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Labour's rules for leadership succession

Patrick Wintour

Gordon Brown is likely to be declared leader on June 25.

GORDON BROWN will not have to stand in an uncontested ballot if he is the only candidate for the party leadership, the Labour national executive committee agreed on Tuesday. Based on the procedures agreed, Mr. Brown is likely to be declared leader on June 25 and see the Queen to become the Prime Minister the following day.

A leadership contest will last a minimum of seven weeks and Mr. Brown will be asked to attend five hustings open to the media, even if he does not face a rival for the leadership.

The five events are being arranged anyway for the deputy leadership.

Number 10 has stressed that no resignation strategy has been agreed, but it is thought likely that the election will be triggered at a meeting of the national executive held within 72 hours of Mr. Blair announcing his resignation, which could come on May 5 or 6 after the local, Scottish, and Welsh elections.

The NEC also decided that would-be candidates would be given only three sitting days at Westminster to raise the necessary 45 nominations from Labour MPs required to stand.

A move to halve the number of nominations required, pushed by two left-wingers on the national executive, was overwhelmingly rejected on Tuesday.

A further three weeks will then be set aside for candidates to campaign and raise supporting nominations from unions and constituency parties. At the end of the fourth week of the contest, candidates will be free to stand down if they do not have sufficient support, and party and union membership lists will be closed. Two further weeks will be set aside for balloting and any final hustings. On the assumption Mr. Blair stands down on May 6, the result is likely to be declared on June 24 at a special weekend electoral college.

The winning candidate would then become Prime Minister around June 25. Labour officials said they expected the gross cost of the ballot to be about £500,000, but they hope to recoup some £100,000 partly by boosting the current 200,000 membership through a recruitment drive. The ballot is to be undertaken by the Leicester-based Popularis, a specialist balloting company, with the option of e-voting and telephone voting.

The winners of the leadership and deputy leadership contest will have to secure more than 50 per cent of the electoral college, which is divided three ways between 380 MPs and MEPs, just under 200,000 party members and 3.2 million trade union affiliates.

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007

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