Chuka Umunna – 2/1

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chuka Umunna. Photograph: Ray Tang/Rex

The smooth-talking Streatham MP who increased his majority by more than 10,000 has wasted no time in setting out his case about where Labour went wrong: not aspirational enough, too much focus on the very rich and very poor, and a failure to be pro-business.

His backstory is a good one - a high-flying City lawyer who is the son of a Nigerian immigrant who came to the UK with nothing. But his critics say he is too much a part of the London metropolitan elite. Some may also remember the fact that he had to apologise in 2013 for bemoaning the amount of “trash” among the clientele of London nightclubs, in a post on an elite social network.



Peter Mandelson, who has been quick to give a similar explanation of the problems of Miliband’s campaign as Umunna, is not publicly backing anyone but said of his candidacy: “There’s a little way to go but I think he’ll get there”. Umunna has not yet officially declared.

He says in the Observer: “Our vision as a party must start with the aspirations of voters: to get on and up in the world, to see their children and grandchildren do better than they did, to get that better job, to move from renting to owning, to take the family on holiday, to move from that flat to that house with a garden.”



Andy Burnham – 3/1

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Andy Burnham. Photograph: David Gadd/Sportsphoto/Allstar

Burnham is one of the most experienced candidates but with that comes the baggage of being associated with the government of Gordon Brown. As shadow health secretary and a former health secretary he was mercilessly attacked by the Conservatives for having been at the helm during the Mid Staffordshire hospital scandal.

However, he is beloved by the Labour activist base for having made strong arguments during the election campaign about the need to repeal the coalition’s health reforms and protect the NHS from privatisation. As a northerner and one of the most leftwing candidates, he is probably the most likely to get trade union endorsement for any leadership bid. His critics worry that he is just a “prettier Ed Miliband” who might continue with the status quo that lost the party the election.

He says: Nothing yet. He has not yet declared and his only tweets since the election defeat have been about football.

Yvette Cooper – 9/2



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Yvette Cooper. Photograph: Rob Stothard/Getty Images

Cooper has been silent since Thursday’s election defeat in which her husband, the shadow chancellor Ed Balls, lost his Morley and Outwood seat. She is yet to declare but will be the leading female candidate in a party that has never had a woman in charge. Like Burnham, she carries the burden of the past as a former minister in Brown’s government who is inextricably associated with Balls. But she gave a strong performance as shadow home secretary against Theresa May and is seen as being tough on crime and security.

Critics may worry that she is too tribally Labour and that her media performances are too wooden at a time when politicians are under pressure to show a bit more personality, reach out to a broader audience and show a willingness to say what they really think.

She says: Nothing yet. But she has attracted the largest single bet, of £2,000 with William Hill.



Tristram Hunt – 6/1

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tristram Hunt. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA

The telegenic historian has been swift to make it clear he is thinking about running for the leadership and to offer his thoughts on the defeat. Much like Umunna, he has made an argument that Labour is not appealing enough to the centre ground, saying the party needs to appeal to “John Lewis couples” and those who aspire to shop in Waitrose. His desire is a “progressive, social democratic” nation and he thinks the party made a mistake in not doing enough to listen to businesses.

However, there may be worries that Hunt is too much in the same vein as Ed Miliband – a well-off, southern intellectual who thinks about politics in an academic way. As shadow education secretary he has made a few gaffes that may have infuriated the very middle Englanders he seeks to woo, including referring to parents who like free schools as “yummy mummies” and questioning whether nuns make good teachers.



He says on Sky: “I think that the public didn’t feel that they could trust us with their economic futures. They didn’t feel that we spoke to their sense of cultural or national identity in England and clearly in Scotland as well. I now think we face this double-bind as a Labour party.”

Liz Kendall – 16/1

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Liz Kendall. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Kendall, like Umunna, is a Blairite who has already been talking about the need to embrace those in middle England who gave their vote to the Conservatives this time. She has the advantage of being a woman in a party under pressure to elect its first female leader. And she has shown guts by being one of the first out of the blocks, confirming to the BBC’s Andrew Neil on Sunday that she is running in the leadership contest and setting out her diagnosis of Labour’s defeat.

The shadow care minister was born in Watford and worked in charities, thinktanks and as a special adviser before becoming MP for Leicester West in 2010.

She says in the Sunday Times (£): “The scale of the challenge is so profound that having this fundamental rethink is essential to the future survival of our party, and that cannot happen in a couple of weeks or months.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dan Jarvis. Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/PA

Jarvis was seen as a very promising potential leadership candidate, but has ruled himself out of the contest, saying that it was not the right time for his family.

The Nottingham-born former army officer was made MBE for service in Afghanistan before entering parliament in the Barnsley Central byelection in 2011, a year after losing his wife to cancer.

In a statement on the LabourList website on Sunday night he said: “I’m ready to serve in that rebuilding process as part of the Labour team. But I can’t do that as Leader at this moment and I won’t be putting my name forward in the coming leadership contest.



“It’s not the right time for my family. My eldest kids had a very tough time when they lost their mum and I don’t want them to lose their dad. I need some space for them, my wife and our youngest child right now, and I wouldn’t have it as Leader of the Opposition.”

He says: “I don’t believe we could have worked any harder for a Labour victory – and we owe a great debt to the thousands of people who campaigned valiantly on doorsteps across the country.

“Nor do I think our defeat was down to the public discovering a sudden affection for the Conservative party or what they stand for.

“It was a judgment on our failure to move out of the comfort zone of critiquing the Tories and instead set out a positive alternative. The Labour party has no divine right to expect the support of the British people. We have to earn it.”