Left-winger Jeremy Corbyn is ‘first choice for Londoners’

The MP led the Labour team in the European Parliament before entering Westminster and he served as a minister at the Wales Office.

He will then hold regular votes on policy issues and organisational changes with a newly expanded left-wing membership, most of which he is likely to win, while arguing that MPs who oppose him are part of an out-of-touch Westminster bubble.

Cllr Hont said he was disappointed the email had been leaked, but said he still believed the meeting with Ms Cooper should not go ahead.

Labour is frantically continuing its efforts to weed out supporters of other parties suspected of seeking to skew the result in Mr Corbyn’s favour either because they back hard left policies or want to harm the party.

The GMB union said the total number of its members recorded with the Labour Party as affiliated supporters was 23,840.

Corbyn was persuaded to put up his hand for the party leadership role to “widen the debate”, and he got the required 35 nominations from Labour members of Parliament only at the last minute, when some of them decided to throw a bone to the party’s activists.

Labour’s most successful leader, Blair won three national elections from 1997 to 2005 on a centrist platform.

A last-minute rush to sign up on Wednesday is thought to have given a massive boost to Corbyn, who has been urging his supporters to join through Twitter and Facebook.

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

Of course, Blair himself is unpopular in the United Kingdom, and in the Labour Party in particular, after leading the country into the Iraq invasion.

In Manchester, Ms Cooper admitted she may lose support for attacking Mr Corbyn, but insisted: “It’s not about personalities”.

The result of the contest will be announced on September 12 at a special Labour Party conference.

The former prime minister warned the party is in “danger more mortal” today than at any point in its existence as veteran left-winger Mr Corbyn continues to remain the frontrunner in the contest.

As the deadline passed for registering to vote in the election, several Labour lawmakers spoke out to express fears that infiltration by non-Labour members may twist the outcome of the race.

His campaign for the abolition of university tuition fees and the return of student grants has prompted analysts to suggest this explains Corbyn’s popularity among younger Labour supporters.