The gloves were off in Westminster as MPs met to quiz the candidates who think they have what it takes to rebuild the Labour party.
MPs and peers piled into Committee Room 14 as the the politicians who want to replace Jeremy Corbyn tried to strike an optimistic tone while conducting a very public autopsy.
Campaign teams, eager to claim early momentum, spun that their candidates were being cheered to the rafters inside the room.
But reality is for many this could be their only big chance to impress before they are forced to withdraw from the race.
Each candidate needs 21 nominations from other MPs to progress in the contest – and enthusiasm for some of the candidates is thin among their comrades.
MPs told the Mirror that they thought Emily Thornberry and Clive Lewis were struggling to win the nominations needed to stay in the race.
Supporters for Keir Starmer, Lisa Nandy, Jess Philips and Rebecca Long Bailey suggested their candidates would get the support from MPs to progress to the rest of the contest.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
Wigan MP Lisa Nandy pulled no punches in spelling out analysis of where the party has ended up.
“This leadership debate is possibly the most important in our history.
“Now is not the time to steady the ship. If we do not change course we will die and we will deserve to.”
She pledged that as leader she would accept without question the findings of the EHRC investigation into the Labour party’s handling of anti-Semitism.
Her pessimism about Labour’s offer at the last election is at odds with favoured candidate of the party left Rebecca Long Bailey.
Ms Long Bailey has defended the previous leadership – rating the performance of Jeremy Corbyn “10/10” in an interview with ITV.
On the BBC’s Today programme she did set out the problems which saw the party lose 59 seats at the general election .
(Image: PA)
“We weren’t trusted on Brexit ,” she said.
“We weren’t trusted as a party to tackle the crisis of anti-Semitism.
“We weren’t trusted on our policies, no matter how radical or detailed they were. They simply didn’t hit the ground running.”
Another front runner Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer told colleagues that the election result was “devastating for the millions of people who desperately needed change after ten years of Tory rule – and are not now going to get it”.
(Image: REUTERS)
He added: “We have got a mountain to climb.
“And that starts tonight in this room with this PLP.
“I believe we can be an effective opposition. I do believe we can take Johnson on.
“I think we can restore trust in our Labour Party.
“We have got the talent in this room to do that, if we use it and if we pull together.”
(Image: Jess Phillips/PA)
Outspoken moderate MP Jess Philips said the party runs the risk of being “completely irrelevant for the next four years”.
She told the PLP: “I don’t want to be the Leader of the Opposition – I want to be Prime Minister. I want to be Prime Minister to change people’s lives.
“I have spent my life in one way or another working to change lives.
“What I have realised is that I can’t keep moving the dial slightly. We have to get power to really swing the dial and change lives. That would be radical.”
She added: “All over the country people have busy lives, with lots of noise from one way or another.
“We have got to get them to hear us in the little time they give us.”
