Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Dan Jarvis backs Andy Burnham in Labour leadership contest

As far as endorsements go, Andy Burnham is winning the Labour leadership contest hands down. He has managed to recruit Dan Jarvis – someone who has gained huge respect and admiration despite the fact no-one knows very much about him – as his latest backer.

Jarvis tells the Mirror that Burnham ‘has the strength, experience and character needed to bring our party together and restore Labour’s connection with the British people’.

Now, firstly this is a bit of a clue as to where Jarvis’s own politics lie: he’s a little more left wing than someone people who are caught up in his compelling back story may have noted. That’s one of the things that would have made him a good leader in his own right: he could make the case for his beliefs without the encumbrance of a load of baggage and assumptions about what he stands for.

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