LABOUR’S Euro MP for Essex has announced he is backing shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper to be his party’s next leader.

Richard Howitt, MEP for the East of England, believes Ms Cooper is the best candidate to convince Essex residents to vote Labour.

Labour will elect its new leader from a four-person shortlist at its conference on September 12.

Mr Howitt, who stood as Labour’s parliamentary candidate in Billericay in 1987, said: "Yvette has very frequently campaigned with me and with us locally, showing a genuine interest in our region and its people.

“She is friendly, plain-speaking and oozing in common sense - someone who can help restore ordinary people's faith not just in Labour but in politics.

"I have always been struck by the calm assuredness with which Yvette does her politics, that indefinable aura of seniority, which I believe marks her out as a future Prime Minister.

"At the last election I remain acutely aware that too many of my constituents in Essex were not yet sufficiently convinced by Labour's message.

“I believe Yvette Cooper is the best leader to win over those lost voters.”

Gavin Callaghan and Mike Le-Surf, Labour’s two parliamentary candidates in Basildon at this year’s election, have both publicly backed shadow health secretary Andy Burnham as leader.