FAILED Rossendale and Darwen candidate Will Straw is backing Yvette Cooper to take over as leader of his Labour Party.

The son of former Blackburn MP Jack, who lost to sitting Tory Jake Berry in May's General Election, is backing Cooper to help the party win back voters in “the leafier bits” of East Lancashire.

The Parliamentary Labour Party this week backed four candidates to go forward in the campaign to replace Ed Miliband - veteran left-winger Jeremy Corbyn, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham, shadow home secretary Cooper and shadow health minister Liz Kendall.

Mr Shaw said: "I was struck by Yvette’s words this morning when she said, 'It’s clear that we cannot run a narrow strategy ever again'. This is spot on.

"It felt all too often at the election like we only wanted to talk about our core issues: the NHS and the scourge of low-paid work.

"While critically important, it was unsurprising and did relatively little to persuade the electorate to put their faith in us.

"If you earned more than the minimum wage, didn’t have children or were self-employed, what did we actually have to offer?"

The eventual winner - selected by a one member, one vote system which replaced an electoral college that gave extra weight to politician and trade union choices - will be announced at a special conference on September 12.