Emily Thornberry knocked out of Labour leadership race

14 February 2020, 22:38

Emily Thornberry fell short of the 33 nominations required to be on the ballot
Emily Thornberry fell short of the 33 nominations required to be on the ballot. Picture: PA

By Megan White

Emily Thornberry has failed to make it on to the final Labour leadership ballot after falling short of the number of required nominations.

The shadow foreign secretary required 33 constituency Labour parties’ nominations, but achieved just 31, with no more thought to be left to declare before the midnight deadline.

It means that Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy will be the three candidates on the membership ballot.

More than half a million party members have until April 2 to vote for their preferred replacement for Jeremy Corbyn.

Sir Keir is the frontrunner in the competition, having secured 374 of the 641 nominations.

Ms Long-Bailey came second, on 164, with Lisa Nandy on 72.

In the previous round of the competition, leadership hopefuls had to secure 22 signatures from fellow MPs in a race also won by Sir Keir.

In the deputy leadership race, Angela Rayner won 365 nominations, with Dawn Butler in second with 82.

Richard Burgon won 77 nominations, while Ian Murray had 60 and Rosena Allin-Khan had 52.