Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Labour Deputy Leadership Latest

Rumours abound that two of the declared runners and riders in the Labour Deputy leadership contest are having difficulty getting the requisite 44 nominations. Lest we forget, these are the contestants

Hazel Blears
Peter Hain
Jon Cruddas
Alan Johnson
Hilary Benn
Harriet Harman

On Monday we should get a good idea of the numbers game. Each campaign must lodge its nominees with the Labour Whips Office. I'm told that they will publish the lists every day up to the deadline. Even if they aren't actually published, they will inevitably leak. I suspect this means that pressure will be put upon non-declared MPs to sign up to a campaign which is struggling to get the 44 nominations. Word on the street is that Harriet Harman and Alan Johnson are already over the threshold. Labour insiders reckon that Johnson already has 80 backers, and Harman around 45. I can understand the former, but Harriet Harman? What has she got that my little chipmunk hasn't?

UPDATE: Apologies. I thought Jack Straw was running as well. Apparently not.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

I once met Harriet Dromey and she was quite cute. Mind you, that was 15 years ago...

Anonymous said...

Around 45 nominations?

Maltheus said...

I want John Cruddas to become deputy PM, a decent guy and the only one to criticise Blair when he was a MP before Blair announced his departure. After that they all started to slightly criticise him when they realised he was vulnerable. Would be a good eputy PM for the Labour Party at least

Bob said...

Thats alot of back scratching that Harman is doing.

Is she calling in markers?

Anonymous said...

Jack Straw is not a candidate for Deputy Leader.

Anonymous said...

neither is the second Hilary Benn

Anonymous said...

Hazel Blears is a loyal Blairite, so I'm afraid that makes her yesterday's news. What has Harriet Harman got - nothing. No skeletons, no sleaze, no history, no dodgy tabloid tales.

No achievements either - but that is scarcely important these days.

Anonymous said...

How are we supposed to take you seriously when you say Jack Straw is a candidate.

Unknown said...

All a bit of an anticlimax after Prescott, not much fun from this lot, mind you Hain might be a good sideshow?

Colin D said...

I cant wait for the Golden Boyo to win. A nice smug prat to replace a less than smug prat.

Unknown said...

Isn't this contest a bit of a non-event?

Does anyone imagine for 1 minute that Gordon will recognise the winner as his deputy?

Exactly.

This is a Grace & Favour title, you get to fuck the Admin staff.

(Ain't that the Truth?)

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure Jack Straw is a candidate Iain, although you are much more informed about such matters than me.

From a non-partisan perspective, I'd like to see either Hilary Benn or Alan Johnson get the job (or even Jack Straw, if you are correct in naming him as a contender...).

From a Conservative perspective, I'd love it, absolutely love it, if Hazel Blears got the gig.

Anonymous said...

but Harriet Harman? What has she got that my little chipmunk hasn't (Iain)


Corpses, Iain, lots of them.

Harman, the grave robbing Ghoul, is so money and power crazed that she's digging up England's grannies and granddads, compacting their remains and selling their sacred graves.

I bet she does it personally.

As UK's Body Snatcher In Chief, grasping Harman has entered so enthusiastically into this disgusting grave robbery - the true spirit of Broon's money grabbing approach - that I wish to nominate her, she would make a perfect dpm.

Auntie Flo'

Anonymous said...

"Harriet Harman? What has she got that my little chipmunk hasn't?"

You need to understand leftoid-think.

Harman is leader of the professional 'i'm female so give me everything I want 'cos life's so unfair to wimmin' and consequently has a right to win. Blears is just female.

But they're both thick so it doesn't really matter.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone imagine for 1 minute that Gordon will recognise the winner as his deputy?

McBroon will regard everyone as deputies except whoever actually gets to be Deputy. Alistair Darling will be merely the deputy Chancellor, Jack Straw the deputy Home Secretary, and so on. None will be allowed to make any independent decisions. They will be given the day's instructions and expected to carry them out, on the double.

Meanwhile if Mrs Droney or the Android Chipmunk get to become "Deputy", McBroon will regard them as blow-up sex dolls, to be punctured and deflated regularly, in public.

Sir Dando Tweakshafte said...

"What has she got that my little chipmunk hasn't?"

Height

janestheone said...

some of the dimmer MPs are likely to nominate more than one - some might even do it on purpose

Unsworth said...

"What has she got that my little chipmunk hasn't?"

STDs? A wealthy husband? Tattoos of a 'personal' nature?

Anonymous said...

Benn is struggling to make it

Anonymous said...

Jon Cruddas would not be Deputy PM - just deputy leader with a party role and, possibly, Minister without Portfolio so he sits in the Cabinet.

Indeed there is no constitutional or, in fact in these days of modern communication, practical need for a Deputy PM. Of the candidates only Johnson and Benn are remotely fit to be one. Jack Straw would be very workmanlike answering PMQ when Brown is away.

Harman has presumably got early nominations from all those discerning lady MPs who would never discriminate on grounds of gender...

Roger Thornhill said...

Harperson opposite Hague standing in for the regular absenteeism by Broon (who I suspect will try and cancel or tinker with PMQs) will be positively delicious. Don't you just delight at the prospect? Mad Blears also. What a hoot that would be.


teesbridge: "What has she got that my little chipmunk hasn't?"

Height


Well, they clearly do stack it that high.

Anonymous said...

To remove all this Outrageous & Discriminatory Specie-ism, we demand an all=Chipmunk shortlist of candidates for Deputy Leader

Nich Starling said...

Apparently John Reid is supporting Blears.