Yorkshire high on the agenda as Labour candidates eye victory

The Shadow Foreign Secretary will seek to convince wavering Labour members and pitch himself as the best candidate to appeal to swing voters just over a month before the winner of the contest is revealed.

On Sunday he will visit Huddersfield, Leeds and Bradford in a whistlestop tour designed to meet both party members and voters who rejected the party at the general election in May.

The trip will include taking questions from an audience open to non-party members at Huddersfield's National Children's Centre from 12.45pm.

Earlier this week Mr Miliband won the backing of nearly half the Labour candidates defeated at the last election, while he also got most nominations from sitting MPs.

The winner of the contest will be announced at the start of Labour's annual conference at Manchester in late September.

Mr Miliband is facing a strong challenge from his brother Ed, the Doncaster North MP and Shadow Energy Secretary, although other contenders Ed Balls, Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott have also been stepping up their campaigns.

Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman, who is backing Mr Miliband, and party activists recently carried out a survey of nearly 200 shoppers in the town and found 41 per cent supporting the Shadow Foreign Secretary. Ms Abbott was the second most popular, with 37 per cent support.

Mr Burnham was in Yorkshire earlier this week as part of his grassroots campaign. He has made a virtue of basing his campaign in Manchester rather than London.

Ed Miliband meanwhile has condemned Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg for demanding Gordon Brown resign if there to be any chance of a coalition between Labour and the Lib Dems.

He suggested he would be unable to work with Mr Clegg if he becomes leader.