LIZ KENDALL was dubbed the Labour leadership candidate of right-wing entryist group Progress yesterday after being backed by four leading Blairites.

Chuka Umunna, who had been a bookies’ favourite before pulling out, was among a group of shadow cabinet members who said that Ms Kendall was the candidate who could move the party “beyond our comfort zone.”

Stephen Twigg, Jonathan Reynolds and Emma Reynolds also gave their endorsements through a New Statesman article.

The foursome, linked to Labour’s neoliberal Progress faction, praised Ms Kendall for challenging the “conventional wisdom” in Labour.

“It is no longer simply enough to get into power and, from Whitehall, pull the old social-democratic levers,” they argued.

Their support saw shadow health minister Ms Kendall, who has defended and applauded private-sector involvement in the NHS, installed as second favourite by the bookies.

That puts her ahead of shadow home secretary and fellow rightwinger Yvette Cooper but behind shadow health secretary Andy Burnham.

A poll of over 2,200 readers of web site Labour List also gave Mr Burnham a 35 per cent to 24 per cent lead over Ms Kendall.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said yesterday that the next Labour leader needed to put “decent wages, decent homes, decent jobs” at the top of their agenda.

Along with shadow international secretary Mary Creagh, Ms Kendall currently remains short of the 35 nominations needed from fellow MPs to be on the Labour leadership ballot paper.