of calls for inquiry and reform relating to the 2013 Falkirk Selection Scandal. The plan entailed a shorter election than the one that took place in 2010, with a new leader being in place before Labour's party conference in September 2015.
The review changed the way in which Labour elects leaders. Under the former system, a three-way electoral college chose the leader, with one-third weight given to the votes of the Parliamentary Labour Party, one-third to individual Labour Party members, and one third to the trade union and affiliated societies sections. Following the Collins review, the electoral college was replaced by a pure "one member, one vote" system. Candidates are elected by members and registered and affiliated supporters, who all receive a maximum of one vote and all votes are weighted equally. This meant that, for example, members of Labour-affiliated trade unions needed to register as Labour supporters to vote.
To stand, candidates now needed to be nominated by at least 15% of the Parliamentary Labour Party, i.e. 35 MPs, at that time. The vote, as in previous elections, was held under the alternative vote system. The deputy leadership election was held under the same rules.
The election itself was overseen by Electoral Reform Services.
In late August, the Labour Party reported that about 552,000 members and supporters were eligible to vote; about 292,000 full members, 148,000 affiliated supporters, plus 112,000 registered supporters.

Timetable

A meeting of Labour's National Executive Committee took place on 13 May 2015 to set a timetable and procedure for the two elections.
  • Tuesday 9 June 2015 – Nominations open
  • Monday 15 June 2015 – Nominations for the Leader close
  • Wednesday 17 June 2015 – Nominations for the Deputy Leader close
  • Wednesday 17 June 2015 – Hustings period opens
  • Friday 31 July 2015 – Supporting nominations close
  • Wednesday 12 August 2015 – Last date to join as member, affiliated support or registered supporter and be able to vote
  • Friday 14 August 2015 – Ballot papers are sent out
  • Thursday 10 September 2015 – Ballot closes
  • Saturday 12 September 2015 – Special Conference to announce the results
The deadline on 12 August 2015 to join as a member or supporter was extended by 3 hours due to heavy demand making the party website difficult to use.

Candidates

Nominated

To be placed on the ballot, candidates for leader had to obtain the nominations of 35 MPs. An MP who nominates a candidate does not have to subsequently support, or vote for, that candidate. Some MPs have stated that they nominated only to ensure that candidate got onto the ballot paper.
The number of MPs next to the candidate's name below includes the candidate, who can count as one of the 35 MPs needed. Public nominations for candidates by MPs were as follows:
Before dropping out of the race on 12 June, Mary Creagh had 10 nominations: Sarah Champion, Jo Cox, Neil Coyle, Thangam Debbonaire, Helen Hayes, Susan Jones, Mike Kane, Stephen Kinnock, Tulip Siddiq
A total of 26 Labour MPs did not nominate any candidate: Graham Allen, Ben Bradshaw, Alan Campbell, Rosie Cooper, Mary Creagh, Stella Creasy, John Cryer, Angela Eagle, Natascha Engel, Caroline Flint, Barry Gardiner, Roger Godsiff, Harriet Harman, Meg Hillier, Lindsay Hoyle, Alan Johnson, Gerald Kaufman, Ed Miliband, Rob Marris, Ian Murray, Graham Stringer, Mark Tami, Keith Vaz, Tom Watson, David Winnick, Rosie Winterton

Withdrew