Andy Burnham in ‘strong third place’ (From The Northern Echo)

Andy Burnham in ‘strong third place’

10:00am Monday 16th August 2010 in

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LABOUR leadership contender Andy Burnham was in an upbeat mood when he visited the North-East yesterday after learning a poll placed him a strong third position.

Mr Burnham, who says Labour has to reconnect with ordinary people to be re-elected, hit out at attempts by media pundits to characterise the leadership elections as a two-horse race.

Speaking to The Northern Echo as he prepared to meet Labour party members for a question and answer session in Lanchester, County Durham, Mr Burnham said: “A Labour poll yesterday put me in third place – and a strong third.

And based on the last poll it is a much improved third.

“We have come from a standing start after the General Election, but we have made up huge ground in the in the past two to three months. Now its about turning that third into something better.

“Harriet Harman, at this point in her bid for the deputy leadership, was in about the same place as me, with the same percentage of votes.

“If the parallels and omens are then there it is certainly ones I am happy with.”

Mr Burnham’s visit to the region was the first on his Battle Bus tour.

His key message to members in the region was his desire to “reconnect Labour”.

He said: “We have to rebuild the people’s party, and we have to put ourselves back in touch with people who lost faith in the party. That means being really honest about where we got it wrong.”

He said one of the problems of New Labour was that that it was “born of a mistrust by its own members, the grassroots and trade union, in that it was felt a small elite had control of the party and in a very top down London-centric way”.

Under his leadership, he said, there would be no more parachuting of candidates into constituencies.

He said he would be a leader with an ordinary background that people could relate to.

Having begun life as an unpaid journalist and once being an agency worker, he said he could relate the aspirations of young people and people in difficult financial straits.

He said: “I also talk a lot about the care of old people as my grandmother had to give away her life savings. It broke her heart because she desperately wanted, as many working class people do, to give it to us for a better start in life.

That has shaped my passions, convictions and principles.”

A poll among readers of Labour supporters’ website, LabourList, put Ed Miliband as the preferred choice to be Labour leader. His brother, David, was in second.

Diane Abbott remained in third place in the full survey on 14.7 per cent, but when non-Labour Party members were excluded, she slipped into fourth place behind Andy Burnham.

Ed Balls was in fifth place.