This page follows leadership contests as processes with rules, candidates and consequences. The Labour race to replace Keir Starmer provides most of the material: the five-week timetable, the declared runners and riders, Andy Burnham's frontrunner status, and the search for a credible challenger to prevent a coronation. The Makerfield by-election that put Burnham in contention gets its own retelling, while beyond Westminster the page tracks Welsh Labour's reckoning as interim leader Skates steers a shrunken party towards a winter contest, and what the outcome means for the Reform threat.
With Sir Keir Starmer's resignation triggering a contest, the National Executive Committee has set a fast timetable: nominations open on 9 July and close on 16 July, with a contested result due by 1 September. Here is how the race actually works.
Andy Burnham was first out of the gate, but the field for Labour's leadership is still taking shape. From cabinet veterans weighing a bid to figures lining up behind the frontrunner, here is where the contenders stand.
Andy Burnham enters the contest as the clear favourite, having won the Makerfield by-election with 54.8% of the vote and gathered more than 200 MP backers. But governing is not campaigning, and his rivals are not finished yet.
With the frontrunner commanding huge support, a section of the party is desperate to avoid an uncontested succession. The hunt is on for a candidate who can clear 81 nominations and give members a genuine choice.
Andy Burnham could not have run for the leadership without a Commons seat. The story of how he got one, after the NEC blocked an earlier attempt and an MP stood aside, is central to understanding this contest.
The race to replace Sir Keir Starmer is also an argument about what Labour is for. With Reform UK leading the polls and liberal voters drifting to the Greens, the new leader must settle a fight over the party's very identity.
After Eluned Morgan became the first sitting head of a UK government to lose her own seat, Welsh Labour is regrouping with Ken Skates as interim leader and a full leadership election pencilled in for the autumn, with the winner inheriting opposition rather than office.