The contest for the Labour leadership sparked into life today as Left-winger Diane Abbott and former health secretary Andy Burnham both announced they were running for the job.
Ms Abbott stunned Westminster by declaring she wanted to succeed Gordon Brown and was confident of attracting the 33 nominations needed to get her name on the ballot paper.
The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP is the only woman to enter, after Harriet Harman, the acting leader, and Yvette Cooper said they would not stand.
There are now six contenders. The others are David Miliband, Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and John McDonnell.
Today Mr Burnham told the Standard his working-class roots meant he was the man who could reconnect best with blue-collar voters who defected to the Tories. He said three key groups — young single Londoners, couples without children and pensioners who saved for their future — had been effectively ignored by the last government. Gordon Brown's abolition of the 10p tax band sent a message to voters that Labour didn't care about them, he added.
But his leadership launch was overshadowed when Ms Abbott said she was putting herself forward.
Unveiling her candidacy on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the 56-year-old said: "I am attracting support not just from the Left but from women and other MPs who want to see a more diverse range of candidates. We can't go forward with a leadership debate where there is no woman." She added that her bid was "perfectly serious".
Mr Burnham, meanwhile, underlined his pitch as the "aspiration candidate": "I believe I can reach ordinary people because of my background. I have kept my feet on the ground and kept in touch with my roots. It's not about your accent, it's about what you say."
The MP for Leigh in Greater Manchester went to a Liverpool comprehensive school before attending Cambridge. He said his "passion" was to break down the barriers to opportunity faced by today's young people. But in a clear message to the rank-and-file, he attacked Peter Mandelson's claim that Labour should be relaxed about the "filthy rich".
He said: "In a range of areas I believe we lost our way a little in not saying pay could be excessive ... I am referring to the way footballers have parted company with the public in terms of pay. I'm talking about parts of the BBC ... bankers whose rewards were disproportionate. That can never be allowed to happen again."
