The LBC Labour Leadership Hustings Debate

“We have a Labour party which appears to be in hock to the corporates, to the big businesses that now dominate out lives and want to pay people as little as possible”. In his first major economic speech of the leadership campaign the Islington MP suggested the remit of the Britain’s central bank be changed from targetting inflation at 2 percent to facilitating investment in infrastructure.

You would expect people who are eligible to vote in the Labour leadership contest to be unusually interested in politics. “I suspect that some of the major donors would be less likely to give, and so the amount of donations would go down”.

“You are out of office, not for five years or 10, but for very many years to come. If it does that, frankly, it has a death wish”.

A YouGov poll for the Times on Tuesday put Mr Corbyn – initially seen as an outsider – ahead and Ms Kendall fourth.

“Austerity is a political choice, not an economic necessity”, Corbyn said.

Three out of four of the contenders also have a negative net rating on prime ministerial credentials.

Two of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership opponents have said they would not serve in his Shadow Cabinet if he is elected.

Mr Corbyn is on 53 % which led to the intervention of former Labour leader Tony Blair saying a Jeremy Corbyn win would be a disaster for the Labour party and would put the party back in the wilderness in the dark days of when people like Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock ruled the roost.

Labour has been engaged in a fierce leadership battle after Ed Miliband resigned following the May election, in which the Conservative Party had won reelection with a slender parliamentary majority.

People who say their heart is with Corbyn, get a transplant.’.

Front-runner Mr Burnham was seen by only 27 per cent of voters in a new opinion poll as having “what it takes to be a good prime minister” while the same number did not think he had the right qualities. “It’s nonsense, ‘ says one Burnham source”. Cooper’s net score is -12, Kendall’s -14 and Corbyn’s -19.

But it is clear that he has caught the imagination of many Labour members and supporters thanks to his clearly expressed, traditional left-wing policies.

John McTernan is a hopelessly discredited figure saved only by the fact that practically nobody knows who he actually is. He advised in Scotland and we lost, he advised in Australia and we lost, he wasn’t in the Blair camp of any substance whatsoever. “He has no authority”.

Former bookies’ favorite Andy Burnham, however, said he would support the left-wing candidate should he become leader of the party. Nearly a quarter of Labour lawmakers rebelled this week and voted against the government’s planned welfare cuts, despite an order from interim leader Harriet Harman to abstain.

Describing the affair as a mess, he said: “It was a decision made by Harriet”.

“I nominated Jeremy because I think he represents an important body of thought within the Labour Party”, she said.

On Thursday Mr Corbyn responded to his critics by calling for an end to “silly remarks”.

What did you think?

Tony Blair issued a stark warning to the party not to repeat the mistakes of the 1980s which consigned the party to 18 years in opposition.

Mr Livingstone said the MP was an “ordinary guy” who connected with the public, comparing him to Nigel Farage.