It was won by Keir Starmer, who received 56.2 per cent of the vote on the first round and went on to become Prime Minister after winning the 2024 general election.

[6] In the Observer, Corbyn claimed that Labour's election campaign had successfully re-set the terms of debate and his manifesto would be seen as "historically important".

This meant that, for example, members of Labour-affiliated trades unions needed to register as affiliated Labour supporters to vote.

[22] On 29 December, Long-Bailey wrote an article for The Guardian declaring her interest in standing and laying out her strategy for a "progressive patriotism".

However, Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite the Union, said that the next leader should "carry on the tradition", describing Long-Bailey and Angela Rayner as his preferred candidates.

[30] She said that her first priority would be to deal with antisemitism in the party by implementing recommendations from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Labour Movement and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

[31] She criticised Corbyn's senior advisers for overruling her as the shadow foreign secretary and for their strategic decisions in the 2019 general election.

[22] Starmer, who a poll had indicated was the most popular potential candidate heading into the leadership election, announced his candidacy with a video posted to social media on 4 January followed by a launch in Stevenage.

Starmer won the support of enough MPs and MEPs to progress to the next round of nominations on 8 January, when he was also endorsed by the trade union Unison.

[62] After the close of nominations, the party announced that Long-Bailey, Nandy, Phillips, Starmer and Thornberry would proceed to the next stage of the election.

Of the 7,395 respondents 70 per cent backed Long-Bailey, but the organisation was criticised by commentators[65][66][67] and by some Momentum members for not giving the option to endorse other candidates.

Three candidates, Long-Bailey, Nandy and Starmer, received sufficient combined support from affiliates and constituency parties to proceed to the final ballot.

The results were announced on 4 April 2020, with Starmer winning the election in the first round with 56.2 per cent of the vote, beating Long-Bailey and Nandy and taking over from Corbyn.

[100] Long-Bailey stated that if she were to win the leadership election the Labour Party would maintain its commitment to bring energy, water, rail and mail back into public ownership.

[111] She praised Corbyn for shifting party policy towards a position that opposes austerity[111] and stated her intention to abolish Universal Credit.

[112][113] During the party hustings held in Bristol, Nandy argued that the honours system should have references to the British Empire removed and replaced with 'Excellence'.

[114] Nandy defended free movement within the European Union, while also arguing that concerns about its flaws should not be simply dismissed as "racist anti-immigrant rhetoric".

[120] In February, deputy leadership candidate Richard Burgon proposed a "Peace Pledge" to ensure that the party would not support future military action unless its members vote in favour of such a policy.

She argued that civilians in war zones could not afford to wait for such a ballot to pass and it was irresponsible to share such classified information.

[125] Nandy said that she would conduct a "fair recruitment process" for parliamentary candidates and end the practice of "parachuting" those favoured by the leadership.

This announcement came after the Labour Party controversially nominated John Bercow, former Commons Speaker, and Karie Murphy, Corbyn's former chief of staff.

[126][128] She also pledged that she would give councillors the right to nominate candidates in future leadership elections, just as MPs and MEPs had during the previous month.

[129] Nandy released a list of donors to her leadership campaign, which was principally supported by the GMB trade union and featured four private donations of over £10,000 from individuals including her husband Andrew Collis, businessmen Jason Stockwood and Tom Shutes, and Hope Not Hate chair Simon Tuttle.

He also pledged "common ownership" of rail, mail, energy and water companies and called for ending outsourcing in the NHS, local governments and the justice system.

[134][135] In February 2020, Starmer announced that he would continue the policy introduced under Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell to raise taxes on the top five per cent of earners with incomes of more than £80,000.

[138] In response to the release of Trump's peace plan to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Starmer described the proposals as "inconsistent with international law and human rights protections".

[139] Starmer's leadership campaign gained funding from trade union Unison,[140] and donations from several individuals, including £100,000 and £5,000 respectively from barristers Robert Latham and Richard Hermer, as well as hotel bills totalling £2,500 from a company linked to Labour donor Farah Sassoon.

[161] After the backlash, two new events in Leeds and Brighton were later added by Labour's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC), although the one in Leeds was subsequently cancelled after Starmer dropped out due to his mother-in-law being critically ill.[146] The Guardian also announced that it would host a hustings in Manchester on 22 February, chaired by journalist Anushka Asthana.

A second debate was held the following day, moderated by Victoria Derbyshire on her programme, followed by a third one chaired by Krishnan Guru-Murthy on Channel 4 News.

[191][192][193] A poll was also conducted to garner the prospective voting intentions of the public for the Labour Party under each leadership candidate in a general election.