The Labour leadership election begins in earnest. But what will the candidates stand for?

With the nominations counted and the candidates confirmed, the 2015 Labour leadership election campaign has begun in earnest. The day was marked with the first televised debate last night in Nuneaton, which had been a prime Labour election target seat where the party had failed spectacularly (BBC, 2015).

For the position of party leader the candidates are Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Corbyn and Liz Kendall (BBC, 2015{2}). At the same time, there will also be an election for the deputy leadership. Standing for the position of deputy leader are Ben Bradshaw, Stella Creasy, Angela Eagle, Caroline Flint and Tom Watson (New Statesman, 2015).

The most pressing issues for the leadership candidates will be to address what they believe went wrong in 2015 (Wintour, 2015), and to find answer to those beginning to ask what the point is of the Labour Party (Jones, 2015; Todd, 2015).

Amongst the prospective leaders, Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper most represent continuity with the New Labour project, having both been deeply involved with Blair and Brown governments and regular frontbenchers over the last Eighteen years. Both Burnham and Cooper announced their candidacy with an appeal to the party not to move Left or Right, but to make a broad appeal with an emotional connection to everyday lives (Wintour, 2015{2}; Gayle, 2015).

Liz Kendall was the first, and is both the youngest and most right-wing, candidate on the list, having made it clear that she believes the Labour Party did not 'do enough to appeal to Conservative supporters' (Chakelian, 2015).

The final candidate, who just scraped onto the list, is Jeremy Corbyn, representing the old Socialist Left-wing of the party. His candidature has been commended for opening up the leadership contest, turning it into an open, public debate between the Left and Right on the future of the Labour Party (Kelner, 2015). Corbyn declared his candidacy by mocking the other candidates' obsession with 'aspiration', by declaring his aspiration the close the inequality gap (Corbyn, 2015).

At last night's debate in Nuneaton, all four had their first chance to connect with an audience (Wintour, Watt & Mason, 2015; Watt, 2015). What was most starkly remarkable about three of the four candidates was how very little seems to have changed from the 2015 general election campaign message. The leaders in waiting are still talking about immigration, work as a responsibility to work, of leaving Labour's past behind and embracing business.

There is a growing consensus that Labour is going to need something more from its next leader if it is going to get into government after the next election. A big idea (Robinson, 2015). Conviction (Behr, 2015). The Green Party MP Caroline Lucas even offered her thoughts, proposing that Labour finally embrace multi-party politics (Lucas, 2015). All of these things will factor as decision time approaches for Labour. It awaits to be seen whether the party will the party stay in the Centre-Right, hoping to beat the Tories at their own game, or if they will try to come up with a real, progressive, alternative message?

References

'Labour leadership hopefuls in live TV clash'; on the BBC; 17 June 2015.

'Labour leadership: Jeremy Corbyn makes it on to ballot'; on the BBC; 15 June 2015{2}.

'Who nominated who in the 2015 Labour deputy leadership election?'; in the New Statesman; 17 June 2015.

Patrick Wintour's 'The undoing of Ed Miliband – and how Labour lost the election'; in The Guardian; 3 June 2015.

Selina Todd's 'Has the Labour party outlived its usefulness?'; in The Guardian; 24 May 2015.

Owen Jones's 'What's the point in the Labour party now?'; from YouTube.com; 1 June 2015.

Patrick Wintour's 'Andy Burnham looks back to 1997 as he launches bid to be next Labour leader'; in The Guardian; 13 May 2015{2}.

Damien Gayle's 'Yvette Cooper warns against Labour lurch to the left or right'; in The Guardian; 23 May 2015.

Anoosh Chakelian's 'Liz Kendall MP confirms she will be running for the Labour leadership'; in the New Statesman; 10 May 2015.

Simon Kelner's 'You may disagree with him, but Jeremy Corbyn has a key role in Labour's leadership race'; in The Independent; 17 June 2015.

Owen Jones' 'Jeremy Corbyn is in the Labour leadership race. The real debate starts here'; in The Guardian; 4 June 2015.

Jeremy Corbyn's 'Labour should be more aspirational – about closing the huge inequality gap'; in The Guardian; 8 June 2015.

Patrick Wintour, Nicholas Watt & Rowena Mason's 'Labour leadership hopefuls clash but no clear winner in first televised debate'; in The Guardian; 17 June 2015.

Nicholas Watt's 'Labour leadership debate: the candidates' best and worst moments'; in The Guardian; 17 June 2015.

Caroline Lucas' 'My challenge to Labour: embrace a progressive, multiparty politics'; in The Guardian; 17 June 2015.

Rafael Behr's 'Whatever Labour's new leader does, it will have to be done with conviction'; in The Guardian; 17 June 2015.

Nick Robinson's 'Labour leadership: Missing - a big idea'; on the BBC; 18 June 2015.