If that were true, argues Kinnock, why did he himself have to secure nominations when challenged by Benn?
There are Hundred Flowers awards for films, for example, for which the party's critics need not bother trying to secure nominations.
But unlike years past, there was not much lobbying among designers to secure nominations, according to several participants in the voting process.
Andy Burnham, 60 nominations, and Yvette Cooper, 43, have also secured their places but Jeremy Corbyn and Mary Creagh are struggling to secure nominations from Labour MPs.
The scheming is ultimately aimed, most local party members think, at winning control of Renfrewshire Labour politics in order to secure nominations for Mr Graham's allies in safe Labour seats at Westminster or in the putative Scottish parliament.
Candidates must secure nominations from 34 colleagues - 15% of the party's MPs - by 15 June to make it on to ballot papers, which will be sent to members in August ahead of the leader's election a month later.
Incumbent McQuaid has been criticised for his handling of the Lance Armstrong doping affair and failed to secure nominations from either the country of his birth Ireland or Switzerland, where he now lives.
McQuaid failed to secure nominations from either Ireland, the country of his birth, or Switzerland, where he now lives, and is relying on Asia (nine votes) and Africa (seven votes).
Both of those events are vital to securing nomination to Team GB.
