A Jesmond Labour councillor has welcomed Kier Starmer’s lead in the race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as party leader. Starmer has been nominated by both Newcastle East and Newcastle North constituency Labour parties (CLPs) – which encompass Jesmond – and has a sizeable lead over rivals Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy.

By the close of the nominations window on Friday (14th February), Starmer – the current Shadow Brexit secretary and MP for Holborn and St Pancras – had 374 CLPs to Long-Bailey’s 164 and Nandy’s 72.

Speaking to JesmondLocal, North Jesmond Labour councillor Stella Postlethwaite said: “I’m really pleased that Keir Starmer has secured the nomination of Newcastle East CLP. During the past four years that I’ve been a councillor, he has visited Newcastle East three times to speak to Labour Party members about the issues that concern them. He has a strong link to our constituency.

“He has said that he’s in favour of devolving more power closer to people, so under a Labour government led by Keir, more decisions would be taken in Newcastle that are currently made in Westminster.”

Angela Rayner has been nominated by the Newcastle East CLP to become deputy leader, but Newcastle North CLP has chosen Ian Murray as its nomination for the deputy leader. Newcastle Central has also nominated Starmer as leader but opted for Rosena Allin-Khan as deputy leader.

During an election campaign visit to Tyneside on Friday, Starmer said the reason the Labour Party had lost the general election was due to a lack of trust. He said: “People did trust the Labour Party for many years and we need to win it back.”

Now that CLPs have made their choices, Labour Party members get their chance to vote and will receive postal ballots and online voting forms from this Friday (21st February) Voting closes on 2nd April and the new leader will be announced two days later, on 4th April.