Senior Labour candidates reject Jeremy Corbyn's 'Santa's wish-list' manifesto

A number of Labour candidates will reportedly say on the doorstep they want to get rid of their leader, Jeremy Corbyn - and several have distanced themselves from their party's manifesto.

As speculation mounts within the party over who was responsible for the manifesto leak this week, dozens of party candidates have said the plans to renationalise rail, energy and mail would not feature on their campaign literature.

One senior Labour candidate told the Telegraph: "This is nothing more than an expensive wish list. Some of it may be harmless but the rest of it reads like a 10-year-old's letter to Santa Claus."

A source told the paper that Labour candidates are urging voters that the only way to get rid of Corbyn is to re-elect a moderate Labour MP, as Theresa May would like him to continue in the role as it makes life easy for the Conservative Party.

The Labour candidate in Exeter, Ben Bradshaw, said he had his own manifesto, adding: "Let's get real, it's the Tory manifesto people need to be focusing on, seeing what they'll do in government, and we Labour MPs are trying to save as many good Labour MPs as possible."

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the party in Wales said: "It is not Welsh Labour's manifesto. Welsh Labour will be publishing its own distinct manifesto."

The Telegraph adds that there are concerns from candidates in the north of England about a lack of commitment on migration, which might play into the Tories' hands.

John Woodcock, standing in Barrow and Furness, said, according to the Times: "Along with colleagues across the country, we are standing on our own local record, and saying that, no matter what government is in charge, we will fight for you locally."

Labour's candidate for Birmingham Yardley, Jess Phillips, said: "I never sign up wholesale to everything the Labour Party thinks."

Labour's election fighting fund has been given a £4.5m boost by the Unite union after it voted this week to release a further £2.5m from its political fund of members' contributions, the Politics Home website reported.

A trade union source told the website: "At the moment, it looks like we're the only show in town as the other unions don't appear to have anything in their political funds. It would have been an act of gross betrayal for us to turn down this request."

Now halfway through the election campaign, Prime Minister Theresa May will say in a speech on Friday (12 May) that the Tories and not Labour will be the party of working-class people.

"Proud and patriotic working-class people in towns and cities across Britain have not deserted the Labour Party – Jeremy Corbyn has deserted them," she will say. "Across the country today, traditional Labour supporters are increasingly looking at what Jeremy Corbyn believes in and are appalled."

Corbyn will brandish his foreign policy credentials in a speech at the Chatham House think-tank in which he will say that he "is no pacifist".-