The Labour interim leader Harriet Harman is taking the controversial step of nominating Diane Abbott for the Labour leadership. Although strictly neutral in the campaign, Harman regards it as necessary to try to ensure a woman is on the ballot paper when nominations close.
Harman is expected to say she is doing this for the good of the party, and it may lead to a group of other people nominating Abbott before nominations close tomorrow.
Abbott is currently way off the 33 nominations from her fellow MPs needed to stand in the contest. She had nine at lunchtime, including her own.
A spokeswoman for Harman said "The Labour party knows that whoever wins the leadership contest, there will not be a men-only leadership at the top of the Labour party as Harriet will continue in her role as deputy leader. However, she feels that the party does not want the leadership election, and the debate that it will generate, to be men only. Harriet will play no part in the eventual outcome as she will not cast her vote. She will continue to serve as deputy leader alongside whoever wins. Therefore, she has nominated Diane."
There has even been desperate talk of rewriting the national executive rules to lower the threshold to make it easier for candidates to get on to the ballot.
Abbott obviously represents a strand of thinking inside the Labour party, and it is good the party has a real political choice, but the party could also reflect on why no woman apart from Abbott wanted to stand.
Abbott herself might also reflect on why she is having to garner nominations from people that do not actually want her to win. Doubtless she thinks it is political, but she can also be pretty high handed.
