In late spring 2007 I sat in a small dark function room as three men — John McDonnell, Michael Meacher, and Gordon Brown — told the attendees why they should be the ones to succeed Tony Blair as Labour leader. The Fabian Society debate in London was short-tempered in several spots, with all three making light effort to conceal their mutual antipathy. Gordon Brown, the favorite, was well aware that his path to the leadership was less of a campaign and more of a straightforward coronation.

Several weeks later, in a far grander and better-lit room in the Midlands, I watched the first of ten “hustings” while working for the venue at my university. Brown, the only candidate remaining on the ballot after both Meacher and McDonnell failed to gather the needed forty-five nominations from members of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), was interviewed rather than facing anything approaching a debate. A heckler in the audience chanted for Brown to “Get the troops out” of Iraq before being ejected, while Brown defended his decision to back the disastrous war. The whole contest was dry and farcical, with Brown duly elected leader unopposed before going on to lose the 2010 general election.

This time, at least, the choices are wider: having been duly thumped in the election, the PLP nominated five candidates for leader in 2010, four in 2015, and five again this year, matched by the deputy candidates. But the run up to the first stage of nominations went to the wire again, with Clive Lewis withdrawing after failing to secure enough support, and members lobbying their MPs to back candidates who were struggling to reach the 10 percent threshold. The frustration, particular for younger members, remains the gatekeeping nature of the nominations process: candidates must now secure a required threshold of Constituency Labour Party (CLP), trade union, or affiliated body support, before the ballot officially opens, but the PLP hold the power to prevent candidates from making it past the first stage of nominations — and as the 2016 mass resignation showed, the political leanings of the overwhelming body of MPs still remain to the right of the wider membership.