Why I voted for Jeremy Corbyn’: Conservative Alderman speaks out

Opinion polls suggest Ms Cooper is locked in a battle with Mr Burnham to emerge as the main challenger to Mr Corbyn, with Liz Kendall trailing in fourth place.

He did not criticise the Islington MP personally, or mention him once, but the fifty minute speech amounted to barely coded message to Labour supporters not to back Corbyn.

Blakenall councillor Mr Smith, who completed his year as ceremonial mayor in May, said: “I wish to send my very best wishes to Jeremy Corbyn and sincerely hope he wins the Leadership contest”.

But Mr Burnham warned there is a “real risk of division” following the increasingly bitter leadership contest and insisted he was the one candidate who could unite the party.

It came a day after former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown appealed for Labour not to become a “party of protest”.

Membership of Aylesbury’s Labour party has doubled since the general election and there are more than 500 people here who are registered to vote in the contest.

“It’s not for me to tell the Labour Party who it should have as leader, but Jeremy Corbyn is not the man to take Britain forward”.

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.

More than 300 residents have joined up as members or supporters in the last few weeks, including a Horsham district councillor who was identified in the party’s screening process.

“I and many fellow socialists are really heartened by Jeremy’s intervention and campaign”.

Former Home Secretary David Blunkett intervened with a warning that Labour would remain in opposition if it elected Mr Corbyn as leader.

“The Corbyn programme looks backwards”, he added in a newspaper article. The Jewish Chronicle said British Jews expressed “deep foreboding at the prospect of Mr. Corbyn’s election as Labour leader”, The Guardian reported. They have been nominated, they are valid candidates.

“Our hearts can be broken and yet it is worse to find out we are powerless to do anything about it”.

A spokesman for Ms Cooper said he should step aside “if he isn’t prepared to offer an alternative” to left-wing frontrunner Jeremy Corbyn.

The shadow health secretary will say it would be “unforgivable” if infighting after the result is announced on September 12 prevented Labour standing up to the Tories.

Speaking at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, he said: “Labour can’t hark back to 70s or 80s style solutions but instead needs to open its mind to radical ideas of this kind that could reinvigorate our democracy at a local level and lift the lives of millions”.