Labour says McDonnell won't make it. posted by Richard Seymour

Interestingly, "the party has revealed" that McDonnell isn't going to get the nominations to make the cut, stating that he has only 27 nominations, and is therefore well short of the 45 he needs, with 43 yet to nominate Well, I wouldn't take all this at face value, because it comes on the same day that the Evening Standard claimed that a "senior source close to Michael Meacher" said his supporters weren't backing McDonnell - a claim swiftly rubbished by the Meacher campaign. If Michael Meacher's 21 supporters did back McDonnell, he'd make the cut. Not all of those have declared yet (or so I infer), and it's not necessarily the case that they will all back McDonnell. Indeed, one has to guess that at least a good number of MPs who opposed the war on Iraq, and certainly oppose many of Brown's policies, have already nominated him (in the name of an historic fourth term, no doubt). Still, I can't help feeling that the Brownites are doing their best to ensure McDonnell is written off early.

Other news is, Cruddas has got enough nominations for the deputy leadership race, but the most nominations have gone to Harriet Harman and Alan Johnson.

Labels: elections, gordon brown, mcdonnell, meacher, new labour