Labour extends leadership voter registration deadline after website crash

A string of warnings that a Corbyn victory could split the party or turn it into a mere pressure group have emerged in recent days from former Labour politicians including Tony Blair, Neil Kinnock, Jack Straw, Gordon Brown, and – mostly recently – David Miliband.

The “angry defiance” of the Corbyn campaign will lead only to electoral defeat, he warns in an article for The Guardian.

“They will rightly decide the future of the Labour Party now”.

Mr Miliband dismissed the radical left-winger’s “demand that Labour become an anti-austerity movement on the Greek model”. “This election needs to bring some change to Labour”.

“The Corbyn programme looks backwards”.

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.

Yvette Cooper has rounded on Andy Burnham this evening, demanding that the Labour leadership contender oppose Jeremy Corbyn or stand aside.

The two sides have adopted starkly different approaches, Mr Burnham reaching out to Corbyn supporters by stressing the “good deal of common ground” between them.

“I am from here and these are my roots”, he said.

“I think people should use all of their preferences”.

Labour supporters are voting in a month-long contest to select a leader whose first major test will be to steer the 115-year-old party through a referendum on Britain’s EU membership by the end of 2017 ahead of a national election in 2020.

After the speech, Mr Corbyn said: “We welcome Andy’s inclusive tone towards our campaign and the view is mutual – if we win we would involve Andy in our team if he was willing”. If he isn’t prepared to offer an alternative to Jeremy, he needs to step back and leave it to Yvette. “Liz_Kendall_rejects__against_democracy__accusations/” class=”local_link” >Liz Kendall have denied reports that Lord Mandelson approached them in a bid to suspend the election by persuading the pair and Mr Burnham to drop out en masse.

In Manchester, Ms Cooper admitted she may lose support for attacking Mr Corbyn, but insisted: “It’s not about personalities”. “I have no idea where that came from”.

Mr Burnham also enjoyed a cup of tea with staff on the visit before leaving with a lasting message.

She said: “I haven’t made that proposal and none of the other candidates have made that to me”.

Cooper’s team reacted with surprise and anger at suggestions from the Burnham camp that she should tone down her campaign, saying their data shows quite clearly that she is picking up around 60% of Burnham’s second preference votes and 90% of those from Kendall supporters.

“I’m not going to let that happen this time”.

Mr Meacher said: “Politics is about principles and values – what are you doing it for and who will benefit”.