UK: Leadership race begins to replace Labour’s Miliband

Author: Associated Press
Published: Updated:
MGN

LONDON (AP) – Four British politicians are in the race to replace Labour leader Ed Miliband, who resigned last week following the party’s election defeat.

Miliband stepped down Friday after his party lost almost all of its seats in Scotland to the separatist Scottish National Party and ran well behind the winning Conservatives elsewhere.

As of Thursday, candidates to replace him include ex-Cabinet minister Yvette Cooper, long seen as the party’s potential first female leader, and Chuka Umunna, a lawyer and the party’s business spokesman who was first elected to Parliament five years ago.

Two others who announced they would stand were Andy Burnham, the party’s health spokesman, and Liz Kendall, also first elected in 2010.

David Miliband, Britain’s former foreign secretary who lost to brother Ed Miliband in the party’s last leadership contest, has said he will not run.

Nominations for leadership close in June. The new leader will be chosen through a postal ballot of party members and supporters, and announced on Sept. 12.

The last Labour government was led by Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2010

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