Miliband: Labour race crucial for the country

The former Foreign Secretary warned Labour members that the wrong choice of leader would leave the Conservatives as the only party with a realistic chance of winning elections.

He confirmed he would be supporting Liz Kendall - widely seen as from the same wing of the party - as his first choice to replace his brother, Doncaster North MP Ed Miliband.

But in boost for Yvette Cooper’s campaign, he also revealed the Shadow Home Secretary would be his second choice.

Mr Miliband said that, in the wake of the demise of the Liberal Democrats, the stakes are “very high indeed” for both Labour and the country.

He wrote in The Guardian: “Get it wrong, and Britain could become a multiparty democracy with only one party – the Conservative party – that can win parliamentary majorities. A one-governing-party state.”

Mr Miliband dismissed Jeremy Corbyn’s policy platform as one that “,looks backwards” and warned Labour has to be “more than a pressure group shouting from the sidelines at a Conservative government”.

“There is nothing defiant or desirable about unworkable policies and undeliverable promises. There is only defeat,” he wrote.

With polls suggesting Ms Kendall is struggling to have a significant impact on the leadership race, Mr Miliband’s support for Ms Cooper for second preference votes is likely to prove more significant.

Alongside the recent endorcsement from another Labour heavyweight, Hull West and Hessle MP Alan Johnson, it helps establish Ms Cooper as the likely destination for Blairite second preference votes.

In sharp contrast, Andy Burnham yesterday positioned himself as the second choice candidate for Mr Corbyn’s supporters on the left of the party.

The Shadow Health Secretary said there was a “good deal of common ground” between him and Mr Corbyn on key policy areas.

But he insisted Labour needed a “credible” approach to win public support.

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.

“So on the biggest issues of all - on the EU, the economy and public services - there is now a real choice before our party.

“And the way we choose to go will define us as a political force in the rest of this century.”

Responding to his comments, 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. From day one, whoever wins must pull the party together.”

Both Ms Cooper and Ms Kendall denied reports that Lord Mandelson had approached them in a bid to suspend the election by persuading the pair and Mr Burnham to drop out en masse.

While Ms Cooper said she had not been approached directly by the grandee and said she was unaware if her campaign team had been contacted, Ms Kendall insisted that neither she nor her office had spoken to the peer.

Asked about the claims made by the Telegraph, Ms Kendall told the BBC: “No, neither me nor anybody in my team (have spoken to Lord Mandelson).

“I have no idea where that came from.”

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

She ruled out dropping out of the race.