The Labour moderates, formerly known as Blairites, are crying into their mocha lattes this morning that Eddie Izzard not only lost out (as usual) on getting a place on the NEC, he also cost them up to three seats and any chance of a majority.

The two charts above show the clean sweep of the top six places by the the hard-left (reds). If Izzard’s votes were redistributed to the moderates (pinkos), which is mathematically possible if not probable, they would have won three more seats and regained control of the NEC. “It was Izzard wot lost it for the moderates. Had that ego-maniac not run, we’d have had 71,000 more votes up for grabs that could have gone to moderates. He’s basically given an NEC seat to the Corbynistas. When it comes to politics, Eddie is a very good comedian” laments a Blairite die-hard. By Guido’s calculations if just over half of Izzard’s votes had gone to moderates, Ellie Reeves, Bex Bailey and Johanna Baxter would be holding the line against the Corbynistas on the NEC…

The Owen Smith-supporting Labour First faction emailed supporters optimistically that

Contrary to some of the online and media reaction, this does not give full control of the NEC to Corbyn. There is a net change of just one seat as the PLP section saw a seat go from left to right. When the new NEC takes office after Annual Conference, the solid vote for the Hard Left will be 16 if they all turn up, with 17 others. Thus NEC meetings will continue to be finely balanced and hinge on the personal decisions of the more independent-minded members like Ann Black, and the stance taken by the GMB and Unison. We will win some votes and lose others just like we did in the pre-leadership election meeting. 

Though they go on to say pointedly

If we can avoid a split moderate vote in future contests (Eddie Izzard ran as an independent when we would have been happy to support him if he had asked us) that will help!

It woz Izzard wot lost it…