Ex-shadow cabinet minister Owen Smith is favourite to become the next Labour leader, with odds slashed from 3/1 to 11/10 while Angela Eagle drops from 3/1 to 5/1.
The Pontypridd MP, who quite Jeremy Corbyn’s cabinet last month, said he could “heal” the party and “turn the page” on its internal strife, adding that Labour needs a “radical and credible” leader.
An election timetable will be launched on Thursday with the contest expected to take two months, ready for the Labour Party conference on 24 September.
The decision to allow Corbyn to stand in the contest was made on Tuesday, a decision Smith says he supported.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today, he said: “Jeremy Corbyn has been right about a lot of things but he is not a leader who can lead us into an election and win for Labour.
“Working people cannot afford to have a day like this where the Tories are popping the champagne corks and celebrating their coronation and the prospect of a Labour government feels so distant for working people. We can’t afford that in Labour. We need to turn the page.”
