Brown resigned as Leader of the Labour Party on 10 May and as Prime Minister on 11 May, following the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats forming a coalition government.

[1] The National Executive Committee decided the timetable for the election the result of which would be announced at the annual party conference.

[5] Under Labour Party rules, trade unions were allowed to make recommendations to their members, but were barred from doing this in the same envelope that contained the ballot paper.

[13] The Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats formed a coalition on 11 May, and David Miliband became the first person to announce his candidacy the following day.

A total of six candidates emerged by 20 May: On 9 June John McDonnell withdrew from the contest[21] in favour of Diane Abbott,[18] who eventually made the ballot paper.

Public nominations for candidates by MPs were as follows:[25] Before dropping out of the race on 9 June 2010, John McDonnell had the following 16 nominations: Ronnie Campbell, Martin Caton, Katy Clark, Jeremy Corbyn, John Cryer, Ian Davidson, Jim Dowd, Frank Field, Dai Havard, Kate Hoey, Ian Lavery, Graeme Morrice, Linda Riordan, Dennis Skinner, Mike Wood[26] Some members of parliament were seen as potential candidates but decided against running: Each of the three electorates or sections contributed one third (33.33 per cent) of the total votes and were counted using the Alternative Vote system[10] system.