Angela Eagle withdraws from leadership contest after trailing Smith on nominations

Angela Eagle has withdrawn from the Labour leadership contest after receiving less support than Owen Smith from MPs an MEPs in the first 24 hours of nominations.

Although Eagle implied on Monday that she would not sign up to a deal which would see the candidate with fewer backers in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) drop out, but has decided to do so after initial figures indicated her railing by around 20 nominations. Eagle says she has “no regrets” about running.

This leaves Owen Smith as the sole challenger to Jeremy Corbyn in the contest.

“The first thing I’d like to do is thank my own supporters for the faith that they showed in me in this leadership election,” Eagle told the BBC.

“We’ve finished the first day of nominations, Owen Smith has a lead, and I think that it’s in the best interests of the Labour Party that we now come together so that we can have one candidate. So I’m announcing tonight that I’m withdrawing from this race and supporting Owen. I’d like to congratulate Owen on coming top in this race and going on to take on Jeremy Corbyn.

“We have a Labour Party at the moment that is not working. We have a leader that doesn’t have the confidence of his members of Parliament and isn’t reaching out to the country. We need to have a strong and united Labour Party so that we can be good opposition, take the fight to the Conservative Party and heal our country.

“I’m announcing tonight that I will be supporting Owen in that endeavour with all of my enthusiasm and might.”