Leadership candidate Liz Kendall warns Labour must abandon focus on regulation

LABOUR leadership candidates have insisted they would not include Jeremy Corbyn in their shadow cabinets despite their rival’s increasing support among party members.

After Harriet Harman was forced into a humiliating climbdown after initially supporting the proposals, Chancellor George Osborne twists the knife further today by accusing her of bowing to demands from Unite union boss “Red” Len McCluskey. Earlier on Sky News, Miss Cooper warned her party against “going back to the 1980s”, telling them: “Don’t turn the clock back”.

Norfolk’s only Labour MP Clive Lewis nominated Mr Corbyn, while Eastern region Euro MP Richard Howitt is supporting Ms Cooper.

Labour leadership contender Liz Kendall has said it is “unbelievable” she was asked about her weight in an interview with the Mail on Sunday newspaper.

But yesterday the only candidate who explicitly ruled out working with Mr Corbyn was Liz Kendall, who said while she might be prepared to “go on Strictly” with him she could not work with him in the Shadow Cabinet.

Aides later claimed Mr Burnham was joking, adding he could not “envisage any circumstances” where Mr Corbyn would be a Shadow Minister.

Mr Corbyn, a veteran Left-winger with outspoken radical views, was initially put on the ballot paper by MPs to broaden the leadership debate.

“If he does become leader he would ensure Labour doesn’t win at the next election at all”.

“Pretending to share Jeremy’s politics is not a strategy for Labour winning in 2020”, said Toby Perkins, the MP for Chesterfield who is heading Kendall’s campaign.

In response she said: “Quite frankly during the last five years we attacked everything without offering a credible alternative, if we do that again we’ll get the same result”.

She said: “I don’t think Jeremy and my politics is [sic] anything the same”. “It’s a long slog though, but I think it will be worth it because we needed the time to listen closely to voters after such a crushing defeat, particularly in the South East, and choose a leader who will respond to what we’ve heard”.