Labour leftwinger Jeremy Corbyn has secured a place on the party’s leadership ballot paper by a whisker, joining Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall.



Corbyn made it on to the ballot with just minutes to spare, as several Labour MPs gave him their nominations to ensure members could vote on a wide field of candidates.

The candidates will now all take part in a series of hustings, before facing a vote among Labour members and supporters. The voting period will open in mid-August and close on 10 September, with the winner announced at the party’s autumn conference two days later.

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Although Burnham is the favourite, closely followed by Kendall and Cooper, the uncertainty over whether Corbyn would make the ballot has dominated the last few days of the contest.

Amid calls for the left wing of the party to be represented, a smattering of MPs backed Corbyn on Monday morning, taking him to 30 by 11am – one hour short of the deadline.

These included two Labour MPs who hope to win the nomination for London mayor – Sadiq Khan and David Lammy – as well as former foreign secretary Margaret Beckett, who is currently overseeing an inquiry into how Labour lost the election. He later won the support of Jon Cruddas. Fifteen minutes from the deadline he was three short, but he managed to get together enough last-minute names to make 36.

It was not possible for MPs to switch nominations, unless the candidate dropped out – as Mary Creagh did on Friday evening.

Corbyn seemed more phlegmatic about his chances than some of his supporters, who tried to bombard undecided MPs to press them into nominating him.

He said it would be great to secure a place but if he did not he was sure he had put the issues of austerity and nuclear weapons on the ballot paper.

Corbyn also expressed his regret that Harriet Harman had not stayed on as interim leader for a year or two to give the party time to have a policy debate and reflect on the election defeat, rather than enter a leadership contest built around personalities.

He said Labour needed to reflect on why the party lost votes to the Greens and Ukip, as well as why so many younger people did not vote.

After the result, Corbyn told the Daily Politics: “I think it was discussions that colleagues had with their constituency parties and party members over the weekend, and I fully acknowledge and recognise that those colleagues who nominated me – MPs who nominated me – may not necessarily agree with me on the pitch I’m taking or my views on many things.

“But they also felt there needs to be a full debate on policy in the party and I will obviously take part in all this debate over the next three months and hope at the end of it the Labour party emerges stronger and hope the Labour party is more resolute in opposing the principles behind austerity and impoverishment of the poorest in Britain.”

The final tally showed Burnham with 68 nominations and Cooper not far behind on 56, while Kendall got 41. Kendall’s camp on Monday had been fighting back against reports that those close to Burnham and Cooper thought she was out of the race.



A source from one of the rival camps told the Telegraph: “We are now seeing the end of Taliban New Labour. All of those Blairites who hoped they might get their candidate elected have failed.”

Cooper has previously accused other candidates of “swallowing” the Tory manifesto, but both her team and Burnham’s have now distanced themselves from this characterisation.

According to bookmakers Kendall is second favourite behind Burnham. Paddy Power shortened the odds on a Corbyn victory from 100/1 to 20/1 after he made the ticket, with Burnham on 5/6, Kendall 5/2, and Cooper 3/1.

All four will now appear in a televised hustings on the BBC’s Newsnight on Wednesday, presented by chief correspondent Laura Kuenssberg.