Former party leader is emailing members asking them to back Jeremy Corbyn’s challenger in upcoming vote

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband is emailing all party members, urging them to back Owen Smith against Jeremy Corbyn in the leadership election.

Miliband, the MP for Doncaster North, was among senior party figures calling for Corbyn to step down as leader after he lost the confidence of the majority of his MPs, and nominated Smith as leader.

In a video, he delivers a personal endorsement of Smith as the right person to lead Labour in the wake of June’s Brexit vote. He says the new prime minister, Theresa May, has adopted the “language of the left” but could take Britain to the right.

Corbyn is widely thought to be ahead in the race, and his backers swept the board in elections to the party’s governing national executive committee, strengthening his control over Labour machinery.

Ballot papers are due to be sent out in the coming days – though the timing of the contest has been thrown into doubt by Monday’s high court ruling that 130,000 new members must be given a vote, which the NEC now plans to appeal.

Miliband stepped aside after he led Labour to defeat at last year’s general election. The changes he made to the system for electing Labour leaders – throwing the ballot open to party members and weakening the power of MPs and trades unions – helped Corbyn sweep to victory in last year’s leadership race.

Miliband said Labour needed a leader who could “unite our party and make us a serious alternative government” and praised “the vision of a more equal society shining through” in Smith’s campaign.

Corbyn and Smith will face each other in a second public hustings on Thursday night in Gateshead, against the background of an increasingly bitter battle for the future of Labour which saw Corbyn’s team hit back on Tuesday against claims by deputy leader Tom Watson that “Trotskyist entryists” were seeking to gain control of the party.