Labour Hopefuls Make Leadership Pitches

Labour leadership candidates said they did not anticipate the scale of the party's loss at the General Election as they admitted the party failed to connect with thousands of voters.

However, they insisted they had raised their fears about the campaign but remained loyal to Ed Miliband.

Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall, Mary Creagh and Tristram Hunt were speaking at the annual Progress event, which comes a day after Chuka Umunna withdrew from the leadership contest.

All but Mr Hunt have declared their bid for the leadership and the shadow education secretary is expected to declare his interest as the next Leader of the Opposition in the coming week.

He told the conference he had not anticipated the Labour defeat but said the party had suffered a "triple bind" losing because it had failed to see the scale of defeat in Scotland, lost voters in traditional Labour communities and failed to reach those in "aspirational marginals".

Ms Kendall said she had raised her concerns over the direction the party had taken telling the conference she had argued for reform of public services.

She added: "I did make the case that we needed to be positive otherwise we would risk sounding like the moaning man down the pub."

Mr Burnham, who is emerging as the favourite to win the leadership, said the party had lost its emotional connection with thousands of voters but that he and others had made comments on the campaign throughout.

He said the party had to "address immigration in a credible and convincing way" - UKIP managed to make significant inroads into the party's core support.

He said if Labour did not "face up to immigration right now" UK would "sleepwalk" to and exit from the European Union, membership of which UKIP claims is responsible for the country's immigration problems.

However, Ms Cooper said everyone should share responsibility for the defeat and praised those who had campaigned hard for the party.

A significant divide opened up between the candidates who admitted the party had spent too much before the economic crash in 2009 and those who defended Gordon Brown's policies.

The issued tripped Mr Miliband up in the last of the televised question sessions during campaigning.

Mr Hunt said: "To be listened to, I think we need to admit that we spent too much under the last Labour government."

However, Ms Cooper refused to apologise for spending - and was applauded by Mr Burnham, said to be the favourite with the powerful unions.

Sky's political correspondent Sophy Ridge said that Mr Burnham was fast becoming the toughest candidate.

She said: "Andy Burnham building formidable team around him - Michael Dugher, Lord Falconer, Luciana Berger. He's becoming the one to beat."

Mr Umunna, who was considered a frontrunner in the race to succeed Ed Miliband, withdrew after becoming uncomfortable with the "added level of pressure" attached to being a candidate.

The 36-year-old claimed he had "very real concerns and worry about this bid's impact on those close to me".

A source close to the shadow business secretary told Sky News that rumours he quit because of forthcoming negative stories in the press were "utter nonsense".

Speaking on Saturday Mr Umunna said he had nothing more to say and said: "The candidacy is over and now we are looking to the future."

Announcing his July Budget in Downing Street on Saturday morning, Chancellor George Osborne said the Labour leadership contest had "descended into farce".

:: Labour is set to find out whether it will lose up to £1m in annual funding from the Co-operative Group, as the company continues to recover from the near collapse of its banking arm in 2013.

During the Co-op's annual general meeting in Manchester, its three million members will decide whether financial support for political groups should be stopped.