Snubbed Ed Balls to fight on for Labour crown

The political committee of Unite voted on Saturday to back Ed Miliband – following endorsements for the shadow energy secretary from Unison and the GMB.

He also has the nomination of 106 local parties to the 130 enjoyed by his brother, shadow foreign secretary David Miliband, who remains the bookies' favourite.

On the eve of the closure of supporting nominations, Mr Balls has won the support of just eight constituency organisations as well as the Communication Workers' Union (CWU).

But although Mr Balls conceded he was behind and lacked his rivals' early organisation, he insisted he was confident enough of winning the votes of party and union members to carry on.

Directly confronting rumours he was to quit on his blog, he said: "I've never been a frontrunner in this campaign. I did not have the early organisation of some other candidates and I am behind on formal CLP (Constituency Labour Parties) and union endorsements.

"But the votes which count won't be cast until September. The Labour leadership will be decided by millions of individual members of the party, the unions and socialist societies all making their own decisions – many of whom have not yet made up their minds."

The shadow schools secretary played up his recent high-profile battles with the coalition Government over cuts to school building programmes and free school meals.

He said he had long feared the contest could see the party "turn inwards".

"But I believe it's vital too that we show that Labour can take the argument to the coalition on values and policy and win the argument that there is an alternative to what they are proposing.

"I am fighting to win this leadership contest to continue these campaigns, to give a voice to our communities and constituents and to show that as leader I would be best placed to set out an alternative plan for jobs and social justice for our country."

The decision to support Ed Miliband is expected to be endorsed by Unite's executive today and will then be recommended to the union's one million political levy-paying members.