Has anybody joined the Labour Party since 2019 Elections?

The BBC is reporting that Labour membership has risen significantly, up an average of 20% in the constituencies contacted. It seems that most of the new support is for a 'moderate' candidate. Either way, the Labour Party is gaining more funds.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51245211

The betting odds still have Starmer firm, odds-on favourite with Long-Bailey now out to 9/2 and Nandy 6/1. Thornberry is 66/1.

By the way, there is also a contest for Liberal Democrat leader. Ed Davey is odds-on favourite with Layla Moran 7/4.

I have re-joined, to vote in the Leadership and Deputy Leadership Election...

My husband has just told me he's applied to join. I was quite surprised, as I know he's a LP supporter but he never went this far before.
My membership has lapsed - I re-applied a couple of years ago and they messed up the application. I'll have to re-apply.
Poor Jeremy - he means well but isn't a leader.
The main thing is to have an effective opposition. If only.
Yes the LP is split, but so are the conservatives. They have the money.

Grandad just a lot of clutching at straws/unicorn hunting. It won’t be RLB no matter how much those who don’t want an opposition want her to win.

Who will fund this new centre-left party? It takes a very large amount of money in appropriation for a political organisation in the United Kingdom to have any chance of success in elections.

Evidence to the above can be witnessed in the Liberal Democratic Party who despite having good organisation at local level simply do not have the funding to get their message across in general elections.

We have also seen the Alliance party set up by Labour MPs who believed that a new centre-left party could be funded outside of the broader Labour movement in the country.

What happened, virtually no funding came from any person or organisation. That party has now gone in the same direction as the Dodo.

Of course, it may well be that some forum members posting in this thread in reality only wish to see right-wing parties in strong existence within Britains body politic, and in that, only the one which already exists.

That is why I want to see her as the next Labour leader, Anniebach. If she becomes leader the final split is more certain, where the others, especially Keir Starmer, might end up the leader of a party that will continue to fight like ferrets in a sack, but will stay in the sack. With LB in charge, with luck the sack will split.

What I want is a functioning opposition asap after the leadership results for everyone’s sake. A country that has a government with a large majority needs a good opposition. The hope that they LP will tear itself apart by electing RLB and a new party emerge from the ashes is imo not likely. I’m hoping KS will win and form a very balanced unity shadow cabinet. And I agree with a PP- charisma is very overrated.

MOnica Long Bailey is supported by the far left.

What Labour needs is a major split. Its two ends are too far apart to ever be able to work together. So I am cheering on Long-Bailey, in hopes of the party effectively collapsing and a electable Left-wing party arising from the ashes and an unelectable far left party can then wander off into the darkness endlessly splitting as it argues as to what the true dialectic line is.

I don’t believe RLB will win, I suspect Keir Starmer will. The poll is Labour List, heavily momentum influenced. It may not represent the membership

For what it is worth, the odds on Long-Bailey have shortened considerably in the last few days. They were 6/1 and are now just 2/1 in places behind Starmer who is still odds-on at 4/6. It looks quite uncertain to me but if Long-Bailey wins, what will it say about the Labour membership's assessment of the recent election loss? If it were to happen, could Labour avoid a major split?

It is also important as a member to attend your CLP nomination meeting to vote for the person you think should be on the list.

labour.org.uk shows the MPs who have nominated each candidate. GracesGranMK3 has put on the dates etc for eligibility to vote on page 2 of this thread - higher up than this post. I think the decision to vote in this for people whose natural political home would be Labour is a bit like the one for Brexit. No guarantee you will get the result you want but at least you made your mark in good faith for the person you thought would be best for the job.

I am tempted to rejoin, but hand on heart I am not impressed by any of the candidates so feel it would hypocritical of me to join to vote, so will sit this dance out.

KS seems to be the most credible of the runners to be Leader of the Opposition, & a vigorous parliamentary opposition to this majority Tory Government is a priority for me.

I favour Lisa Nandy as back up as she seems to be the right stuff with just a bit of time needed to develop full gravitas.

The others ? Nope, either insufficient, not credible or just no.

Thank you for this thread, Feeling I would like to join the Labour animal welfare group but can't see how.
If I join the LP now will I be in time to vote in the leadership election?
Have searched for answers to both queries but not been v successful - too close to my bedtime!
Any help much appreciated but will explore again tomorrow when a bit fresher.

I really liked Milliband. I felt he was sincere and totally honest about complex decisions. I liked the way that his answers were always qualified and explained. My husband says that is exactly why he was no use. You needed to think rather than just react. To gain power in this country you need to be certain about everything it seems.

I was never a Blair fan - he could easily have been a Tory I thought.

I did that Monica, joined the Tory party to vote against Boris, but he still got in. Joined by paying a direct debit and as soon as I had voted I cancelled it. They still keep me updated and think I am a member.
I am still a member of Labour and will probably vote for Keir, Philips or Nancy. we need to be ready for the next election when everything has gone wrong and no promises have been kept.

Hi NotSpaghetti - it's good to know I'm not alone. I'm not usually a flouncer and my commitment to voting/supporting the LP throughout my adult life hasn't wavered. I was reluctant to re-join, didn't want to be/feel like a fair weather friend. However the mess the country is in, my belief in good public services and desire to do something, rather than just grumble and criticise influenced me. I'll be attending local LP meetings again. Keir S was in Manchester this weekend. I couldn't go but friends did and reported back positively

Cunco, what you state in regards to the preference vote in your post @17:46 today is correct.

If I remember correctly from the leadership poll in both 2015 and 2016, members had to list in order of preference by number their choice for leader.

Therefore if on the first preference count no candidate secures more than fifty percent of the total vote, then those who voted for the candidate with the lowest first preference have their second, third and so on preferences distributed among the other candidates.

The above is repeated until one candidate secures more than fifty percent of the total vote.

I believe that when the above was first brought about in 2015, one member of the NEC described it as "complex simplicity". ?

Out of interest (I'm not a member) are voters allowed to just vote for one candidate, and therefore not have their (if unsuccessful) vote transferred to another candidate?

Iam64 - I did the same. Resigned over Iraq and re-joined with Miliband and then left again.
Maybe now is the time to re-join...

Grandad1943: That's interesting. So if, on the first round of voting, Kier Starmer scored 40%, Long Bailey 35% and Nandy 25%, Starmer would still not become leader unless he picked up more than 10% of second preferences when Nandy's votes were redistributed. If that's right, it is an interesting speculation as to how second preferences might be determined. If voters for Long Bailey and Nandy were to influenced by the view that the next Labour leader should be a woman, it could add another twist to the saga.

It will take a great number to join now to realistically affect the outcome of the vote. At the last Labour leadership in 2016 over half a million members and affiliate members polled in that ballot.

The ballot is also held on a "preferential vote" basis, so no member can guarantee that their first preference will not eventually be transferred to an alternative candidate.

The rules of such a ballot are, If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote on first preferences, the candidate with the lowest number of votes has their votes redistributed. This is repeated until the winner reaches the threshold.

Simple as that. ?

Just read your post Devorgilla which restores my faith a little. It's those who tried to destroy from within and subsequently left and tried to destroy it from there. Does anyone really need that angst? It's good to see someone accepting it will not always be exactly what they want.

I'm still deciding. I don't think I would join just to influence the vote. Firstly I would be asking myself what one vote can do and secondly, it seems a little cynical as in "I'll belong to this party only if it does exactly what I want all the time" I think if I felt like that the choice is - go off and start your own so it can be all about what I want or accept you will be voting for the nearest to the most important of my views. I would also be asking "How green is your Labour Party" before I did.