Outgoing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said that he will not openly endorse any of the candidates to succeed him as leader of the Labour party.
When quizzed on who he would be supporting, Corbyn responded: "I won't be saying who I'll be voting for."
Six candidates made their case for the party leadership on Tuesday as Labour MPs gathered in Parliament for the opening of nominations and the first hustings, which was closed to media presence.
The candidates include Clive Lewis, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips, Sir Keir Starmer and Emily Thornberry.
To qualify for the leadership candidates, the six hopefuls must garner support from at least 20 Labour MPs and five per cent of constituency parties or three affiliated bodies, in which case two of those must be trade unions.
The result of the contest and the next Labour leader will be formally announced on April 4.
When announcing her candidacy, Rebecca Long-Bailey expressed a desire to consolidate Corbyn’s socialist policies as the “path to victory”.
However, fellow leadership candidate Lisa Nandy favours a "change of course" for Labour, and according to BBC News was overheard during her hustings speech saying: "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."
Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips disclosed the text from their planned speeches prior to the sitting.
Sir Keir planned to say in his speech: "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. I do believe we can force a way to victory.”
Jess Phillips' strategy was to push the case for the Labour party to "elect a different sort of leader”, and was expected to say: “I don't want to be the leader of the opposition - I want to be prime minister.”
