Andy Burnham calls for party unity and warns of two decades of Tory government if Labour elect the wrong leader

Tonight Andy Burnham will call for party unity and warn that there could be two decades of Tory government if Labour elect the wrong leader.

The Labour leadership candidate will make two promises at a rally in Central London. Firstly, that if he is to win in September he will lead “the most hard-working opposition that anyone has ever seen” – challenging the government every day. And secondly that Labour we will be an opposition fighting “not for its own causes, but one that is fighting to win power.”

Burnham will warn that Labour risks turning “inward” during the leadership contest and say that Labour don’t just need to set out a “clear radical alternative” – this seems to be a veiled dig at leadership frontrunner Jeremy Corbyn. He will say Labour also need to be a party that can “kick the Tories” out.

Burnham will argue “if we take the wrong turn now, we risk subjecting people to two decades of the Tories. We let that happen once before and I will fight with everything I’ve got to stop it happening again.

“As I have travelled the country speaking to members and supporters, I sense that some are already giving up on winning the next election. I don’t share that view. If we give up on winning then we are giving up on the millions of people who are struggling and need a Labour government. This is not a time for defeatism, I believe we can win if this party pulls together, and I believe I am the only person who can unite Labour to win in 2020,” he will say.