Labour To Address 'Tory Infiltration' Concerns

Harriet Harman will meet Labour leadership hopefuls later to discuss their concerns the contest is not being conducted fairly.

The acting party leader hopes the emergency meeting will assuage candidates' fears the contest has been infiltrated by Labour's political opponents hoping to swing the vote for left-winger Jeremy Corbyn.

For £3 anyone can register as a Labour supporter and secure a vote in the poll and more than 120,000 people have signed up, swelling the electorate to more than 600,000.

Andy Burnham's campaign, which has called for the meeting, has argued the process could leave the result open to a legal challenge because thousands of Conservatives may have signed up to vote.

"I have confidence in it as long as we get clarification about how the very small number of applications that have been made on a fraudulent basis (are) being dealt with properly," he said.

He told supporters at a rally on Monday that he was determined not to allow his party to become divided over the leadership contest.

"Have you heard the big news today? One Direction are splitting up next year. I'm here to tell you, I'm not going to let the same thing happen to the Labour Party," he said.

"We are here to get a Labour government back. We're here to win."

Several senior figures in the party have warned that a win for favourite Mr Corbyn on 12 September could consign Labour to electoral defeat for the next decade.

In a clear snub to Mr Corbyn, former PM Gordon Brown has publicly backed his rival Yvette Cooper and given his second preference vote to Andy Burnham and his third to Liz Kendall.

:: The four candidates for the Labour leadership will go head-to-head for the final time before voting ends, live on Sky News on Thursday, 3 September. The debate is taking place in Gateshead and if you want to be part of the audience, you can apply here.