Labour leadership hopefuls prepare for TV clash
17 June 2015
From the section UK Politics
Which one of these candidates will succeed Ed Miliband?
The four contenders for the leadership of the Labour Party are gearing up for the first live television debate of the contest to replace Ed Miliband.
Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall and Jeremy Corbyn will go head to head in the BBC Newsnight hustings at 19:00 BST.
It will take place in Nuneaton, a marginal seat Labour failed to capture at the general election.
The new leader will be announced at a special conference on 12 September.
A series of live and televised hustings will be held over the coming weeks.
Setting out the debate plans after Labour’s general election defeat, acting leader Harriet Harman said the previous leadership contest was too much “within Labour’s comfort zone” and it was time to “let the public in”.
She said: “We have to go back and ask local people from those areas to be brutally honest about what they think of us and what they want from us.”
Left wing MP Mr Corbyn completed the line-up just before Monday’s deadline, as some colleagues lent him their support to allow him to cross the 35-MP threshold and make it onto the ballot paper.
His inclusion – which supporters say will allow a wider debate – has not been welcomed by all within the party, with Labour MP John Mann saying it demonstrated the party’s “desire never to win again”.
Mr Burnham topped the list with 68 MP nominations, followed by Ms Cooper on 59, Ms Kendall on 41 and Mr Corbyn on 36.
Ed Miliband’s eventual replacement will be decided by a vote of Labour Party representatives, members and affiliates, to be conducted on a one-member, one-vote basis.
The Newsnight …read more
Source:: BBC UK
