After the exit poll was released last night, it became clear that Jeremy Corbyn’s position as the Leader of the Labour Party was untenable. Indeed, by 4AM, he had confirmed his resignation, with a leadership contest imminent as we enter the new year.

But, of course, that begs the question of precisely who will be the next Labour leader? Here are the four candidates that are most likely going to put their name forward, and have a realistic chance at winning the party’s top spot.

1. Angela Rayner

Rayner was born in Manchester, England in 1980. She attended school until she was sixteen years old, when she left after becoming pregnant with her first child, Ryan. While raising Ryan, she studied British sign language at college and qualified as a care worker. She worked as a care worker while simultaneously working as a union representative within Unison, Britain’s largest trade union, and eventually became the chairwoman of Unison’s branch in North West England.

She was elected to the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. In 2015’s Labour leadership election she nominated Andy Burnham, but became one of Jeremy Corbyn’s staunchest defenders after her Labour colleagues attempted to oust him as leader in 2016. Around the same time, Corbyn appointed her as the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, and during her time in the role she became the architect of Labour’s idea for a ‘National Education Service’, a flagship policy included in both the 2017 and 2019 manifestos.

Although she has been one of Corbyn’s strongest allies throughout his tenure as the Leader of the Labour Party, she is a member of the Labour Party’s ‘soft left’ faction, which was born in the 1980s as left wingers in the Labour Party refused to back Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn’s mentor, in the 1981 deputy leadership election. They tend to be more left wing than your ‘Blairites’, but more centrist than a ‘Bennite’. She has also made noise about how, in a second referendum, she would vote to leave the European Union.

2. Keir Starmer

Starmer was born in London, England in 1962. He attended a grammar school and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in law in 1985, and graduated from the University of Oxford in 1986 with a degree in civil law.

He became a barrister and eventually became the adviser of the McLibel Two, a duo of environmental activists being sued by McDonald’s, in the McLibel Case. He was appointed to the Queen’s Counsel in 2002 and became a human rights adviser to the Northern Irish police force. In 2008, he became the head of the Crown Prosecution Service. In 2012, he forced the resignation of Chris Huhne, a Conservative MP, after finding him guilty of perverting the course of justice.

Starmer was elected to the House of Commons in the 2015 general election and was immediately urged to stand for the leadership, but he refused to do so and instead nominated Andy Burnham. In 2016 he was one of the MPs that attempted to oust Corbyn as Labour leader and backed Owen Smith in the contest. Despite this, Corbyn appointed him as the Shadow Brexit Secretary the month after the leadership contest.

While serving in the role, in 2018 he brought forward the Parliamentary proceedings that found the Conservative government (the same one that won the general election yesterday) in contempt of Parliament, and forced them to release the legal advice on the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. He was a strong supporter of Labour’s second referendum policy, one of its main pushers before it became official policy, and became a figurehead for the party’s remainers.

3. Rebecca Long-Bailey

Long-Bailey was born in Manchester, England to two Irish immigrants in 1979. She spent her early working life switching between jobs in pawn shops, factories, call centres, and postal delivery. She then studied Politics and Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University and became a solicitor, specialising in National Health Service contracts and estates.

She was elected to the House of Commons in the 2015 general election. She nominated Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership contest, and he sacked Hilary Benn from Labour’s National Executive Committee and put Long-Bailey in his place. In 2016, she was appointed as the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and was appointed as the Shadow Secretary of State for Business the following year. During her time in the shadow cabinet, she became John McDonnell’s protégé and filled in for Corbyn at various Prime Minister’s Question Times and leader’s debates when he was unable to attend. She is popular among Labour’s leavers but also among its left wing factions.

4. Jess Phillips

Phillips was born in Birmingham, England in 1981. She attended a grammar school, developing a childhood ambition to become Prime Minister, and studied Economic History, Social History, and Social Policy at the University of Leeds, and also graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in Public Sector Management.



Upon graduating, Phillips found employment at her parent’s company before becoming employed at the Women’s Aid Federation of England as a business development manager. She was elected as a Labour Party councillor in 2012, becoming a lobbyist to the police for domestic abuse victims, and served on the West Midlands Police and Crime Panel.

Phillips was elected to the House of Commons in the 2015 general election, and nominated Yvette Cooper for the leadership. She was one of the Labour MPs that attempted to oust Corbyn in 2016, backed Owen Smith, and said that she would resign from the party if Corbyn won the 2016 leadership contest, but never did. She verbally clashed with Diane Abbott, the Shadow Home Secretary, complaining that there were not enough women in the shadow cabinet’s great offices of state, and claimed that she told Abbott to ‘fuck off’ – Abbott later denied that she said anything of the sort, and Phillips apologised.



She expressed her interest in the leadership position in March this year, saying that she wants to give it a go before she resigns from the party, but the party means nothing to her because it’s ‘just a fucking rose’. In October, she said that she didn’t believe Labour would win the election and said that she would stand for the leadership position upon Corbyn’s inevitable resignation.

Phillips is an ally of the Labour Party’s remainers, and is associated with Progress – an organisation that is the furthest to the right Labour factions can get, and was founded in 1996 to support Tony Blair’s campaign to become Prime Minister.