New Labour LEADER

X post Grandad

(Slow typist alert)

Starmers job is to win an election and help the country get back onto an even keel. Only a tiny minority of people in the country belong to a union. Starmer must appeal to a far wider audience.

There is absolutely no evidence that Starmer is “heir to Blair” and being so blinkered as to consider his back ground as university educated, southern etc - well it didn’t prevent Johnson being elected did it? He couldn’t have donee it without the working class vote.

Starmer came from an entirely working class background with a disabled mother. So in my view he stands as an aspirational roll model that proves someone from the working class can make it and then use their education and position for good in the world.

I thought that the NPF made sure that direction of policy reflects the broad consensus of the whole Party?

And ultimately, the best for the whole of the country?

Callistemon, if Kier Starmer wishes to see different policies to those which are held by the core Labour movement at present brought forward, then it is for him to convince that broader Labour movement of the benefits of such change as he and his shadow cabinet view it.

That is simple democracy in action, and that's the way it should be.

Yes it looks like the balance is changing urmstongran, although it was very close.

I know trisher imagine having an educated man as leader of the party, the horror

It is absolutely brilliant news that Corbyn back candidates also lost the NEC vote, which means Starmer can really start to rebuild the party

Why does autocorrect change things, it thinks it knows best!

who have lived through it know full well

There should be a ? after my first paragraph.
It is question, not a statement.

Keir Starmer is the only sensible choice as leader of LP.
JC was IMO outdated & a scary choice to the less dedicated voter.

So a possible future PM's job is to appease the Unions and not to form policies which will be for the good of the whole country.

Of course keeping the Unions happy and onside is a good idea because they are capable of bringing misery to the majority, as those of us who have lived through it know all full.

Galaxy the will of the affiliate membership, that being those who have paid all the bills of the Parliamentary Labour Party for well over one hundred years is quite simple.

All they have requested in the last forty years would be that the anti-trade union legislation that has so damaged the conditions of so many workers over the years be abolished.

If that makes the Labour Party unelectable I believe those affiliate members think, so be it.

For that stance will not change.

Galaxy his problem will be that he will still face the very real opposition of grass roots activists who will regard him as the heir to Blair and will not want to see the party dragged down the path away from socialism once again. There is also the question of his background, university educated, southern, establishment lawyer, how is he to throw off the centrist-Westminster bubble image and appeal to the Northern seats Labour lost?

Are you saying the will of the labour party membership is not to make the party electable.

Well done to Keir and Angela - and thank all the gods it's those two who won!

So GLAD it wasn’t RLB. The Corbyn continuity candidate.

By far the best candidates for leader and deputy. I'm really looking forward to Angela adding a bit of fire to Keir's more forensic approach. Brilliant combination as Opposition.

Will keep Boris on his toes. No bad thing to be held to account and have to up your game.

Galaxy, Kier Starmer's job it to carry out the will of the Labour movement membership and most importantly at this time the will of the huge affiliate membership.

That will is laid out by the Annual Delegate Conference and then enacted by the National Executive Committee.

The above is the overall Labour Movement structure. Labour is now the only Political Party in Britain that actually sets out and creates policies at its annual conference.

And that's the way it should be.

Callaghan lost an election because of the many, many strikes.

Thatcher curbed the union power and won 3 elections,

Blair didn’t restore full union power and win 3 elections

He is youngish so could become PM depending on how he manages to keep the LP together in the next few years.

Missed of electable

He is not the heir of Tony Blair, I think the likelihood of him being PM is very low although the current crisis could change that. His job is to make the labour party .

which means that virtually half of the LP didn't want him.
No, it doesn't. There is no way you can know that. It simply means that the remaining 44% had a higher preference for one of the other two candidates.

It's interesting that, until recently, we were being bombarded with 52% being "the will of the people" while we are now told that 56% means "half of the LP didn't want him". Neither were true; they are both simply outlandish, counterfactual nonsense that take us nowhere.

Keir Starmer won with only 56% of the votes, which means that virtually half of the LP didn't want him. It won't be much use him appealing to more centrist voters if he loses the vote of the left wing of the party and the activist young. Sadly I think many will view him as the real heir of Tony Blair -lawyer turned politician- and it will take great deal of work to convince them of his sincerity.
I would have prefered to see a woman leader.

During the Blair era, the Labour Party national executive committee (NEC) was reduced to approximately twelve seats with the cooperation of the trades unions which believed that he would abolish all anti-trade union legislation.

However, that never came about and Corbyn once again enlarged the NEC to re-engage the wider movement within day to day policy activation.

That structure will not change again and should any sector try then I firmly believe that the Parliamentary Labour Party as it exists in being at present would be destroyed.

Starmer pledged to abolish anti-trade union legislation in his leadership campaign and that he will be held to account on, and in that no one should make a mistake.

Wonderful news I feel he is a safe pair of hands and I look forward to a more centrerist opposition
I can’t comment on deputy not sure I know much about her
I did like Lisa Nandy
But I m happy with this outcome

Well I think the hour is here already dont you! He'll be in at the deep end from the get go