Angela Eagle pulls out of Labour leadership contest

Jeremy Corbyn will face only one challenger for the Labour leadership, former shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith, after Angela Eagle withdrew from the contest.

Ms Eagle, a former shadow business secretary, pulled out of the race yesterday evening after it became clear that Mr Smith had more support among Labour MPs.

“We’ve finished the first day of nominations. Owen Smith has a lead, and I think that it’s in the best interests of the Labour Party that we now come together so that we can have one candidate,” she said.

The leadership contest comes as a new YouGov poll for the Times shows that Mr Corbyn has the support of more than half of Labour party members.

The poll suggests that Mr Corbyn has become more popular among party members since his leadership was challenged and that he would defeat Mr Smith by more than 20 points.

The Labour leader has lost the support of 80 per cent of Labour MPs and Ms Eagle said a change of leadership was essential for the party to function effectively.

“We have a Labour party at the moment that is not working. We’ve got a leader that does not have the confidence of his members of parliament and isn’t reaching out to the country.

“We need to have a strong and united Labour party so that we can be a good opposition, take the fight to the Conservative government and heal our country. So I am announcing tonight that I will be supporting Owen in that endeavour with all of my enthusiasm and might,” she said.

Earlier, prime minister Theresa May said she would chair a new cabinet sub-committee on Britain's exit from the EU, along with two others on social reform and the economy and industrial strategy.

Squabbling

The prime minister’s official spokeswoman insisted that Ms May’s decision to chair the sub-committees herself was not an attempt to prevent squabbling among ministers.

“The idea that it is in some way to manage relations between cabinet ministers . . . that is not what it was about, and actually at cabinet this morning you saw the prime minister really encouraging a collective government approach, a lengthy discussion on the economy, with different ministers contributing their views on the issues ahead. It went over 90 minutes, I think, because that reflected her wanting to take contributions from around the table,” the spokeswoman said.

Ms May will make her first trip abroad as prime minister today when she visits Berlin for talks with Angela Merkel and will meet president François Hollande in Paris tomorrow.

Chairing the first cabinet meeting of her premiership yesterday morning, Ms May said she was determined to make a success of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU but that her government would not be defined by it.

"Politics isn't a game. The decisions that we take around the table affect people's day-to-day lives in this country. And we have the challenge of Brexit, and Brexit does mean that, by forging a new role for the United Kingdom in the world. But we won't be a government that is defined just by Brexit. We will also be a government defined by the social reform that we undertake," she said.