Here's what Tony Blair has to say about about the Labour leadership race

Amid news of a shock poll that Jeremy Corbyn is on course to be the next Labour leader Tony Blair, has said the party cannot win from a "traditional leftist platform".

The man who won three elections for the party between 1997 and 2005 gave a speech to Progress - a New Labour pressure group - on Wednesday morning.

When taking questions from the audience afterwards, the former prime minister explained that he would not be voting for Corbyn because he is "the Tory preference".

However, according to a YouGov poll, the left-winger is the first choice (43 per cent) among those who are eligible to vote in the leadership election while Liz Kendall - seen by many as the Blairite candidate - is trailing in fourth place (11 per cent).

Here are some selected quotes from Blair's speech:

Twenty-one years ago yesterday I became leader of the Labour Party. A lot has happened since then. We discovered winning successively. And now we have re-discovered losing successively. Personally I prefer winning.