It was looking very much like an all-white, all-male line up for the Labour leadership contest until left-wing candidate John Mc Donnell stepped downed and nominated Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington.
Disgruntled left-wingers in the Party complained that there was no left-wing representation among the candidates who had reached the 33 vote threshold to go through to the next stage of the leadership contest.
David Milliband, Ed Milliband and Ed Balls are all Oxbridge-educated and hardly seem representative of a Labour Party that should represent the social and cultural diversity that exists in Britain.
But it seems that gender and not race, is the primary motivation for Mc Donnell stepping down.
This morning, during an interview with the BBC, Mc Donnell said: “I feel if I don’t pull out…we won’t have a woman candidate.”
He complained that the 33-vote threshold was too high and should be lowered to 13, representing 5 per cent of Labour MPs to allow for a broader range of candidates.
Mc Donnell also wrote a letter to acting Party leader Harriett Harman complaining about the leadership process. Referring to his working class roots, he said that rank and file supporters of the Labour Party would be disappointed at the narrow range of candidates and that there should be greater democracy.
Ironically, Abbott is Oxbridge-educated herself, but she is the first black, female candidate for the Labour leadership – and was the first black female to be elected as an MP.
