Six vying for deputy spot.

Six candidates have managed to muster the 45 nominations needed to run for the deputy leadership of the Labour party. Harriet Harman, Hazel Blears, Hilary Benn, Alan Johnson, Peter Hain and John Cruddas have all been nominated.

Apart from Cruddas, there really isn’t much between the candidates. He seems to be the only one saying anything interesting – and he has made it clear that he doesn’t want to be in the Cabinet should he be elected. As a former special adviser Cruddas certainly isn’t a trouble-maker and, if elected, would give Gordon Brown much greater freedom in choosing his Cabinet while freeing him from some of his party responsibilities.

There really isn’t much between the other candidates. Harriet Harman’s sole pitch is that she is a woman, and a woman should get the job. She seems to forget she was a lousy Cabinet minister, sacked from the Department of Social Security in 1998 and has been rattling around junior minister positions since she was restored to office in 2001. She is also completely accident prone. The Labour MP Austen Mitchell brilliant summed up her obsession for political correctness when he called her Harriet Harperson.

Of the remaining candidates, Hazel Blears is the most irritating person in the government, is too close to John Reid for my liking and is a member of the Labour party’s tap dancing squad. Peter Hain has gone from radical freedom campaigner to sycophantic Blairite – plus he is orange. Alan Johnson made is reputation from doing Blair’s dirty work, whereas Hilary Benn is an amiable bloke with a famous father who has done alright as International Development Secretary.

If I was a Labour member I think that I would plump for either Cruddas or Benn. But I’m nowhere close to being a Labour supporter – so I would love either Harman or Blears to get the job.