On Monday 22 June, Sir Keir Starmer MP (Lab, Holborn and St Pancras) announced that he intended to resign as prime minister and leader of the Labour Party and set out a timetable for his departure. This has prompted a leadership contest within the Labour Party.
This follows the recent political uncertainty that has troubled the government following a poor set of local election results, which resulted in ministers resigning from their roles and Labour MPs calling for the Prime Minister to set out a timetable to leave office.
To be clear, Sir Keir remains prime minister and will remain so until a new leader of the Labour Party, and therefore prime minister, is chosen. Emma Reynolds remains as Defra secretary.
During his speech, the Prime Minister announced the following timetable, which has now been confirmed by the Labour Party’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee, this afternoon.
Timetable
- On 9 July, nominations will open for leader of the Labour Party.
- On 16 July, nominations will close.
- If more than one MP gets the required nominations, the leadership contest will take place across Parliament’s summer recess, meaning a new leader of the Labour Party and prime minister would be appointed when MPs return to Parliament on 1 September.
- If the Labour Party unites behind one candidate, then we expect to see a leadership change soon after nominations close around 16 July.
Leadership contest rules
To be nominated as the leader of the Labour Party, a candidate must have the backing of 20% of the PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party). Currently, this would mean 81 MPs backing a candidate.
As well as this, a candidate needs the backing of 5% of the CLPs (Constituency Labour Parties) – which are found in constituencies across the country, or nominations from at least three affiliate organisations (two of which must be trade unions) that represent a minimum of 5% of the affiliated membership. Some of these affiliate organisations will ballot members whilst others will empower their executive councils to make the decision.
What is likely to happen?
After Starmer announced he would resign as prime minister and leader of the Labour Party, Andy Burnham MP (Lab, Makerfield) confirmed he would run for the Labour leadership.
His likely rival in a leadership contest, former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting MP (Lab, Ilford North), announced in a letter that he would support Burnham’s bid for the leadership.
