Jeremy Corbyn, the hard-left backbench MP, is set to clinch the Labour leadership after a shock poll gave him a 17 point lead today.
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These Labour figures do not appear to understand how the party leader is elected.
As indicated by the dynamite poll, after Ms Kendall and Mrs Cooper had been eliminated and second preferences redistributed under the Alternative Vote system, Mr Corbyn would beat Mr Burnham 53 per cent to 47 per cent in the final round.
Former bookies’ favorite Andy Burnham, however, said he would support the left-wing candidate should he become leader of the party.
If all the attention of the Labour leadership race was focused on Corbyn and one other candidate, there is an argument that Kendall dropping out would focus Labour’s minds and the media attention on the two-horse race.
Ms Kendall commented that Labour held Gower for “106 years” until May’s election and underscored her commitment to seeing the party perform well in next year’s Assembly vote.
“Don’t for heaven’s sake move back”.
Corbyn did not waste time in replying to Blair’s attack, saying: “I think Tony Blair’s big problem is we’re still waiting for the Chilcot Report to come out”.
“Jim Callaghan had been prime minister and the Labour party was put out of power by Margaret Thatcher and the Labour party persuaded itself that the reason why the country had voted for Margaret Thatcher was because they wanted a really left wing Labour party”.
Pressed whether he would take a shadow cabinet position under Mr Corbyn, Mr Burnham said: “I would”.
“Those of us who stayed and fought to save the Labour party in the 1980s will be experiencing a growing sense of deja vu”, he said.
Asked if there were circumstances in which he might vote No, Mr Burnham said: “There aren’t, because I always will believe that being in Europe is better for jobs in our country”.
He said the former prime minister’s suggestion that anyone whose heart told them they should back Mr Corbyn should “get a transplant” was “totally unacceptable”.
After May, all polls should be treated with scepticism, but this survey mirrors the high number of constituency parties nominating Mr Corbyn. “That is something we can pull behind”, she said.
Mills warned that there would be an impact on donations too, but stressed he would be minded to stay loyal to Labour even if Corbyn turned it into a substantial far-left party, like Die Linke in Germany.
To prevent Mr Burnham from emerging as the “stop Jeremy Corbyn candidate”, Ms Cooper has launched a campaign against the Government’s welfare cuts, despite toeing the party line to abstain on George Osborne’s welfare reforms earlier this week.
In a question and answer session, Mr Blair made clear his irritation with those tempted to support Mr Corbyn: ‘People who say their heart is with Corbyn, get a transplant.’. “I don’t understand the logic of stepping entirely away from it”, the former prime minister said during a speech to the think tank Progress.
Replying to Blair’s claim that he is “the Tory preference” to win the Labour leadership contest, Corbyn retorted: “I would have thought he could manage something more serious than those very silly remarks”, adding that it was “a bit premature” to talk about victory in the contest.
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He said having Corbyn as leader would be ‘like going back to Star Trek or something.
