Labour has 'plenty' of potential leadership candidates waiting to replace Corbyn, says party’s election boss

Labour has “plenty” of potential replacements for Jeremy Corbyn if he were to stand down as party leader, according to Labour’s new election coordinator.

Ian Lavery confirmed polling on shadow cabinet members had been carried out in Manchester ahead of the city’s mayoral election, where Angela Rayner and Rebecca Long-Bailey were said to have been assessed for popularity as part of internal “succession planning”.

Mr Lavery said polling and research of this kind was not “uncommon” and was conducted by Labour’s pollster BMG Research.

The group delivered a damning verdict on Mr Corbyn with a leaked report saying he was at times “boring”, appeared “fed up” and “looks like a scruffy school kid”, The Sunday Times reports.

The Wansbeck MP also added he was “confident” Labour would hold its seats in the upcoming by-election in Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent Central but strategy was still up for review.

“The reality about polls is that it's not uncommon for any political party to conduct these political polls in order to establish a clear reasoning, understand the various different views in a particular point in time,” Mr Lavery said on the Pienaar's Politics programme on BBC Radio 5 live.

“We were doing this in Manchester, we have got the Manchester mayoralty coming up very soon. We wanted to establish the views, listen to what people have had to say so we can get the right message across.

“I think they are fantastic candidates. I think we have got lots of quality in the Labour Party and it's not just the two that's been mentioned.

“There's plenty of leaders to pick from if and when Jeremy decides, of his own volition, that it's not for him at the election. That isn't the case at this point in time.”

Former Labour leadership candidate Andy Burnham is contesting the Manchester mayoralty for Labour after Mr Corbyn was elected leader in 2015.

Deputy leader Tom Watson stressed the importance of Mr Corbyn improving his popularity ratings while on The Andrew Marr Show.

“It wasn't road testing leadership candidates,” Mr Watson said. “There were a range of shadow cabinet members that were so-called road tested, this is what we do in our normal run of political consultations.

“I'm just slightly relieved they weren't road testing me on the document that was leaked to the newspaper.”

The MP for West Bromwich East was quizzed on a recent YouGov poll which indicated Mr Corbyn’s popularity ratings were falling but he was adamant that the party leader’s position was safe.

A leaked document obtained by The Sunday Times also reportedly showed Mr Corbyn is the least popular of all current party leaders, including Ukip’s Paul Nuttall.

“This is not the time for a leadership election. He got a second mandate from our members last year, he is now the established leader of the Labour Party,” Mr Watson said.

“He has to explain those and he has to improve on them and he's well aware of that.”

Shadow attorney general Shami Chakrabarti mirrored these sentiments and told ITV's Peston on Sunday that if Labour lost the forthcoming by-elections in Stoke and Cumbria, Mr Corbyn would remain leader.

The news comes after a turbulent week for Mr Corbyn. Following the parliamentary vote regarding Britain invoking Article 50, Clive Lewis, the former shadow business secretary and a close ally of the party leader, resigned.

The move sparked rumours the Norwich MP was planning a leadership bid, which Mr Lewis subsequently denied.

The Labour leader was forced to reshuffle his top team after a number of members quit ahead of the vote, bringing in Ms Long-Bailey to replace Mr Lewis.