Sorry, Bridget - you're not going to be Labour's deputy

Keir Starmer does not want a contest for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party. He would like a supporter of his to be installed without a vote.

- By JOHN RENTOUL

Keir Starmer does not want a contest for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party. He would like a supporter of his to be installed without a vote.

Hence the short timetable. Candidates have until 5pm tomorrow to secure nominations from 80 Labour MPs – which amounts to a fifth of the Labour benches. This is harder than it looks, because we can be sure that the whips are reminding MPs that their nominations will be made public, and that anyone nominating a candidate regarded as unhelpful to the government will be overlooked for promotion.

There are probably 80 Labour MPs who are embittered, reckless or old enough to ignore the threats, but they have to be quickly organised behind a single candidate. This is why Morgan McSweeney, the prime minister's chief of staff, is reported to have hoped that ego-driven troublemakers would “flood the pitch” and make it harder to herd the cats behind a single non-government candidate.

If that was McSweeney's hope, it is already fading, as several candidates have ruled themselves out. Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary, who I thought was the early frontrunner, pulled out despite writing a sharp article for The New Statesman that railed against Rachel Reeves being in thrall to Treasury orthodoxy.