2020 Labour Party leadership election (UK)

The **2020 Labour Party leadership election** was held between (21 February – 4 April 2020) to elect a leader to replace Jeremy Corbyn. On 13 December 2019, Corbyn announced that he would not lead the Labour Party into the next general election, following the party's poor performance in the December 2019 election.

It was won by Keir Starmer who received 56.2 per cent of the vote on the first round. It was held alongside the 2020 Labour Party deputy leadership election.

## Background

Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour Party leader in a 2015 leadership election and re-elected leader in 2016 after a challenge from Owen Smith. While Labour gained seats in the 2017 general election, the party lost 60 seats in the 2019 election, its worst result since the 1935 general election. Corbyn announced that he would resign after a "process of reflection".

## Timetable

The timetable for the election was set by the party's National Executive Committee on 6 January 2020.

- **7 January:** Nominations from the PLP and EPLP open
- **13 January:** Nominations from the PLP and EPLP close
- **14 January (17:00):** Registered supporter applications open
- **15 January:** Nominations from CLPs and affiliates open
- **16 January (17:00):** Registered supporter applications close
- **20 January (17:00):** Party members and affiliate members must join by this date to be eligible to vote
- **14 February:** Nominations from CLPs and affiliates close
- **21 February:** Voting starts
- **2 April (12:00):** Voting closes
- **4 April:** Result announced

### Declared

The following individuals have been nominated as official candidates by the party:

|Candidate|Born|Political office|Announced|Nominated|Campaign|Ref.|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|****|(age ) Stretford, Greater Manchester, England|**Shadow business secretary ** **MP for Salford and Eccles ** Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Shadow treasury minister|6 January 2020|29 January 2020|Campaign||
|****|(age ) Manchester, England|**MP for Wigan** Shadow energy secretary|4 January 2020|22 January 2020|Campaign||
|****|(age ) Southwark, London, England|**Shadow Brexit secretary** **MP for Holborn and St Pancras** Shadow immigration minister|4 January 2020|20 January 2020|||

### Eliminated

|Candidate|Born|Political office|Announced|Eliminated|Endorsed|Campaign|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||(age ) Guildford, Surrey|Shadow First Secretary of State Shadow foreign secretary MP for Islington South and Finsbury Shadow Brexit secretary Shadow defence secretary Shadow employment minister Shadow Attorney General|18 December 2019|14 February 2020||Campaign|

### Withdrawn

|Candidate|Born|Political office|Announced|Withdrew|Endorsed|Campaign|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|****|(age ) London, England|**Shadow treasury minister** **MP for Norwich South** Shadow business secretary Shadow defence secretary|19 December 2019|13 January 2020||Campaign|
|****|(age ) Birmingham, England|**MP for Birmingham Yardley**|3 January 2020|21 January 2020|Lisa Nandy||

### Declined

The following individuals were discussed in the media as potential leadership candidates, but chose not to stand:
- Diane Abbott, Shadow Home Secretary _(endorsed Long-Bailey)_
- Yvette Cooper, chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee since 2016 _(endorsed Starmer)_
- Barry Gardiner, shadow international trade secretary _(endorsed Long-Bailey)_
- Dan Jarvis, MP for Barnsley Central, Mayor of the Sheffield City Region _(nominated Nandy)_
- David Lammy, former universities minister _(endorsed Starmer)_
- Ian Lavery, Chair of the Labour Party _(endorsed Long-Bailey)_
- John McDonnell, shadow chancellor _(endorsed Long-Bailey)_
- Angela Rayner, shadow education secretary _(running for deputy leader, endorsed Long-Bailey)_

## PLP and EPLP Nominations

Candidates first need to be nominated by at least 10% (twenty-two) of current Labour MPs and MEPs, who make up the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) and the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP).

The candidates who have passed this threshold need nominations from at least 5% (thirty-three) CLPs, or at least three affiliates including at least two trades unions that together represent at least 5% of affiliated members.

The table below shows the current number of nominations achieved by each candidate.

|scope="col" rowspan="3"|Candidate|scope="col" colspan="3" rowspan=2|First stage Labour MPs and MEPs|scope="col" colspan="5"|Second stage|||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|style="width: 170px; text-align:left"|Keir Starmer|||||||||
|style="width: 170px; text-align:left"|Rebecca Long-Bailey|||||||||
|style="width: 170px; text-align:left"|Lisa Nandy|||||||||
|style="width: 170px; text-align:left"|Emily Thornberry|||||||||
|style="width: 170px; text-align:left"|Jess Phillips _(withdrawn)_|||||||||
|style="width: 170px; text-align:left"|Clive Lewis _(withdrawn)_||||colspan=6|||||
|style="text-align:right;"|Total nominations||colspan=2|||colspan=2||colspan=2||

## Infobox (election)

- **type**: presidential
- **ongoing**: no
- **previous election**: 2016 Labour Party leadership election (UK)
- **previous year**: 2016
- **next year**: Next
- **turnout**: 490,731 (62.58%)
- **image1**: Official portrait of Keir Starmer crop 2.jpg
- **image1 size**: 160x160px
- **candidate1**: **Keir Starmer**
- **popular vote1**: **275,780**
- **percentage1**: **56.2%**
- **image2**: Official portrait of Rebecca Long Bailey crop 2.jpg
- **image2 size**: 160x160px
- **candidate2**: Rebecca Long-Bailey
- **popular vote2**: 135,218
- **percentage2**: 27.6%
- **image3**: Official portrait of Lisa Nandy crop 2.jpg
- **image3 size**: 160x160px
- **candidate3**: Lisa Nandy
- **popular vote3**: 79,597
- **percentage3**: 16.2%
- **title**: Leader
- **before election**: Jeremy Corbyn
- **after election**: Keir Starmer


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