Burnham Concerned Over Tory 'Infiltration'

Andy Burnham's campaign has written to the Labour Party's General Secretary questioning its vetting process to root out infiltrators in the leadership election.

The Burnham campaign team argue the process could leave the result open to legal challenge.

The letter calls for an urgent meeting with the other leadership candidates over concerns that "given the party's limited resources and the effort required to investigate applicants, this could result in the integrity of the contest being called into question".

Questions have been raised for weeks about whether people who have registered may in fact be Conservative supporters try to distort the process.

:: Your Chance To Quiz Labour Leadership Hopefuls

More than 120,000 people have paid £3 and signed up as supporters, along with more than 189,000 members of unions and other affiliates, swelling the electorate to more than 600,000.

The Labour Party has defended the process saying it has "a robust system" to stop rogue applications and there are no plans to halt or alter the process.

The letter to Labour General Secretary Iain McNichol from Michael Dugher, Mr Burnham's campaign chair, said the party was "allowing the issue to drift, and potentially leaving insufficient time for the party to act".

He said: "We are therefore writing to ask you to call an urgent meeting of candidate teams early next week to discuss this matter further, to brief us on progress being made, and to consider recommendations from the campaign teams.

"This meeting should include representatives of all leadership and deputy leadership campaign teams, and should be a face-to-face meeting with those unable to participate joining by phone.

"We also believe that representatives of the Procedures Committee should be in attendance at the meeting."

The letter was sent as Yvette Cooper accused Labour colleagues of "defeatism" and insisting she can still pull off an opinion poll-defying victory over Mr Corbyn in the leadership race.

In an appeal to wavering voters not to "write our party off", amid widespread expectations of a win for the veteran left-winger, she will say he is showing signs of "hubris".

Voting is due to conclude on Thursday, 10 September with the result announced in London on Saturday, 12 September.

:: Profiles Of The Candidates