The former head of the Electoral Commission model-willem has won the race to replace Frost_Walker2017 as Labour’s deputy leader, defeating Energy Secretary LightningMinion and LGBT+ rights campaigner jamie_strudwick.

The Labour Party uses the alternative vote for its internal elections, meaning that instead of giving just one candidate an X like in Westminster elections, party members rank the candidates: they will rank one of the candidates as their first preference, and may also rank other candidates as their second preference, third preference, and so on until all candidates have been ranked or until the party member no longer thinks the remaining candidates are deserving of their vote, in which case the member will then rank re-opening nominations (RON for short) as their next preference. Then, when the votes are counted, if a candidate wins a majority (50% + 1) of votes, that candidate wins. If no candidate wins a majority, the last placed candidate is eliminated and their votes are redistributed to the candidate’s voters’ next preferences, but votes for RON are not redistributed. Last placed candidates are then continually eliminated until one candidate has won a majority. If RON wins, then a new election is held.

LightningMinion took first place in the first round, with Willem second and Strudwick in last place. However, as LightningMinion did not win a majority, Strudwick was eliminated and votes for Strudwik were redistributed. This then led to a tie between LightningMinion and Willem, and a coinflip was used to break the tie in Willem’s favour.

But who are the candidates?

Willem is the former head of the Electoral Commission and left the role at the end of July after overseeing that month’s general election. He decided to enter politics, and joined the Labour Party. As he was the head of the Electoral Commission during the general election, he did not stand in the election so is not an MP and is therefore not allowed to sit in cabinet despite Labour winning control of number 10 in the election. However, the upcoming by-elections give him the opportunity to be elected as an MP if Labour selects him as their candidate in one of the by-elections and to be appointed to cabinet should he win a seat.

Willem has, nevertheless, been commenting on politics since he joined the Labour Party. He has backed major Labour policies including raising the minimum wage, creating Great British Energy, and scrapping the Rwanda scheme. He has, however, been more critical of the government on crime and prisons, criticising them for a lack of policies to tackle the very low number of free spaces in prisons and to tackle crime.

The other top contender for deputy leader, LightningMinion, is the current Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. In the general election he ran as a Labour candidate in the East of England region and was elected as the MP for Cambridge, and was subsequently appointed to cabinet by the new Labour Prime Minister Inadorable. In that role he has scrapped the onshore wind “ban” brought in by the Conservative government in 2015 and has eased other restrictions on building solar and wind farms, and is expected to implement Labour’s manifesto policy of setting up Great British Energy (a new energy company which will be owned by the government), increase investment in green energy, and set a new emissions target of net zero by 2040. He also supported proposals to ban the opening of new coal mines but voted against proposals to ban new oil and gas licences, reversing a commitment made by Keir Starmer last year that Labour would not issue new oil and gas licences after the then Conservative government issued a new round of licences. In Parliament he has clashed with Reform politicians on migration and net zero policies, arguing in favour of a liberal attitude to migration and arguing against increasing extraction of oil and gas, and clashed with the SNP on the SNP’s Oaths Bill, which sought to remove the requirement for MPs to swear allegiance to the monarch and the monarch’s heirs and successors, as well as to allow it to be sworn in more languages. LightningMinion stated his opposition to the former in a parliamentary debate and sought to remove that part of the bill, with the leader of the SNP model-avtron and former Foreign Secretary arichteabiscuit branding his amendment “wrecking”.

Similarly to Willem, Strudwik is not an MP, having only joined the Labour Party after July’s general election. However, the upcoming by-elections give him the chance to run for a seat. Since entering politics, Strudwik has campaigned for greater LGBT+ rights, including praising the government for lifting the ban on transgender children using puberty blockers, campaigning for better transgender healthcare and calling for a trans-inclusive ban on so-called conversion therapy. He also praised the government’s plan to raise the minimum wage but criticised the disparity between the minimum wage for apprentices and for non-apprentices in the government’s plans.