Labour NEC Elections - state of the race

According to the CLP nominations so far, I'm currently 10th in the race for the 9 CLP reps on the NEC, which is an exciting place to be!

The deadline for CLPs to nominate NEC candidates is fast approaching on the 27th September.

There are over 200 CLPs with nomination meetings scheduled in the next two weeks.

How is the battle for nominations going so far?

The headline figures are that Momentum are ahead, but not by an insurmountable margin given there are hundreds of CLPs still to nominate. Labour to Win candidates already have more nominations than in 2018, with two weeks to go, and Momentum have lost many of the CLPs they won then. Here are the numbers from Friday, when 120 CLPs in total had nominated:

Laura Pidcock                      Momentum                    83 CLPs

Ann Black                            Open Labour                  81

Yasmine Dar                         Momentum                   68

Gemma Bolton                     Momentum                    67

Mish Rahman                       Momentum                     65

Johanna Baxter                  Labour to Win                     61

Nadia Jama                           Momentum                            60

Gurinder Singh Josan      Labour to Win                     59

Ann Henderson                    Momentum                            56

Luke Akehurst                    Labour to Win                     45

Theresa Griffin                    Tribune                                 38

Jermain Jackman                 Open Labour                        36

Michael Payne                    Labour to Win                     35

Terry Paul                            Labour to Win                     31

Shama Tatler                       Labour to Win                     30

Paula Sherriff                      Tribune                                 25

Crispin Flintoff                      Independent                         16

Roger Silverman                  Labour Left Alliance            14

Vince Maple                          Independent                         12

Liz McInnes                          Tribune                                  11

Cameron Mitchell                 Independent                         11

Alex Beverley                       Independent                         11

Another 12 candidates also have the required 5 nominations to get on the ballot.

Things to bear in mind:

·         The final ballot is by Single Transferable Vote so it will award seats roughly proportionately between the factions – the days of one grouping taking all nine seats are gone.

·         Any increase in our representation from the 2 of 9 seats we already hold strengthens the mainstream majority on the NEC as a whole.

·         Over 100,000 new members who joined the party to vote for Keir, Lisa or Jess didn’t get a vote in the February NEC by-elections that saw Gurinder and Johanna narrowly win. They can now vote. And the Hard Left keep complaining that many of their supporters have quit the party …

·         With every week of nominations, our position has got stronger compared to Momentum’s.

·         Over 80% of the CLPs nominating Labour to Win candidates are gains we didn't win in 2018.

·         We are doing best in CLPs with All Member Meetings where the new members can vote, and Momentum are mainly holding on where there is a delegate GC system – AGM cancellations due to the General Election and COVID mean some GC delegates were elected at the height of Corbynism in 2018.

·         We are doing best in the CLPs with the largest membership that will have the most voting members in the final ballot while many of Momentum’s nominations come from small CLPs.