by Peter Lazenby
and Luke James

ANDY BURNHAM’S Labour leadership campaign was dealt an embarrassing blow yesterday when the biggest trade union branch in his Leigh constituency voted to support Jeremy Corbyn.

Leigh’s Unite branch is urging trade unionists and Labour supporters in the region to join their “concerted grassroots campaign” to get Mr Corbyn elected.

The branch said in a statement that rivals Mr Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall “do not reflect the views of the country’s biggest trades union.”

They cited the chaos among Labour’s front bench over Monday’s vote on the welfare Bill as evidence that Mr Corbyn’s rivals were not “capable of leading an effective opposition to the Tories.”

Branch chair Stephen Hall said: “Contrary to the claims that Corbyn will put most voters off, and prevent the party regaining power at the next general election, the evidence so far is he is the only candidate who garners cheers on televised hustings to non-Labour audiences.

“He is also, the only candidate, in our view, putting forward policies which can possibly win over the six out of 10 young people who didn’t bother to vote at all in 2015, as well as potentially able to win back the many former Labour voters who have deserted Labour to vote for other parties, because they became almost indistinguishable from the Tories.”

The coup for Mr Corbyn came as he extended his lead over Mr Burnham on the number of nominations gained from Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs).

After the latest round of local branch meetings, Mr Corbyn had the support of 93 CLPs compared to 86 for Mr Burnham.

That included Batley and Spen, the constituency of Jo Cox, who nominated Mr Corbyn but is supporting Mr Burnham.

There was further bad news for the shadow health secretary on Thursday when constituencies in the greater Manchester region nominated Yvette Cooper, who now has 79 nominations.

Leicester West MP Liz Kendall, who has the support of just 12 CLPs, is also doing badly on home turf.

Leicester Central members nominated Jeremy Corbyn and Leicester East backed Yvette Cooper.