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Hundreds of people turned out to see Labour leadership front-runner Jeremy Corbyn as he visited Liverpool.

Mr Corbyn received loud cheers and applause as he spoke at the Merseyside County TUC rally at the Adelphi Hotel, with standing room only inside and hundreds more just outside the large room listening to his speech.

The audience appeared to respond strongly to his anti-austerity message, cheering as the London MP spoke.

Mr Corbyn said: “We felt that, in the aftermath of the defeat in May we should be examining the policies which led to that.”

He told the packed room austerity was not caused by nurses and street cleaners, and said Britain has become “a grotesquely unequal society” with children going hungry during school holidays without school meals, while most wealth is in the hands of a tiny minority - to further loud applause.

One Labour councillor who was at the meeting said Mr Corbyn was so popular because “for too many years Labour has not listened to its own grassroots” and added: “They have reaped what they have sown.”

The event was the second time Mr Corbyn had visited Merseyside during his leadership campaign.

Hundreds turned out last month to see him appear at Birkenhead Town Hall.

This week the Islington North MP received the backing of the country’s biggest union, Unison, which represents 1.3 million workers, with 28,000 members in the Labour party, and around 15,000 registered to vote in the leadership contest.

Wallasey MP Angela Eagle, who is standing for the deputy leader role was also backed by Unison.

Speaking before the event, rally organiser Alec McFadden said: “We are bringing Jeremy back to Merseyside so that more working class people can hear his message and ask him questions. In my view, he is the only candidate that represents the needs and aspirations of the people.

“Whilst the Tory government seeks to impose a ‘Sheriff of Nottingham budget’. Jeremy and 47 other Labour MP’s voted to oppose it, that’s why so many people are registering and supporting him”.

Voting for the Labour leadership contest, which is also being fought by Liverpool-born Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall, opens on August 14, with the result due on September 12.