Diane Abbott has made it onto the ballot for the Labour leadership in the nick of time, joining David and Ed Miliband, Andy Burnham and Ed Balls.
At last count shadow foreign secretary and front runner David Miliband had received most nominations, securing the support of 81 of his fellow MPs. His brother, shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband, was close behind with 63 nominations.
Ed Balls has 33 declared supporters, the threshold which candidates had to reach in order to be placed on the ballot for the final vote.
And both Diane Abbott and Andy Burnham managed to reach the magic 33 this morning, after left wing candidate John McDonnell dropped out of the race.
While Burnham was able to relax by mid morning, Abbott had to wait until the last minute before enough of her fellow MPs lifted her to the 33 mark.
Flush with support himself, fellow leadership candidate David Miliband announced that he had given his vote to Abbott.
When he withdrew from the race this morning McDonnell had 16 nominations, while Abbott only had 11.
He said that as he did not believe he would be successful in gaining the support required and he hoped his withdrawal would clear the way for Abbott squeak into the contest.
"It is now clear that I am unlikely to secure enough nominations and so I am withdrawing in the hope that we can at least secure a woman on the ballot paper," he said.
"I know that many Labour activists and trade unionists will be disappointed that their candidate will not be on the ballot. I am urging them to continue the fight for democracy within the party so that in future leadership elections rank and file members will be represented by the candidate of their choice."
Yesterday Labour's acting leader Harriet Harman lent her nomination to Abbott, as she said she did not want to see a "men only" contest.
Having made it on to the ballot, the five candidates have until July 26 to secure "supporting nominations" from the wider party including constituency Labour Party members and members of the European Parliament.
Voting takes place between August 16 and September 22, with the winner announced on Saturday September 25 at the party's conference in Manchester.
