The plan appears to have backfired, after Mr Corbyn, a champion of Sinn Fein and Hamas, performed better than expected in party hustings, and seems to be appealing to a membership which felt let down by Labour’s defeat at the last election.
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Phil Wilson, Labour MP for Sedgefield, said Mr Corbyn’s aim to drag the party to the left would mean disaster at the polls in 2020 was unavoidable as he urged people to back Liz Kendall.
Jeremy Corbyn enjoys huge grassroots popularity, but not among the mainstream labour MPs who are said to be planning a coup against him if he does manage to win the Labour leadership race.
AfterLiz Kendall, the most right-wing of the four candidates, said she would never appoint Mr Corbyn to her team, Mr Burnham and Mrs Cooper were asked if they would find room for the left-winger in their shadow cabinet.
A source said: ‘Although he wants unity after the election he can’t envisage any circumstances where Corbyn would be on his front bench.’.
He said: “I think the average Labour member has more sense than to elect Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party”.
Ms Abbott said: “These stories about where he comes first – no one has seen such polls, that is a silly story”.
“The sneering at Jeremy for believing in things that actually millions of people believe in – like we shouldn’t be bombing Syria – and the attempt to abuse Labour Party members, we are hearing they are mad, that they are having a tantrum – that doesn’t play well”.
Bookmakers have Andy Burnham as the clear favourite to be next Labour Party leader. “I am convinced Andy can build a movement to win again and change Britain for the better, to hold Cameron and Osborne to account and to win in 2020”.
One unnamed Labour MP has told the media that “we can not just allow a party, a credible party of government, to be hijacked in the summer of madness”.
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The research project took place b etween May 21 and June 22, and involved discussions with voters in Tory-controlled Halesowen and Rowley Regis, Croydon Central, Southampton Itchen, Watford and Pudsey.
