Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy desperately try to get Labour leadership bids back on track

Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy tonight launched desperate bids to salvage their Labour leadership campaigns as they took on frontrunner Sir Keir Starmer at a TV debate. 

Sir Keir is the overwhelming favourite to win the race to take over from Jeremy Corbyn with Ms Long-Bailey’s and Ms Nandy’s bids faltering. 

This evening they had their best chance yet to gain ground on the shadow Brexit secretary as the trio clashed at a Sky News hustings event in Dewsbury. 

Ms Long-Bailey and Ms Nandy are already in desperation mode despite the fact that voting only started on Monday and is not due to finish until April 2, with a winner announced on April 4. 

Many party members are expected to vote early in the contest because they have already made up their minds which means the trailing pair must act now if they are to stop Sir Keir. 

Ms Nandy warned at the start of the Sky News event that unless Labour changes direction ‘there will be no party to vote for in ten years time’ and ‘this may be our last chance’ to save it. 

And she wasted no time in attacking Sir Keir as she said the Brexit position he had helped craft of remaining neutral on the issue ‘was a disaster’ at the general election. 

Ms Nandy said there had been a ‘collective failure of leadership’ in the party on Brexit as she blasted that ‘Leavers thought we were Remainers and Remainers thought we were Leavers’. 

The severity of Ms Nandy’s and Ms Long-Bailey’s respective positions was highlighted by a YouGov poll published yesterday which suggested Sir Keir is on course to cruise to an easy victory in the first round of vote counting. 

Ms Nandy told the Sky News debate that there may not be a Labour Party in 10 years unless it changes direction

A YouGov poll for Sky News suggested Sir Keir Starmer is cruising to victory in the Labour leadership race

The survey of party members put Sir Keir on 53 per cent of the vote with Ms Long-Bailey second on 31 per cent and Ms Nandy on just 16 per cent. 

Should Sir Keir manage to replicate the poll numbers in the contest itself he would pass the 50 per cent needed to win at the first time of asking. 

The leadership battle uses an alternative vote system with activists asked to rank the candidates in order of preference, which can lead to multiple rounds of vote counting.   

If one of the candidates does not pass the 50 per cent threshold in the first round, the candidate in last place is eliminated and their second preference votes are then allocated to the two remaining challengers. 

But the YouGov poll suggests there may not be a need for a second round of vote counting if Sir Keir maintains his current momentum.

The numbers published yesterday represented a massive boost to Sir Keir’s campaign but they are likely to spark warnings from his allies against complacency. 

He was ahead of Ms Long-Bailey among most groups polled, including men, women, the young, old, trade unionists and Remain supporters. 

Ms Long-Bailey – the Corbynista candidate – was only ahead among Labour Brexiteers and supporters of hard Left organisation Momentum.

The publication of the poll numbers came after Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London, formally announced he is backing Sir Keir. 

Mr Khan tweeted: ‘I will be voting for Keir Starmer to be the next Labour leader. I’ve known Keir for decades. He’s the best person to unite our party, take the fight to the Tories and put Labour in government.’

The Labour leadership contest was triggered after Jeremy Corbyn decided to quit following the party’s disastrous general election in December. 

He led Labour to its worst set of results since the 1930s and immediately announced he would be standing down.

The winner of the Labour leadership contest will be announced at a special event on April 4.

The latest YouGov poll of 1,323 Labour members, affiliates and supporters also looked at the deputy leadership contest. 

It suggested that Angela Rayner is the clear front runner in the race but that she would not win in the first round of vote counting. 

The survey put her on 47 per cent, Richard Burgon on 19 per cent, Rosena Allin-Khan on 13 per cent, Dawn Butler on 12 per cent and Ian Murray on nine per cent. 

The numbers suggested that Ms Rayner would win the contest in the second round of vote counting after the last finishing candidate is eliminated and their second preference votes are reallocated.