Poll: 73% Of Labour Grassroots Want Corbyn

A leadership victory for Jeremy Corbyn could result in an SDP-style split and put off wealthy financial supporters, one of Labour's biggest donors has warned.

Businessman John Mills, who has given £1.6m to the party, said that a win for the veteran anti-austerity MP would divide Labour.

His warning came as a poll of 5,438 LabourList readers indicated an astonishing 72.84% would pick Mr Corbyn as their first preference for Labour Party leader.

Liz Kendall was second with just 9.53%, followed by Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham trailing on 6.6%.

Although a staggering margin, LabourList admits the results "overstate Corbyn's popularity" and warn the email survey is a self-selecting and unweighted, therefore the results should be treated with some caution.

However, it does indicate at significant groundswell of support among the party's grassroots.

The rift in the party has deepened this week in the wake of a separate YouGov poll which also suggested Mr Corbyn could seize victory and a significant intervention from Tony Blair.

Mr Mills, who is supporting the Blairite candidate Ms Kendall, told The Guardian: "If Corbyn won, I suspect what would happen is that there would be some sort of split. Then you would have an SDP-type party."

The SDP formed after Labour moderates split from the Labour Party because it had gone too far to the left.

:: Who Is Jeremy Corbyn?

Mr Mills said while Mr Corbyn could attract further donations from the unions it would put off wealthy business supporters.

He said: "The Labour Party has a spectrum of donors. I suspect some of the major donors would be less likely to give and so the amount of donations would go down.

"But at the same time donations from trade unions could go up."

Mr Corbyn's politics were endorsed by Greece's populist Left-wing ruling party Syriza.

Syriza MP Costas Lapavitsas said Mr Corbyn was "exactly what Britain could do with" and he could inject common sense and values into the Labour Party.

On Wednesday, Mr Blair told Labour members who said their "hearts" were with Mr Corbyn's politics to "get a transplant".

And in an interview with Sky News on Thursday, David Miliband appeared to tacitly endorse Ms Kendall's campaign, saying the party needed "needs new ideas, not old ones".

It comes as Ms Kendall is under increasing pressure to step aside and neuter the threat from Mr Corbyn by allowing her backers to switch to Ms Cooper or Mr Burnham.

In the YouGov poll, which put Mr Corbyn 17 points ahead of Mr Burnham on first preferences, Ms Kendall was last on 11%.

However, she has said she "loved her party" too much to give up and consign the party to a generation out of power.