Labour left-winger Jeremy Corbyn has until midday today to get on the leadership contest ballot paper
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Version 0 of 1. Labour left-winger Jeremy Corbyn has until midday today to secure enough nominations to stay in the race to be his party’s next leader. As of 8am on Monday morning 22 Labour MPs had declared their support for the socialist campaigner, 13 short of the required 35 to appear on the ballot paper. Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall, and Yvette Cooper have already passed the post to compete, with 66, 40, and 56 nominations respectively. Mary Creagh, who was previously a candidate, withdrew from the competition last week after it became apparent that she would not secure enough support. The difficulty for Mr Corbyn finding support in Labour’s parliamentary party comes despite a grassroots straw poll last week by the LabourList website giving him a huge lead amongst ordinary members. He polled 47 per cent to Andy Burnham's 13 per cent, with other candidates trailing them both. If Mr Corbyn does not get 35 nominations, Labour members will be banned from voting for him, however. The left-winger is standing on an anti-austerity platform and says he wants to broaden the terms of debate about why Labour did not win last month’s election. The high parliamentary threshold of support was introduced by Ed Miliband at the same time as he brought in the one-member, one-vote system for electing leaders. After nominations close there will be a campaign period, followed by an election of all Labour members, opt-in affiliated trade unionists, and registered supporters outside the party. The election will be conducted using the ‘alternative vote’ system in which voters rank candidates in order of preference. Yvette Cooper will today launch her ambition to end child poverty within a generation, a promise she is excepted to make the centrepiece of her campaign. In a speech she will say Labour would compel the Office for Budget Responsibility to assess the impact of all policies of child poverty, putting it at the heart of all spending decisions. Bookies William Hill have Andy Burnham at 5/6, Liz Kendall at 5/2, Yvette Cooper at 3/1, and Jeremy Corbyn at 50/1 to be next leader. |