NOVANEWS
Bookmakers placed the former health secretary ahead of Yvette Cooper, Chuka Umunna and others to take over from Miliband. According to one bookmaker,David Miliband was also in the running. But others agreed that Dan Jarvis and Tristram Hunt had a better chance.
The contenders
Andy Burnham
Reasons for: Burnham didn’t get much support the last time he stood for the leadership, when he made it to the second of four rounds of voting without ever really challenging. That he is the only one of the five candidates from that election seriously in the running this time, however, says a great deal about his performance ever since.
Perhaps predictably, he claimed to have no interest in the job as the exit polls were released on Thursday evening. “The only job I want tomorrow is to be health secretary in Ed Miliband’s government,” he said.
Reasons against: It would have been difficult for such a high-ranking member of the shadow cabinet to do anything else, but Burnham was a key member of the phalanx of senior Labour members who rallied around Ed Miliband when the party’s electoral prospects looked their most dire.
As a result, he may seem too close to a tarnished regime for some to believe he could make the Labour party electable again.
Yvette Cooper
Reasons for: “Whoever wins Labour’s leadership election, I’ll still be there… campaigning for progressive help for women. And as for future leadership contests, who knows …” Those were the words of Yvette Cooper on why she was not going to run for the Labour leadership. But that was in 2010.
Cooper made it clear when she laid out her reasons for not running then that she placed better representation of women at or near the top of her list of motivations for one day seeking to become prime minister. But to suggest that she could simply be the candidate to capitalise on David Cameron’s “women problem” would be to do her record a disservice.
Like Burnham, she has held high office in the past and has campaigned robustly – and successfully – on issues ranging from domestic violence to accepting moreSyrian refugees.
Reasons against: She shares experience with Burnham, she also shares the risks that come with her close association with tarnished regimes. In many people’s minds, Cooper represents the surviving New Labour influence on today’s party. She is, according to this newspaper’s Rachel Cooke – who interviewed Cooper last year, robotic. There are concerns that Cooper’s effectiveness as a politician will not transfer to voters.
Chuka Umunna
Reasons for: Despite being one of the most regular public faces of Ed Miliband’s Labour party, Umunna is still seen by some as the young, fresh candidate who can get his message across. He is an able and effective politician, who has been widely tipped as being a future leader of the party.
Reasons against: A future leader, perhaps. But not necessarily the next leader. He is 36 years old; by the next election, he will be 41; significantly younger than any of the main players this time round. Yvette Cooper said the last leadership contest did not come at a good time for her. And Umunna may decide this one comes to early for him.
Don’t discount
The odds are also relatively short on Dan Jarvis, Tristram Hunt and even David Miliband, while Rachel Reeves could be a dark horse.
