Burnham and Hunt come out to publicly back Miliband

Andy Burnham and Tristram Hunt have become the latest Shadow Cabinet figures to publicly support Ed Miliband amid rumours of a backbench rebellion.

On the BBC’s World at One, Hunt praised Miliband, saying he “will be an innovative, reforming, radical prime minister. He is more than up to it.” Asked about Miliband causing division in the Labour Party, the Shadow Education Secretary said:

“What he’s done is keep a party together, a party unified and focused on winning with really realistic winnable policies.”

Burnham, who was this morning accused of conspiring with Yvette Cooper on a post-Miliband plan, appeared on Sky News this afternoon to rubbish the claim, saying it was “complete fiction”.

“The story today, I honestly read and couldn’t believe that a broadsheet newspaper that used to be a paper of record would put a complete fiction on its front page and that is what it is, a complete fiction.”

The Shadow Education Secretary is the bookies’ favourite to succeed Miliband as Labour leader, but he echoed calls from his frontbench colleagues that the Parliamentary Labour Party was united:

“We’re a united team, we’re united behind Ed. And we’re working hard for a Labour government.”

This means that all of the likeliest “leaders in waiting” in the Shadow Cabinet have now publicly made their support for Miliband known. Yvette Cooper, Chuka Umunna, Tristram Hunt and Andy Burnham have all made statements today, which will give the Labour leader some room to breath over the weekend. The only developments today have been positive for Miliband, with no new noises from potential rebels – which means the story is either fizzling out, or the Sunday papers will be interesting.