Labour leadership election explained in 60 seconds

“There are many views on Europe in the Labour Party and I wouldn’t want to suppress any of those views”.

He warned that even if Mr Corbyn does not win his emboldened supporters will use their “newfound influence” within the party to “take out” whoever becomes the Labour leader.

He said: “For many Labour party members Jeremy Corbyn is an authentic voice and does not conform to the stereotypical representation of career politicians that come to mind when people think of their parliamentary representatives”. Entries on Mr Corbyn’s House of Commons’ register of members’ interests, which was updated last week, show his campaign took in almost pounds 100,000 between June 23 and July 31 from just four unions.

In the 1980s, Labour tried proposing withdrawal from the EU, nationalisation of the top 200 monopolies and unilateral nuclear disarmament, but the electorate “sent us packing”, he said.

The pair spoke ahead of a speech in which Mr Burnham is set to reach out to Mr Corbyn by offering him a role in “rebuilding the party” if he wins the election.

But since then support for him has surpassed all expectations with thousands of people flocking to recent events held to support him. We have very few polls on the Labour leadership election – and those that exist (necessarily) have small samples of what Burnham and Cooper’s second preferences would be.

An MP involved in the Corbyn team told the Guardian he said it was now a two-horse race between the frontrunner and Burnham, and that it would be much tighter than people are currently assuming.

Mr Burnham added: “I won’t let those Bullingdon Boys – the heirs to Thatcher – do the same to people in 2015 as she did in 1985”. I want to capture that and would involve Jeremy in my team from the outset.

“We would have to have a discussion in the Labour party on this, maybe a special conference”. If Corbyn wins in September it’ll be the best thing to happen to Labour for a long time.

(However, it’s worth pointing out that more “neutral” MPs – ones who aren’t in either the Burnham or Cooper camps – sway more towards Andy as the realistic Stop Corbyn candidate.).

It is understood that Cooper rejected pressure from senior Labour figures last week for both her and Liz Kendall to drop out and leave the way clear for Burnham to contest Corbyn alone.

He explained: “While I am open to the idea, I’m also sceptical about the Tories’ motivation for granting income tax powers to Wales.”The risk is they absolve themselves of responsibility for their cuts by telling the Welsh Government to raise its own taxes”.

Yvette Cooper has insisted she is unaware of any attempt by Lord Mandelson to suspend the Labour leadership election by persuading the three frontbench contenders to quit en masse.

Around 50 party staff in Newcastle are verifying applications, with a further 30 people at Labour headquarters in London involved in compiling the list of known candidates and supporters from other parties.