A day in the race: July 28th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

A much quieter day today in the leadership race as the candidates and their teams begin to wind down before the campaign takes a brief hiatus (and the candidates grab some rest). As predicted, it’s phonebank time for the campaigns now as the difficult work of GOTV starts – and we bring you some videos from the campaigns, of which there’ll be more to come over the next week.

ANDY BURNHAM had a day of two emails. The first, an early morning missive to supporters from campaign chief Kevin Lee, said:

“Only Andy is offering the change that our party needs and which will enable us to reconnect the Labour family so that we can reconnect Labour with Britain. The choice in this election is clear – real and positive change with Andy, or more of the same. “

“You will know from the hustings events, articles and his website that Andy is not offering change for change’s sake, but because it is necessary for us as a party to renew ourselves for the challenges that lie ahead.”

The second was an email to the whole party from Andy himself, in which Andy said:

“Our party needs the opportunity to debate the important issues and to determine innovative solutions to the challenges of this century. We also need to be a fighting opposition, challenging this Coalition Government when they get it wrong – which they are already proving is far too often.”

“But to do so we must be principled in our opposition, led by a leader with credibility, which is what I offer you in this contest. A leader who will reconnect Labour with the voters we have lost. A leader with a proven track record and who can provide the real contrast with the Cameron/Clegg Coalition. A leader who is already taking the fight to the Tories on their devastating plans for the NHS.”

On the subject of online Burnham activity, it turns out that Andy Burnham has not just one set of cyber-supporters but two (and counting). The people at Back Burnham got in touch with us last night after we mentioned Backing Burnham (are you keeping up at the back).

Back Burnham, unlike its namesake, has regular content from Burnham fans, with them describing themselves as:

“a venue for the trumpeting of the Burnham campaign and a megaphone for the voice of his supporters”.

We’re hoping to hear more from the Back Burnham team, so keep you eyes open for that.

ED BALLS today released a video of him answering questions submitted to his website, and asked by Twitter’s own Ellie Gellard, otherwise known as BevaniteEllie:

Ed also visited Victoria Street today to meet up with the Labour Students sabatticals, which was nice of him as the organisation backed David Miliband on Monday.

ED MILIBAND‘s supporters were making use of the facilities in the pleasant surroundings of Labour Party HQ tonight. Each of the campaigns has been offered use of the party phonebank, and tonight was Ed M night, with an appearance by the candidate before he headed to a Soho fundraiser.

Ed’s campaign have also revamped the living wage section of their website (perhaps ahead of a renewed push on that campaign), and recorded a new video with Ed:

DIANE ABBOTT today visited the Guardian to meet their editorial team, before writing a blog in which she tackled the justice system:

“Be in no doubt, this election is about change, and when it comes to criminal justice, we must use this opportunity to signal an end to the days of pandering to Daily Mail editorials instead of standing up for our values. ID cards, child detention centres and Section 44 are just a few of the ugly blotches on our party’s record. I certainly welcome the fact the other leadership candidates are distancing themselves from New Labour’s hang-em, flog-em, DayGlo-bib-em approach to crime, justice and civil liberties. Although as I pointed out during the hustings, I can only assume that my fellow contenders were off sick whenever criminal justice came up in cabinet during Labour’s 13 years in government.”

DAVID MILIBAND had a quiet day by his standards, but he still took time to support votes at 16, and mourn the passing of Ivy Bean, Twitter’s oldest user. Last night he held an event in Wood Green, and tonight he’s in Brighton, where his campaign are predicting a high turnout from supporters.