2015 Labour Party deputy leadership election

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2015 Labour Party deputy leadership election
←  2007 14 August – 12 September 2015 (2015-08-14 – 2015-09-12) 2020  →
  Official portrait of Tom Watson crop 2.jpg Stella Creasy - MP - 2017.jpg Official portrait of Caroline Flint crop 2.jpg
Candidate Tom Watson Stella Creasy Caroline Flint
First pref.160,852 (39.4%)78,100 (19.1%)64,425 (15.8%)
Final round198,962 (50.7%)103,746 (26.4%)89,538 (22.8%)
  Official portrait of Ms Angela Eagle.jpg Official portrait of Mr Ben Bradshaw crop 2.jpg
Candidate Angela Eagle Ben Bradshaw
First pref.66,013 (16.2%)39,080 (9.6%)
Final round——
Deputy Leader before election

Harriet Harman

Elected Deputy Leader

Tom Watson

The 2015 Labour Party deputy leadership election was triggered on 8 May 2015 by the resignation of Harriet Harman as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party of the United Kingdom following the party's defeat at the 2015 General Election. Harman, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, became Acting Leader following Leader Ed Miliband's resignation. Harman announced on the same day that she would step down as Deputy Leader, with her resignation taking effect when the new Leader and Deputy Leader are elected. [1]

Contents

Five candidates were successfully nominated to stand in the deputy leadership election: Ben Bradshaw, Stella Creasy, Angela Eagle, Caroline Flint, and Tom Watson. The voting process began on Friday 14 August 2015 and closed on Thursday 10 September 2015, with the results being announced on Saturday 12 September 2015. Voting was by Labour Party members and registered and affiliated supporters, using the alternative vote system.

Tom Watson was elected deputy leader with 50.7% of the vote on the third ballot. [2] [3] Coterminous with the deputy leadership election, in the 2015 Labour Party leadership election, Jeremy Corbyn was elected as leader.

Procedure

The leadership election, triggered by Harman's resignation, took place under the reformed rules adopted from the proposals of the February 2014 Collins Report, which was led by Ray Collins. [4] The plan entailed a shorter election than the one that took place in 2010, with a new deputy leader in place before Labour's party conference in September 2015. [5]

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 (i.e. Labour members of the House of Commons) and Labour members of the European Parliament; one-third to individual Labour Party members, and one third to the trade union and affiliated societies sections. Ed Miliband famously won following a large victory in the third of these colleges.

Following the Collins review, this system was replaced by a "one member, one vote" (OMOV) system. Candidates were elected by members and registered and affiliated supporters, who all received a maximum of one vote. This meant that, for example, members of Labour-affiliated trade unions needed to register as Labour supporters in order to vote.

In order to stand, candidates needed to have been nominated by at least 15% of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) – 35 MPs. The vote, as in previous elections, was held by the alternative vote (instant-runoff) system. The leadership election was held under the same rules.

A meeting of Labour's National Executive Committee took place on 13 May 2015 to set a timetable and procedure for the two elections. [6]

Candidates for Deputy Leader

Declared

Withdrawn

Declined

Flint was viewed as a Blairite, while Watson was viewed as having close links to the trade unions. [16] One party source was anonymously quoted in the Financial Times as comparing a potential contest between Flint and Watson to the hotly contested 1981 deputy leadership election between Denis Healey and the leftist Tony Benn. [16]

MP nominations for candidates

To be placed on the ballot, candidates for deputy leader must have obtained the nominations of 35 MPs. The number of MPs next to the candidate's name includes the actual candidate too, as they can count as one of the 35 MPs needed. Members with bold numbers succeeded to get the 35 nominations needed to make the ballot. Nominations for candidates by MPs were: [15]

Before dropping out of the race on 17 June, Rushanara Ali had the following 24 nominations: Roberta Blackman-Woods, Paul Blomfield, Lyn Brown, Dawn Butler, Julie Cooper, Jeremy Corbyn, Clive Efford, Fabian Hamilton, Helen Hayes, Tristram Hunt, Rupa Huq, Sadiq Khan, Seema Malhotra, John Mann, John McDonnell, Chi Onwurah, Teresa Pearce, Matthew Pennycook, Yasmin Qureshi, Dennis Skinner, Andy Slaughter, Keir Starmer, Chuka Umunna [15]

Before dropping out of the race on 11 June, John Healey had the following 20 nominations: Sarah Champion, Clive Efford, Holly Lynch, Kevin Barron, Andy Slaughter, Clive Betts, Ruth Cadbury, Simon Danczuk, Louise Ellman, Fabian Hamilton, Harry Harpham, Madeleine Moon, Paula Sherriff, Derek Twigg, Paul Blomfield, Ivan Lewis, Gordon Marsden, Chris Leslie, Teresa Pearce [17]

Opinion polling

YouGov/ The Times , [18] 17–21 July 2015,
1,054 eligible voters [lower-alpha 1]
CandidateFirst
Round		Second RoundThird
Round
Tom Watson 41%46%50%
Stella Creasy 21%22%26%
Caroline Flint 17%19%23%
Ben Bradshaw 11%13%—
Angela Eagle 10%——
  1. ↑ Labour Party members, registered supporters and signed up trade unionists who are eligible to vote in the leadership election

Result

First round
CandidateParty membersRegistered supportersAffiliated supportersTotal
Votes %Votes %Votes %Votes %
Tom Watson 90,01837.543,72943.727,10539.6160,852
39.4
Stella Creasy 47,37219.722,46522.58,26312.178,100
19.1
Angela Eagle 36,32115.115,67615.714,01620.566,013
16.2
Caroline Flint 41,50417.311,28211.311,63917.064,425
15.8
Ben Bradshaw 24,73810.36,8396.87,50310.939,080
9.6
Second round
CandidateParty membersRegistered supportersAffiliated supportersTotal
Votes %Votes %Votes %Votes %
Tom Watson 96,00840.445,32945.929,25243.2170,589
42.2
Stella Creasy 52,86622.223,95924.29,73014.486,555
21.4
Caroline Flint 48,20820.312,94813.113,42519.874,581
18.4
Angela Eagle 40,55917.116,58316.815,37522.772,517
17.9
Third round
CandidateParty membersRegistered supportersAffiliated supportersTotal
Votes %Votes %Votes %Votes %
Tom Watson Green check.svg111,46548.151,81554.535,68254.5198,962
50.7
Stella Creasy 62,87527.127,87429.312,99719.8103,746
26.4
Caroline Flint 57,30524.715,43416.216,79925.789,538
22.8

Source: [2]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Cathy Owen (8 May 2015). "General Election 2015: Harriet Harman announces that she will be standing down as deputy leader of the Labour Party". Wales Online. Media Wales.
  2. 1 2 "Results of the Labour Leadership elections". 12 September 2015. Archived from the original on 21 July 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
  3. ↑ Wilkinson, Michael (12 September 2015). "Jeremy Corbyn set to win Labour leadership election – live results coverage". The Telegraph. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  4. ↑ Ray Collins, Building a One Nation Labour Party: The Collins Review into Labour Party Reform Archived 18 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine Labour Party, February 2014
  5. ↑ Pope, Conor (8 May 2015). "How will the leadership election work?". LabourList. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  6. ↑ "Labour leadership: Cooper and Burnham bids ahead of September election". BBC News. 13 May 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  7. ↑ "Ben Bradshaw announces Labour party deputy leadership bid". The Guardian. Press Association. 15 May 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  8. ↑ Hayward, Stephen (16 May 2015). "Stella Creasy confirms she's running for Labour deputy leader: 'Party must return to fighting poverty, inequality and injustice'". Mirror Online. MGN. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
  9. ↑ Liam Murphy (18 May 2015). "Wallasey MP Angela Eagle joins race to be Labour's deputy leader". Liverpool Echo. Reach.
  10. ↑ "Bradshaw and Flint both announce deputy leadership campaigns". LabourList. 16 May 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
  11. ↑ Anoosh Cakelian (10 May 2015). "Tom Watson MP sets up crowdfunding site for his deputy Labour leadership bid". New Statesman. NS Media Group.
  12. ↑ "John Healey withdraws from deputy leadership race". LabourList. 11 June 2015.
  13. ↑ Frances Perraudin (17 June 2015). "Rushanara Ali pulls out of Labour deputy leadership contest". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  14. ↑ Todd Fitzgerald (20 May 2015). "Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk rules out standing for Labour Party deputy leader". Manchester Evening News. MEN Media.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Labour’s leadership contest Archived 3 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine , Labour Party, 9 June 2015
  16. 1 2 Pickard, Jim (8 May 2015). "General election: Battle for Labour's soul" . Retrieved 8 May 2015.(subscription required)
  17. ↑ New Statesman Archived 12 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine 9 June 2015
  18. ↑ Peter Kellner (22 July 2015). "Comment: Corbyn takes early lead in Labour leadership race". YouGov. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
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