Yvette Cooper announces candidacy for Labour leadership

The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has announced that she is standing for the Labour leadership. She joins the contest alongside Chuka Umunna, Liz Kendall and Andy Burnham, who also announced his candidacy on Wednesday.

In an article for the Daily Mirror, Cooper pledged to make life better for families as she declared her bid to replace Ed Miliband, with the new leader to be announced at a special conference on 12 September.

Following last week’s defeat, Cooper said the party had not given voters enough hope going into the general election. The former work and pensions secretary rejected calls to “go back to the remedies of the past” that worked for former prime minister Tony Blair. She said she wanted Labour to “move beyond the old labels of left and right” and be “credible, compassionate, creative and connected to the day-to-day realities of life”.

She wrote: “In the end, Labour didn’t convince enough people that we had the answers. They liked a lot of what we had to say, about raising the minimum wage, expanding childcare, cutting tax for low-paid workers and banning bad zero-hours contracts. But for many people it wasn’t enough to give them hope and confidence we could match all their ambitions for the future. And when there’s too little hope, optimism or confidence, the politics of anger, fear and division takes over – that’s what the Tories, the SNP and Ukip all exploited and campaigned on in this election.

“The fracturing of politics reflects the fracturing of our country and our communities. Divided between rich and poor, north and south, city and small town. And it leaves Britain a darker, narrower place. But that’s why Labour needs to be bigger in our appeal, bolder in our ambitions and brighter about the future.

“Going back to the remedies of the past, of Gordon Brown or Tony Blair, won’t keep up with the way the world has changed. We need a Labour party that moves beyond the old labels of left and right, and focuses four-square on the future. Credible, compassionate, creative, and connected to the day-to-day realities of life.”

Cooper added: “I don’t want to be the next leader of the Labour party just because there’s a vacancy. I want to make life better for Britain’s families. It isn’t enough to say we can stop bad things happening – we need to show how good we can be for people too.”

Earlier, in apparent contrast to Cooper, Burnham signalled that he wanted to return the party to the treble election-winning approach adopted under Blair. The former health secretary said he wanted Labour to “speak for everyone and for the whole country” and address voters’ aspirations the way it did in 1997.

In a video message, Burnham also appeared to take a swipe at potential leadership rival Tristram Hunt, who has spoken of the need for the party to appeal to the “John Lewis couple” who shop in smart department stores, as well as its more traditional supporters. Burnham said: “The party that I love has lost its emotional connection with millions of people. The way to get it back can’t possibly be to choose one group of voters over another – to speak only to people on zero-hour contracts or only to shoppers at John Lewis.”

Burnham’s announcement came hours after Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) agreed a four-month campaign to find a new leader and deputy leader under the new one-member-one-vote system adopted by the party last year. A deadline of 12 August has been set for members and supporters to sign up to receive a vote in the election.

Some 30,000 new members have joined in the few days since Miliband’s resignation, and unions are expected to mount an intense drive to encourage thousands of their members to become affiliated Labour supporters in order to have a vote.

Earlier, Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union, dismissed claims that Labour lost the general election because it was too leftwing and said his union would “play its part” in the debate on the party’s future.

Under the timetable set out by the NEC, the formal election period will open on Friday. The parliamentary Labour party will stage hustings for the leadership contenders on 8 June and for deputy leadership contenders on 9 June when nominations for both posts open.

Nominations for leader will close at midday on 15 June and for deputy leader at noon on 17 June. Ballot papers will be sent out by post on 14 August and polling will close at noon on 10 September.