The man sitting behind Burnham in this pic sums up LAB’s prolonged leadership election
Andy Burnham seeking to enthuse the audience, including the man behind, in the BBC2 LAB leadership debate. pic.twitter.com/jZYONir4QB
— Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) July 13, 2015
Alan Johnson says that the next LAB leader should be a woman. pic.twitter.com/7sYuXuJdz0
— Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) July 13, 2015
We’ve still got another month before the first votes are cast
If you think that the LAB leadership battle has been going on for a long time then you probably share the sentiments of the man pictured above sitting behind Burnham in Monday’s Victoria Derbyshire debate on BB2. It feels to have been running forever.
Just compare it with the LDs. Nick Clegg resigned at the same time as Ed Miliband but the party will have a replacement in the post by Thursday. With Labour voting doesn’t start till mid-August with the result coming four weeks after that.
In the meantime it is hard to see what direction Labour is going. The official deputy, elected in 2007, Harriet Harman is attracting some fire for her comments on the budget and the leadership with it being argued that she should not be making her views known.
But Labour has to say something or else it will be totally ignored.
The party, I’d argue,is still paying the price for its five-month leadership campaign after Gordon Brown resigned in May 2010. This enabled the coalition parties to set the narrative about Labour and the deficit which they’ve struggled with ever since.
The only case for doing these things at a slower pace is if the outgoing leader, as with Michael Howard in 2005, stays at the helm whilst a successor is chosen.