The Labour Party: not dead yet

Best news all day: Rushanara Ali, my excellent MP, has decided to vote for David Miliband for the leadership, although she nominated Diane Abbott and her constituency party, Bethnal Green and Bow, nominated Ed Miliband.

Ten other MPs have also said that they will be giving David M their first preference votes: David Winnick, Jim Dowd, Chris Bryant, Meg Hillier, Denis MacShane, Fiona Mactaggart, Steven Twigg, Phil Woolas, Keith Vaz and John Mann. That brings David M’s total among MPs to 92. The number of constituency parties nominating him is 165.

Mann nominated Ed M but carried out a ballot of 15,000 Labour supporters in his Bassetlaw constituency. David M won 50 per cent, Ed M 20 per cent, Ed Balls 15 per cent, Andy Burnham 8 per cent, Diane Abbott 7 per cent. David M’s campaign also says that the “indications are that David also won 55 per cent of second preferences from the bottom three candidates”, which could be significant when it comes to transfers.

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