With only seven nominations, Dianne Abbott is trailing in last place among those who are seeking to get past the 33 MPs mark before nominations close on Wednesday (the day of the NS‘s evening debate between the candidates who make it into the contest).
Most write her off. Yet it is worth noting — as Adam Boulton of Sky has done today — that there are still 100 MPs yet to nominate. (And as well as today’s hustings at the GMB, there is also one before MPs this evening.) It is also important to remember that when the contest itself is decided, a number of MPs will be voting for different candidates from the ones they nominated.
There are signs that there may yet be a surge in favour of Abbott once MPs have absorbed the social, ethnic and gender similarities behind the leading candidates.
Adam Boulton explains:
Currently David Miliband is on the grid with 62 backers, brother Ed has 49 and Ed Balls is on 33.
So far Burnham has just 21 nominations, McDonnell ten and Abbott seven.
Give a gift subscription to the New Statesman this Christmas from just £49But there over 100 unsecured Labour MPs out there who could ensure that all six candidates are runners.
Burnham told me on Sunday Live that he’s confident of making it (David Miliband has hinted his surplus supporters could help out).
There is also an uneasy awareness in Labour ranks that the three nominated candidates so far are all white, middle-class, Oxbridge-educated, fortysomething men.
That could lead to a sudden surge of nominations for Abbott, especially since some on the centre and right of the party want a left-wing candidate so that he or she (McDonnell or Abbott) can be seen to be defeated.
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