There is a broad consensus that the Labour Leadership race has dragged on for too long, with almost a month before the result is announced on April 4. John McDonnell even said over the weekend that “if there’s a lesson for the future, let’s have shorter leadership elections in the future.” So just how unusually long is this election?..

Guido has crunched the numbers of the Labour leadership elections in the last ten years, and the results surprised him. From the close of nominations to announcement of result, the last four elections lasted…

• 2020: January 13 to April 4 (82 days)
• 2016: July 21 to September 24 (65 days)
• 2015: June 15 to September 12 (89 days)
• 2010: June 9 to September 25 (108 days)

Labour’s 2020 leadership race is actually the shortest of all of them other than the abortive attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn with Owen Smith in 2016. Guido has a suspicion that this one just feels longer because all the candidates are so second rate and we can all guess the winner…

Was this Starmer’s ‘Miliband tuss enough’ moment?…

Angela Rayner took a night off from her campaign this week to go boozing in the Red Lion – only to inadvertently find herself surrounded by Conservative staffers. One Tory aide told the deputy leadership candidate, “you’re definitely going to win because you’re about 1000 times more competent than Burgon”. Rayner, enthusiastically nodding in agreement, exclaimed: “Thank you!!”

Rayner was far more diplomatic when the cheeky Tory bag carriers tried getting her to comment on the main leadership race, with her only saying she’d be able to work very well with Sir Keir should he beat her flatmate Becky. The Tory activists were hoping for longer with the boozing candidate, alas a Labour aide spotted the potentially incriminating pitfalls and promptly whisked her away…

A few feisty stand-out moments from Sky’s Labour leadership debate last night made for less tedious than usual viewing, not least the clashes over Antisemitism and Labour’s Brexit policy failure. The audience – made up of voters of all parties from across the country – gave Lisa Nandy a landslide win in a straw poll at the end. In stark contrast to this week’s poll of Labour members who plan on awarding her third place…

A clip from Rebecca Long-Bailey’s Liverpool rally – the footage from which has now been deleted by her team – is doing the rounds today in which one member accuses various Labour MPs of being Zionists, trying to topple Jeremy Corbyn, and being in the pocket of the Israeli lobby. Bingo!

The antisemitic calls are rightly being condemned and Becky’s failure to challenge any of the slurs head on has been noticed. In the words of Corbyn, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”…

One unfortunate coincidence is the venue picked by Long-Bailey – the Adelphi Hotel. According to the hotel’s website another political activist with an obsessive interest in Zionism worked there:

Unfortunate…

The Labour leadership candidates have got themselves into a mess on trans issues. Nandy in particular has gone from taking the most extreme stance to denying she said what she said. Because of this, as a service to readers, Guido has produced a compilation of their positions. Confused? You will be…,