Labour Party Leadership Election 2026

Today (Thursday 25 June), Labour's ruling body, the National Executive Committee, met to agree the timetable for the forthcoming election for Leader of the Labour Party, following Prime Minister Keir Starmer announcing his intention to resign. Keir Starmer will remain Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister until the election has concluded.

The NEC agreed the following timetable for the election:

Further information:

MP nominations

• Members of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) may nominate themselves or one other Member of the PLP.
• Nominated Members who receive at least 20% (81) support of Commons Members will be declared validly nominated for the first stage of nominations, and will proceed to the second stage, if there is more than one candidate.
• All MP nominations will remain valid once submitted unless the nominated candidate withdraws or is disqualified. MPs will be entitled to submit a further nomination prior to the deadline for nominations only where the candidate they have nominated withdraws or is disqualified.
• MP nominations will be updated on a regular basis on the Labour Party website for the duration of the MP nominations period.

Affiliate nominations

• All candidates successfully reaching the PLP threshold must also receive nominations from at least 3 affiliates (at least 2 of which shall be trade union affiliates) or from 5% of CLPs.

Constituency Labour Party (CLP) nominations

• Should a candidate not reach the threshold for affiliate nominations, CLP nominations will then open and candidates must receive the support of at least 5% of CLPs to be validly nominated.
• CLP nominations will be updated on a regular basis on the Labour Party website throughout the duration of the CLP nomination period.
• Should there only be one validly nominated candidate who receives the required MP nominations and affiliate nominations, CLP nominations will not be required.

Elector eligibility

• Labour Party members with at least six months continuous membership of the Party prior to the date the timetable for the election is announced shall be eligible to vote. Members in arrears are required to bring their membership into compliance in accordance with the deadline in the timetable.
• Affiliated supporters who are not otherwise members of the Labour Party as defined above shall be eligible to vote provided that they meet the following criteria:
• • They have at least six months continuous membership of the relevant affiliated organisation;
  • Where applicable, they have opted in to the political levy of an affiliated trade union or are in good standing in any relevant subscription fees for affiliated socialist societies;
  • They are on the UK electoral register at the address provided.
  • In all other respects they meet the eligibility requirements to join the Labour Party.

Ballot

• The ballot will take place via electronic voting, with postal ballots for electors without email addresses.  
• All eligible electors will receive one vote and the result will be determined by a single round preferential voting system.
• If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in the first round, the result will be recalculated eliminating the candidate with the lowest number of votes and redistributing those votes according to expressed preferences until one candidate exceeds the 50% threshold.