The deadline for submitting nominations for the Labour leadership is likely to be extended. Well placed sources have told Labour Uncut that at its meeting tomorrow, the procedures subcommittee of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee will reconsider the decision, announced yesterday, to open nominations next Monday and close them on Thursday.
This follows anguished protest from activists and sharp criticism from senior Labour figures like Jon Cruddas. According to Left Foot Forward, Cruddas said: “I’ve just found that our National Executive Committee has agreed that it should only be nine days until we all nominate which the [leadership candidates] should be. Now I’ve known David Miliband for 20 years, I’ve known Ed Balls for 20 years but I don’t know what they stand for. And I’ve known them. If you’re a new MP who’s just walked through the gates, you should be given more time. It will disenfranchise the party. It’s not good for the MPs themselves, the candidates, because they won’t be able to fully explain where they’re coming from. So I think the NEC should reconvene and change this timetable.”
It appears that, in the form of the procedures committee meeting tomorrow, that’s exactly what is going to happen.