Yvette Cooper has challenged Andy Burnham to pull out of the Labour leadership contest, as she accused him of being too similar to front-runner Jeremy Corbyn.
The acrimony surrounding the battle intensified as Mr Burnham’s camp branded the shadow Home Secretary’s suggestion as a “panicked, desperate stunt”.
Ms Cooper reacted after Mr Burnham used a keynote speech to praise Mr Corbyn’s “energy” and “vision”. They claimed polling showed she was now best placed to defeat Mr Corbyn – ahead of Mr Burnham in most parts of the country and attracting a significant majority of potentially-vital second preferences.
“If he isn’t prepared to offer an alternative to Jeremy, he needs to step back and leave it to Yvette,” a spokeswoman said. “And he should do the right thing by the party and tell people who do still support him to put second preferences for Yvette – something he is still refusing to do.”
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But Mr Burnham’s campaign chief hit back with a suggestion the shadow Home Secretary was refusing to give way “out of pride” despite facing a “hopeless” situation.
Mr Burnham has since hit back, accusing Ms Cooper of a tactic which was “straight out of the Ed Balls’ handbook”. Ms Cooper is married to Mr Balls, who lost his seat at the last election. A spokesman for Mr Burnham said: “Yvette’s stunt is panicked, desperate and straight out of the Ed Balls handbook.”
It came as Liz Kendall called for the publication of a full breakdown of election results so members could see the extent to which new election rules boosted Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign.
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Unlike the 2010 leadership election, Labour is not currently planning to publish statistics showing how the vote splits between party members, affiliated union supporters and newly registered £3 supporters.
However in an interview with the website LabourList, Ms Kendall said it was vital that the party change its mind to ensure full transparency after the votes are counted next month.
“I’ve defended the reforms to our electoral process before I was a candidate and during this campaign,” she said.
