Hunt Rules Out Leadership Run: Backs Kendall

Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt has ruled out a bid for Labour leadership instead announcing he will back Liz Kendall.

In a speech at think-tank Demos, television historian Mr Hunt said it was clear he did not have enough support from Labour MPs to risk running for the top job.

He said it had become clear in recent days that support had coalesced around two candidates and that the leadership contenders had been settled in just five days.

Mr Hunt said rather than split support he decided to back "Blairite" Ms Kendall saying she was ideal leadership material and "open to the big challenges facing the country".

He said: "Like other potential candidates in recent days I have made a lot of calls to potential supporters among my parliamentary colleagues. I found that the bulk of MPs are already committed to just a couple of candidates.

"It is surprising that the nomination process to select a leader for at least the next five years appears to have been largely decided within at most five days of a devastating general election defeat."

Labour's leadership challenge has been hit by rows over the union-backing of Andy Burnham and claims of bullying in the aftermath of a dismal election for the party.

And Mr Hunt took a swipe at the influence traditionally held over the election of the party leader by the unions. He said: "We need less dictation by individuals and individual factions that still seek to wield an influence that is both disproportionate to what they deserve and contrary to the egalitarian principle of one member, one vote."

The leadership contest has already become characterised as a battle between the so-called "Blairites" including Mr Hunt, Ms Kendall and Mary Creagh, the shadow international development secretary, and the "Brownites" represented by Mr Burnham and Yvette Cooper.

:: Profile of Liz Kendall

Mr Hunt had been hotly tipped to run and has been spoken as a potential party leader for some time but he admits he was a little slow out of the blocks after the 7 May election.

His announcement means there are now four contenders for the leadership, which will be decided in September, after shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna withdrew his candidacy.

In his speech, Mr Hunt said the party had to win the "argument economic efficiency and social justice could march together hand in hand" as New Labour did in 1997.

He said Labour had failed to win the election because it had lost support in Scotland, in traditional Labour communities and in aspiration marginals. It had gone for a 35% core voters strategy and should have gone for a 100% strategy.

Mr Hunt, who also recently claimed the party was "on the side of families who want to shop at John Lewis", said Labour was facing its greatest crisis and had not been so "out of step" with voters since 1983.

He admitted Labour had "spent too much", failed to tackle the banks, and should have rebalanced the economy in favour of engineering and imports rather than property during the "good times".

Ms Kendall said: "Tristram is a big talent. I am delighted to have his backing to be Labour's next leader.

"Tristram's support and ideas will be important as we seek to change so Labour can win back the trust of the British people."

Mr Burnham, the only man in the contest, is emerging as the favourite and building a strong team around him landing party co-chairman and shadow transport secretary Michael Dugher as his campaign manager and shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves as his economic lead.

Shadow care minister Ms Kendall was the first to announce she would be running for the leadership, making her announcement three days after the election.

On Wednesday she hit a first campaign blunder after a lizforleader.co.uk was set up which first redirected users to Andy Burnham's campaign website and then played Rick Astley pop videos with the message that she should have registered the domain name.

Her official campaign site is lizforleader.com.