The Labour leadership contest is yet to get officially underway – with an NEC meeting to be held on Monday to decide a timetable – but already several horses have entered the race. On Saturday night, Sir Keir Starmer announced his leadership bid – joining Lisa Nandy and Jess Phillips who earlier declared. Starmer is seen as a frontrunner in the contest behind Corbynite candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey. However, where Long-Bailey has had a very quiet start to her campaign (she is yet to officially declare), Starmer has been making up ground.
The shadow Brexit Secretary recently topped YouGov’s first Labour leadership poll. The survey of Labour members forecast that were a contest held now, Starmer would win comfortably – with Long-Bailey in second place:
The poll has privately been viewed as unhelpful by Starmer allies. They worry it could prompt the Labour left to either change the rules or delay the contest until they are in a stronger position to push their preferred candidate.
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