by 1) The context of this critical election is the capitalist class staging a savage attack on the working class in order to impose the costs of the COVID19 crisis on workers. The process of sacking millions of workers and driving down wages and conditions is already being rolled out and will gather pace as government support is withdrawn over the next few months. At the same time there is resistance both nationally and internationally and – we stand absolutely in support of the BLM movement and the wave of strike actions across the world against workers being forced into unsafe, disease ridden, workplaces. In this acute crisis we think it is of paramount importance that the politics of candidates and their willingness to fight against both the material attack of the capitalists, the political attack of the witch hunt and the right of political expression via open selection is brought to the foreground. Our priority is to support those who are socialists, who oppose the witch hunt and who stand for democracy and accountability in the LP and the wider Labour movement.
2) This is a long campaign: Standing for nominations is not the same as standing in the election! The elections start on October 19 (end November 12) and any NEC candidate only needs to receive five CLP nominations to be featured on the ballot paper, and the first nominations are unlikely to happen for a few weeks at least. You cannot split a vote before voting starts, but you can use the time now to build a campaign and see who is best placed to stand when nominations close, incurring not a single split vote, but potentially give a reason for thousands to stay or join Labour to vote in the contest.
