Labour leadership: Candidates criticise 'terrible' format chosen by party for official hustings – live news

The first official party hustings in the Labour leadership contest took place on Saturday, in Liverpool, and some observers said afterwards that the format made it all a bit dull and inconclusive. Under the rules drawn up by party HQ, candidates were given just 40 seconds to answer questions, and they were not allowed to interrupt each other or ask each other questions. Paul Mason, the Labour-supporting journalists, said this arrangements was “dire”.

Now it seems at least two of the candidates agree with him.

In an article for the Guardian Jess Phillips says she thought that she performed badly, and that the format was partly to blame. She says:

The hustings was awful. I was awful because I was trying to hit a million different lines and messages in 40 seconds. Some were my lines, some were other people’s, and it fell flat.

It was not all my failing. The format of the hustings is terrible. To answer any question in 40 seconds is ridiculous. If it were possible to sum up, for example, an economic plan or an industrial strategy in 40 seconds, one wonders why they are actually hundreds of pages long. What a ridiculous farce.

And now, as HuffPost’s Paul Waugh reports, Lisa Nandy has written to Labour’s general secretary, Jennie Formby, asking her to change the rules. She says the candidates should be given more than 40 seconds to reply to questions, and allowed to engage with each other. She says:

We need these hustings to ignite a passionate debate in our party and this cannot be achieved by proscribing answers to 40 second sound bites and hermetically sealing the candidates from direct conversations between ourselves.

The next official hustings is due in Leeds on Saturday. We will find out later what Labour HQ has to say about the Nandy request.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: The UK-Africa investment summit opens. Boris Johnson is hosting it. There will be a live stream here.

11am: Downing Street lobby briefing.

12.45pm: Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, gives a speech in Westminster on remaking Britain. He will use it to expand on arguments he made in this article for the Guardian.

1pm: Jess Phillips, the Labour leadership candidate, takes part in a live webchat for Mumsnet.

After 3.30pm: Peers begin debating the report stage of the EU (withdrawal agreement) bill. They are expected to vote on amendments relating to citizens’ rights and on the independence of courts.

At some point today the executive of the Usdaw union is meeting to decide who to nominate in the Labour leadership contest. This is important because Usdaw is one of the five unions big enough to ensure that a candidate meets the 5% hurdle in this category.

And at some point today Tory backbenchers are voting in an election for the chairmanship of the 1922 Committee. Sir Graham Brady is facing a challenge from Bill Wiggin.

As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary when I wrap up.

You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe roundup of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.

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