Yvette Cooper To Stand For Labour Leadership

Yvette Cooper has announced she is standing to become leader of the Labour Party.

The shadow home secretary is joining Chuka Umunna, Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall in the race to succeed Ed Miliband, who resigned from his position last week.

In an article for the Daily Mirror, Ms Cooper pledged to "make life better for families" - and conceded that Labour lost the General Election because it didn't convince voters it "had the answers".

She wrote: "Labour needs to be bigger in our appeal, bolder in our ambitions and brighter about the future. Going back to the remedies of the past, of Gordon Brown or Tony Blair, won't keep up with the way the world has changed."

Ms Cooper is married to Ed Balls - who lost his job as an MP and the shadow chancellor last week after a shock defeat in Morley & Outwood.

Sky's Political Correspondent, Jon Craig, said: "This is the most detailed election manifesto we've seen from any of the candidates so far. It's going to be a frenetic summer for the Labour Party. You'd have to say probably that Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham are probably the two frontrunners.

"But Chuka Umunna will appeal to those who are what you might call the 'Blairite Wing' of the party, and those who want to skip a generation to someone who was not a member of the Blair or Brown governments."

Her announcement came hours after Andy Burnham declared his candidacy.

The former health secretary said: "Our challenge is not to go left or right, to focus on one part of the country above another, but to rediscover the beating heart of Labour."

He also appeared to take a swipe at his colleague and potential leadership rival Tristram Hunt, who told Sky News on Sunday that the Labour Party needed to appeal to the "John Lewis couples" who shop in smart department stores - as well as working-class families.

Mr Burnham added: "The party that I love has lost its emotional connection with millions of people.

"The way to get it back can't possibly be to choose one group of voters over another - to speak only to people on zero-hour contracts or only to shoppers at John Lewis."

Labour is planning to reveal who has been elected as its next leader and deputy leader at a special conference on 12 September - meaning the contest will take four months.