Angela Eagle to announce Labour leadership bid

Angela Eagle has confirmed that she will launch a formal challenge against Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership of the UK Labour Party on Monday.

Eagle, who resigned as shadow business secretary last week, said that Corbyn had failed “to lead an organised and effective” party.

Her bid comes after Labour deputy leader Tom Watson announced that union-backed peace talks over a compromise had collapsed. He claimed in a statement that Corbyn had torpedoed any hopes of talks progressing by publicly declaring his intention to stay on as leader “come what may”.

Watson had reportedly been privately asking the two key contenders for the leadership, Eagle and Owen Smith, to hold back from launching their campaigns to allow further time for a compromise agreement with Corbyn to be made. Following Watson’s announcement that talks had failed, Eagle said that she would announce a bid for Labour leadership on Monday morning, where she will “explain my vision for the country and the difference a strong Labour party can make”.

However, Corbyn, speaking at the Durham Miners’ Galea, urged the party to unite and listen to the unions, who are largely backing his leadership.

“I urge all my colleagues to listen very carefully to them and indeed come together to oppose what this government is doing to the most vulnerable within our society,” he said.

His spokesperson for Corbyn said “he has reached out to Labour MPs and made clear he wants to work with them to carry out his role as elected leader of the party”.

“Jeremy regards the talks with trade union leaders as a vehicle to bring people together, and it is disappointing that some have walked away from them. Jeremy is committed to fulfilling all his responsibilities as a democratically elected leader and will not betray the hundreds of thousands of people who elected him for a different direction for the Labour party and a different kind of politics.

“He continues to be fully committed to working with the parliamentary Labour party and is ready to talk with as many people as necessary to assist that process, discussing policy initiatives and listening to ideas. He will remain leader of the Labour party and will contest any leadership challenge if one is mounted.”

Corbyn’s leadership was been thrown into crisis following the UK’s vote to leave the EU in last month’s referendum, with several members of his shadow cabinet resigning and publicly stating they had no confidence in his leadership.