Labour MPs hoping to replace Angela Rayner as the party’s deputy leader have until Thursday afternoon to gather the 80 MPs’ nominations they will need to stand, with the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, ruling herself out of the race.
Mahmood is the latest mooted hopeful to decide not to run, with Jess Phillips and Lisa Nandy also opting out.
According to a timetable from Labour’s national executive committee, MP nominations will open on Tuesday, with potential candidates having until 5pm on Thursday to gather 80 nominations, which is at least 20% of the parliamentary party.
Nominations would be “updated on a daily basis on the Labour party website for the duration of the MP nominations period”, a statement said.
Anyone who reaches this threshold must also receive nominations from at least 5% of constituency Labour parties, or about 30 in total, or at least three official party-affiliated bodies, of which at least two must be unions.
The process for this second stage of nominations will run from 13-27 September, with the electronic ballot of party members – who must have been in the party for at least six months from Monday – taking place from 8-23 October. The result will be announced on 25 October.
While a series of names have been mentioned as possible candidates since Rayner resigned as deputy prime minister and housing secretary on Friday over the underpayment of council tax on a second home, several have since said they will not stand.
Mahmood, who moved from the justice department to the Home Office on Friday as part of a wide-reaching reshuffle after Rayner’s departure, ruled herself out on Monday.
“I’m the home secretary, so that is my job, and my top priority is securing our borders,” she told Sky News in a pooled interview. “I will not be running for deputy leader of the Labour party.”
Phillips, the safeguarding minister, also said she would not stand, and it is understood that Nandy, who stayed on as culture secretary in the reshuffle, has also decided not to.
Emily Thornberry, who was shadow attorney general but was removed by Keir Starmer after the election and now chairs the foreign affairs select committee, is expected to stand.
Other possible contenders cited include the former transport secretary Louise Haigh, Lucy Powell, who was removed as Commons leader in the reshuffle, as well as Stella Creasy, Sarah Owen, Anneliese Dodds, Dawn Butler, Meg Hillier, and figures from the left of the party including Richard Burgon and Nadia Whittome.
Creasy, the Walthamstow MP who came second to Tom Watson for the same post in 2015, refused to rule herself out when asked by the BBC on Monday.
However, the number of MPs needed plus the speed of the nominations process – Burgon called the latter a “stitch-up” – means the eventual pool of candidates is likely to be small.
Rayner served as deputy PM, but the party deputy leadership is separate to any government role and is voted on by members rather than decided by the PM.
While deputy party leaders almost always hold senior cabinet or shadow cabinet posts, a government source confirmed there was no rule saying this had to be the case, meaning the winner of the contest would not necessarily be made a minister if not one already.
