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Jeremy Corbyn has secured the backing of former US Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, the Labour leader claimed last night.

He told a supporters at a phone bank in London he'd been sent a message by the fellow-left winger over the weekend.

Yesterday, ballot papers began to drop on the doormats of Labour members across the country for the party's impending leadership contest.

Mr Corbyn said: "We had a message yesterday from Bernie Sanders, saying that they condemned him because he wasn't electable.

"And he said the reason they condemned him was because he was electable. And he represented a threat to the establishment within the USA.

"So I think you can see the parallels that are going on there."

(Image: REUTERS/Rick Wilking)

Bernie Sanders was defeated in the Democratic Presidential Primary election by Hillary Clinton, who won the popular contest by more than 3 million votes.

And he thanked the Labour MPs who had taken on new roles in his shadow cabinet in "very difficult circumstances" after June's mass revolt.

He said having to take part in a leadership contest "wasn't what we wanted to be doing this summer" but said he was determined to fight to ensure the Labour Party moved forward.

"This leadership campaign has been brought about because, as you know, there were a series of resignations from the shadow cabinet.

"There was then a series of people who then declined to serve in the shadow cabinet.

"We appointed others to fill their places and I wanted to say a huge thank you to those people who took on completely new jobs.

"Richard Burgon, Becky Long-Bailey, Angela Rayner, Cat Smith ... Diane (Abbott) took on a different role in taking on health, and so on.

"And those people have all worked incredibly hard, in very, very difficult circumstances, to get the Labour view across."

It came the day after Shadow minister Chi Onwurah suggested Mr Corbyn could be guilty of racial discrimination.

In an article for the New Statesman, the Newcastle MP - who remains as Shadow Minister for culture and the digital economy - said in any other job Mr Corbyn would have faced an industrial tribunal for his behaviour in an earlier reshuffle.

She repeated claims made by ex-Shadow Minister Thangham Debbonaire, who says she he gave part of Ms Onwurah's brief in the January reshuffle, and then took it away without telling her.

She accused Mr Corbyn of "undermining" both women, adding: “If this had been any of my previous employers in the public and private sectors, Jeremy might well have found himself before an industrial tribunal for constructive dismissal, probably with racial discrimination thrown in – given that only 5% of MPs are black and female, picking on us two is statistically interesting to say the least.”