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The weekend papers were full of speculation about the Labour leadership contest, which as it draws to a close appears to be a nail-bitingly close finish between the Brothers Miliband.

According to pollster YouGov, Ed Miliband is set to sneak victory by the closest of margins after second preferences are taken into account; though the poll didn’t appear to take into account the votes of MPs and MEPs who control one-third of Labour’s electoral college. This is not, after all, a party which believes all votes should be equal, whether in Parliamentary constituencies or in their own leadership race.

I pinned my colours to the mast a couple of weeks ago, saying I thought that Labour would be best-placed choosing David Miliband as their leader: he’s the only one of the five candidates who has the necessary credibility.

However, in common with most Lib Dems I know, when I took part in the online Vote Match survey, I learned that Diane Abbott is actually if narrowly closer to my views on a range of issues than the other Labour contenders. This is probably not that surprising: back in June, the Voice noted that Diane is the most liberal of the five.

We polled Lib Dem members on their views of who would make the best Labour leader at the end of May, when the contest has barely begun. At the time, Ed Miliband was widely regarded as the ‘one to watch’. We’ll shortly be asking party members again to see if views have altered over the summer.

But in the meantime, let’s open it out to the thread: if you were a Labour party member — or are a trade unionist or other affiliated association member who actually does have a vote — who would you vote for to be the party’s next leader? And why?

Over to you…