Senior Labour MPs are taking soundings as the party begins its search for a new leader.
The ruling National Executive Committee will meet early next week to agree a timetable for the contest to replace Ed Miliband.
Mr Miliband resigned on Friday, saying he was “truly sorry” for his party’s showing at the general election which the Conservatives won with a majority.
Yvette Cooper, Andy Burnham and Chuka Umunna are seen as the frontrunners.
A separate contest will also be needed to chose a deputy party leader.
Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to lead a government for “one nation” after his party won its first majority since 1992 with 331 seats.
Labour ended up with 232 MPs, sustaining heavy losses at the hands of the SNP in Scotland and failing to make significant gains elsewhere.
In other election developments:
Mr Cameron is finalising his first all-Conservative cabinet
Tim Farron said he would decide “in the next few days” whether to put himself forward to replace Nick Clegg as Lib Dem leader
Anti-austerity protests took place outside Downing Street and in Cardiff
The Unite union, Labour’s biggest donor during the last parliament, called for its leader in Scotland, Jim Murphy, to resign
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has met all her party’s 56 new MPs in Edinburgh after they swept the board in Scotland
The Conservatives have also made gains in council elections in England, gaining more than 500 seats
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BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said Mr Burnham, the shadow health secretary, and Mr Umunna, the shadow business secretary, were believed to be taking soundings before declaring their bids to become leader.
Ms Cooper, the shadow home secretary, shadow health minister Liz Kendall and former soldier Dan Jarvis are also likely to consider a bid, he added.
‘Absolutely time’
The only candidate to declare an interest so far is Tottenham MP David Lammy, who said he would consider standing if colleagues wanted him to do it.
Mr Lammy, who is putting together a bid to be Labour’s candidate for Mayor of London in 2016, said it was “absolutely time” for a new generation to “step up to a leadership role”.
But former Home Secretary Alan Johnson has ruled himself out, saying the new leader faces a “10-year task” to rebuild Labour.
He urged the party not to rush into a contest without a full analysis of what went wrong.
Labour’s election rules
MPs wishing to stand as leader and deputy leader have to be nominated by 15% of their colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party to be eligible to stand.
As Labour now has 232 MPs, this means prospective candidates must get at least 35 signatures.
Under rules agreed last year, all Labour Party members, registered supporters and affiliated supporters – including union members – will be allowed a maximum of one vote each on a one member, one vote system.
When the election is held, they will be asked to rank candidates in order of preference.
If no candidate gets 50% of all votes cast, the votes will be added up and the candidate with the fewest votes eliminated. Their second preference votes will then be redistributed until one candidate has 50% of all votes cast.
Who’s in the running to replace Ed Miliband?
Mr Johnson said Mr Miliband had run a “decent campaign” but he was alarmed that the party had been unable to recapture seats in the south of England it held between 1997 and 2010, such as Hastings and Thanet South.
Labour, he suggested, had lost contact with Middle England, which had propelled it to three successive election victories under Tony Blair, and the party needed to consider its sense of purpose if it was to get back into power at the next attempt.
“Why have we lost this crucial issue that was important from 1945 onwards for Labour – that is aspiration. Aspiration for our children and our future… We can no longer relate to them as a party of aspiration,” he said.
He added: “You would have thought Tony Blair lost three elections rather than won three elections. It is almost de rigueur not to mention his name. It is a fundamental flaw.”
On Twitter, Jon Trickett, a member of Mr Miliband’s shadow Cabinet, said people still blamed his party for “mistakes” during the New Labour era, especially the invasion of Iraq.
Mr Trickett called for a “clean break” and said there was a perception that Labour and other parties were run by a “metropolitan elite”.
Deputy contest
The party’s deputy leader Harriet Harman is to serve as acting leader until a leadership contest takes place later this summer.
Ms Harman has said she will not stand again as deputy leader, so another contest will be needed to replace her.
Tom Watson, the party’s former deputy chairman, has said he will consider running for the role, and shadow Commons leader Angela Eagle is believed to be considering putting herself forward.
Mr Lammy, who is regarded as being on the right of the party, was a minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown having first entered Parliament in 2000.
He gained a national profile for his response to the shooting of Mark Duggan in his constituency in August 2011, which sparked riots across London and other cities.
Asked whether he had been approached by colleagues to run, he said: “They want me to step up for something.
“I think the question is whether that is here in London or the country at large. My passion instinctively is for London.”
In 2014, Labour changed the rules for future contests to move to a “one member, one vote” system of party members, affiliated trade union supporters and registered supporters.
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Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32676664
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