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Jess Phillips' bid to become the new Labour leader is attracting people back to the party, just to vote for her.

Ms Phillips has joined the race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn with calls to win back trust in the party's former heartlands.

She is entering the battle to head the party after its worst General Election defeat since 1935.

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The outspoken Birmingham Yardley MP Ms Phillips confirmed her bid with a call to elect "a different kind of leader".

And now it's been suggested that many people who had abandoned Labour are coming back into the fold simply to back Jess.

Author and journalist Caitlyn Moran wrote on Twitter: "I know so many previously despairing people who rejoined the Labour party, just so they could vote for Jess in a leadership contest. I'm one of them."

Several other people replied with "Me too", indicating they too wanted to back Ms Phillips.

(Image: PA)



Ms Phillips launched with a video on her social media pages detailing how she got involved in community activism in the Birmingham street where she grew up and raised her family.

The long-term Corbyn critic warned in a separate statement that Labour is in "big trouble" if it cannot win back the trust of its working-class base.

The Remain-backing MP warned that voters have lost trust in the Labour Party and stressed the need for the Prime Minister to be challenged with "passion, heart and precision".

Among her criticisms of the current leadership were the "woeful response" to anti-Semitism within the party's ranks and for Mr Corbyn's ambiguity on Brexit.

"We have got to be brave and bold and bring people with us, not try and look all ways.Trying to please everyone usually means we have pleased no-one," she said.

"Now is not the time to be meek. Boris Johnson needs to be challenged, with passion, heart and precision.

"We need to recognise that politics has changed in a fundamental way by electing a different kind of leader. More of the same will lead to more of the same result."

The MP, who supported victims of domestic abuse for Women's Aid before entering Parliament in 2015, said only "when we are clear and straightforward" will voters again back Labour.

"We're a party named after the working class who has lost huge parts of its working-class base. Unless we address that, we are in big trouble," she added.

Ms Phillips came third in a YouGov survey of the membership behind both shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey and shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer, who was clear favourite. Shadow energy secretary Lisa Nandy was the last of seven candidates.

But the outsiders will be hoping to boost their profiles with the race not expected to formally get under way until Tuesday before a new leader is installed by the end of March.