Following his party's landslide defeat by Boris Johnson's Conservative Party at the 2019 general election, Jeremy Corbyn announced his intention to resign as Leader of the Labour Party. On 4 January 2020, Keir Starmer announced his candidacy for the ensuing leadership election. By 8 January, it was reported that he had gained enough nominations from Labour MPs and MEPs to get onto the ballot paper, and that the trade union Unison was backing him. Unison, with 1.3 million members, said Starmer was the best placed candidate to unite the party and regain public trust.Labour leadership: Unison endorses Sir Keir Starmer BBC Supporters of Rebecca Long-Bailey criticised Starmer for releasing details of his campaign donations on the register of members' interests rather than independently, as Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy had done, which meant that details of his donors were not published until after voting had opened.
