Five candidates will battle to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader

13 January 2020, 22:26 | Updated: 14 January 2020, 08:22

Five candidates will compete to replace Jeremy Corbyn as the leader of the Labour Party.

The handful of MPs have successfully made it through to the next round of the Labour leadership contest where they will take part in a series of hustings starting on 18 January.

Labour's leader will come from the following list of names: Sir Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips or Emily Thornberry.

Ms Thornberry narrowly scraped through following a late show of support before Monday's 2:30pm deadline.

The shadow foreign secretary eventually secured 23 nominations, putting her level with backbencher Jess Phillips.

However, Clive Lewis was forced to admit defeat after failing to obtain sufficient support, saying he was "disappointed" but "proud" of his efforts to replace Mr Corbyn.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir led the way with 89 nominations, while shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey secured 33 and Wigan MP Lisa Nandy coming in third with 31.

Some in the party have criticised the decision to not hold hustings events in areas where Labour lost several key seats, such as the South East, East of England and Yorkshire.

Sir Keir said he was "disappointed" debates would not be held in those areas, with Ms Nandy adding that "failure to debate the future of our party in communities like these" shows that they are part of the problem.

Hustings for the leader and deputy leader elections kick off in Liverpool, with events planned each weekend in cities including Durham, Bristol, Cardiff, Nottingham, Glasgow and London.

There will also be hustings in the West Midlands and Bedford.

The race to become deputy leader has also been bolstered with three more candidates reaching the magic number of 22 on Monday.

Rosena Allin-Khan, Richard Burgon and Dawn Butler all crossed over the line before time ran out at 2:30pm.

They join shadow education secretary Angela Rayner and Ian Murray in progressing to the next round.

Candidates in both races now need to secure nominations from 33 local constituency parties or three Labour affiliates, including at least two trade unions, to enter the final postal ballot of party members and registered supporters.

The left-wing group Momentum, who played a key role in pushing Mr Corbyn into pole position in 2015, announced its support for Ms Long-Bailey and Ms Rayner.