Seven Candidates For VPHE

Yes you read that correctly. There are no less than 7 candidates for the NUS VP Higher Education. They are as follows;

Michael Payne - Lancaster (Ind Labour)
Kit Friend - Arts, London (Conservative Future)
Usman Ali - NEC "Block of 15" (FOSIS)
Charlie Leyland - York (OI)
Emmanuel Akpan-Inwang - London School of Economics (Ind)
Chris Marks - Hull (Education Not for Sale)
Mark Bergfeld - Essex (Socialist Workers)

and there may be even more that I don't know about.

Totting up the scores there looks to be three or four main contenders. Usman is an obvious choice as a current NEC block member, and a pretty good one at that; Charlie has the backing of one of the big factions (that's big in influence, not size); Mark Bergfeld is probably the hard left's front runner as he comes from the SWP's flagship union (for the time being); and Kit is worth a punt as the first serious Conservative NEC candidate in a long time.

Here are my odds (don't phone in, it's just for fun);

Michael Payne 33/1
Kit Friend 8/1
Usman Ali 2/1
Charlie Leyland 7/2
Emmanuel Akpan-Inwang 15/1
Chris Marks 33/1
Mark Bergfeld 6/1

The cliché is that the transfers will be what decides the outcome of the election, but it's truer than ever in this race.

JR

PS: See the full list of known NEC candidates here.