Leader to be announced in September

Labour’s next leader will be in post for the 2015 Trades Union Congress, with voting scheduled to begin mid-August and the announcement of the new leader to be made at a special conference on Saturday September 12.

With TUC Congress starting the following day, it seems likely that a speech to thousands of trade union members will be among the new leader’s first duties.

As Labour Research went to press Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall, Mary Creagh and Andy Burnham and had put themselves forward in the contest to become Ed Miliband’s successor. Labour-affiliated trade unions will be organising a hustings where all the candidates can make their case.

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy said he will resign this month. There had been numerous calls from MSPs and trade unions for him to step down after the disastrous general election campaign.

General union Unite has said that a new leader will allow Scottish Labour the necessary breathing space to conduct essential policy and strategic reform, and to pursue a unified agenda going forward into 2016.

The union’s Scottish secretary Pat Rafferty said that while Murphy had been at the nerve centre of Scottish politics for a generation, he was synonymous with the past and needed to go following “the general election catastrophe”.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/26/unions-decisive-role-labour-leadership-vote-despite-reform

http://labourlist.org/2015/05/how-will-the-leadership-election-work

www.theguardian.com/politics/labourleadership

www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/16/jim-murphys-resignation-throws-scottish-labour-into-turmoil