A LAB leadership election without Starmer on the ballot would appear very odd
From our Times Labour party members poll in July. Proportion who think x would hake a good leader of the Labour party:
Keir Starmer – 68%
John McDonnell – 64%
Emily Thornberry – 59%
Angela Rayner – 41%
Tom Watson – 37% ?
RLB – 34%
Jess Phillips – 33%
Laura Pidcock – 31% ?— Chris Curtis (@chriscurtis94) December 13, 2019
The above is from the YouGov Labour members’ poll in July and shows how Starmer was regarded then by the LAB membershp. However there’s a possibility because of the party’s complex nomination requirements that the shadow BrexSec might not make it onto the ballot.
In a post here before the General Election David Herdson set out how challenging Starmer might find it getting on the ballot and suggested that PBers bet against hin.
If that happens then I’d suggest that the party would regret it. It could also devalue the external credibility of the eventual winner if she/he had not been in competition with Starmer the person YouGov found was most regarded by the membership.
We saw during Corbyn’s disastrous general election campaign how the Shadow BrexSec was not given a prominent role and barely featured. Whether he would have made a difference is hard to say but the party can hardly have placed communication skills on its list of requirements for those who did.