Tuesday 23 September 2008

New Labour, New Rules?

Paul Flynn is enjoying the conference from a safe distance, eschewing the bright lights of Manchester for the comfort of his armchair.

I'm not sure if his armchair has internet access but here in Manchester Newport West CLP are behind a move to reduce the number of MPs needed to launch a leadership bid where there is a vacancy for the top job.

Newport activists want to reduce the proportion of MPs nominating a candidate from 12.5 per cent of the parliamentary party - currently 70 MPs - to 7.5 per cent, which would mean a candidate could launch a campaign with 42 nominations.

You may not be surprised to learn that the party's national executive is resisting the proposed rule change.

1 comment:

Gareth Aubrey said...

It's also worth noting that, should Labour suffer the sort of thrashing we're currently expecting, 7.5% takes the number needed to 15 or less, and how many lunatics do we think can find 15 Labour MPs to support them?

(This from the man whose party only needed 7 MPs to nominate Mark Oaten, mind you...)