Has Liz Kendall’s campaign run out of momentum?

Liz Kendall’s chances of winning the Labour leadership contest appear to be slipping away. On several measures, she has fallen into fourth place. Kendall has just 12 nominations from constituency Labour parties, compared to 58 for Yvette Cooper, 67 for Andy Burnham and 70 for Jeremy Corbyn. Leaked internal Labour party polling also put her in last place. The bookies concur: Ladbrokes currently have 10/1 odds on Kendall as the next Labour leader, compared to evens for Burnham, 9/4 for Cooper and 4/1 for Corbyn.

Part of the problem might be Kendall’s strategy of throwing bucket after bucket of cold water over the Labour party. Take her speech this morning on devolution, for example. Quoting Abraham Lincoln on the need for ‘government of the people, for the people, by the people,’ Kendall outlined her concerns about the Tories’ devolution plans and her alternative:

‘So whilst the Tories leave those are weak on their own, help those who are already strong, and hoard power with a narrow elite – Labour will put power into people’s hands so they can help themselves, and one another too.