HUNDREDS attended the North-East Labour Party hustings in Newcastle yesterday. (Sunday, July 12)

All four contenders for the party leadership attended the event at the Great North Museum in Newcastle, which was chaired by The Northern Echo’s political editor Chris Lloyd.

Shadow health minister Liz Kendall, MP for Leicester West, the first Labour MP to say they wanted the party's top job, is a former special adviser to Harriet Harman and former Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt.

She said: “We must champion great businesses and sound public finances, because without that we won’t create the jobs or get the wealth to invest in the public services that people need. I want to get out of Westminster and down to our towns, cities, counties and communities to give people more control over their lives.

“I won’t always say what is comfortable for our party, but I will say what I think is right and I will be the leader the Tories fear.”

Andy Burnham, MP for Leigh since 2001, who served as health secretary under Gordon Brown and previously as culture secretary and chief secretary to the Treasury is the current bookies' favourite.

He stood for the leadership in 2010 but lost out to Ed Miliband.

Mr Burnham said: “I will change the look, the sound, the feel of our party and take Labour out of the Westminster bubble. I will give this party its pride back. “The country needs a vision worth voting for and I have got one. I will take on those Bullingdon boys and I will beat them.”

Yvette Cooper, who represents Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, with 18 years experience as an MP, served in the cabinet between 2008 and 2010 under Gordon Brown as Chief Secretary to the Treasury and then as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

In 2010, she became Shadow Foreign Secretary, and since 2011 she has been the Shadow Home Secretary.

Ms Cooper said: “We need a leader who can be at home in the working mens’ clubs as well as the business boardrooms, at the pensioners’ tea and at the school gate. Someone who is strong enough to take the Tories on, to take David Cameron on, which frankly I would relish.

“We know David Cameron has a woman problem, so why don’t we give him an even bigger one. Smash our own glass ceiling and elect Labour’s first woman Prime Minister.”

Jeremy Corbyn, Islington North MP since 1983, has gained widespread union support for his left wing views and was invited to speak at Durham Miners’ Gala on Saturday.

He made it on to the leadership ballot paper just before the deadline after a last-minute scramble for nominations.

Mr Corbyn said: “This party is growing and is bigger, but we have got to be proud of our socialist roots and socialist principles and proud of creating an economy that delivers for all.”

Caroline Flint, Tom Watson, Ben Bradshaw, Angela Eagle and Stella Creasy, who are all contenders for deputy leader, also took part in the hustings, which was attended by several North-East MPs.