A RIFT on the right of the Labour Party emerged yesterday, when a factional group published an open letter suggesting the dogmatic approach taken by Blairite lobby group Progress could see Jeremy Corbyn seize the leadership.

Labour First attracted a storm of media attention earlier this month when it urged supporters of leadership contenders Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall and Yvette Cooper to give their second and third preferences to “other mainstream candidates” to prevent leftwinger Mr Corbyn from winning.

The group, a network of party activists on Labour’s “old-fashioned” right wing, has previously worked closely with the Blairite lobby group Progress, including standing joint candidates in internal party elections.

But yesterday Labour First expressed its dissatisfaction that Progress had chosen to simply endorse Ms Kendall.

The letter, signed by the group’s secretary Luke Akehurst, chairman Keith Dibble and founder John Spellar, the MP for Warley in the West Midlands, said Mr Corbyn’s challenge “represents the most serious threat of a hard-left victory in the Labour Party since Labour First initially helped deal with this phenomenon 30 years ago.

“We are concerned that you have not recommended use of second and third preferences to stop Corbyn and that some individual members of your strategy board are suggesting not using their second or third votes,” they wrote to Progress chairman John Woodcock MP and director Richard Angell.

Party grandees and rightwingers have been panicked by poll figures showing Mr Corbyn with such a clear lead that he could emerge victorious even after preferences are reallocated.

Mr Spellar and Mr Akehurst have endorsed Ms Cooper as their first choice in the contest.