Dan Jarvis rules himself out of Labour leadership contest to focus on being South Yorkshire's metro mayor

The MP for Barnsley Central and former paratrooper said he was 'humbled' by the support he received.

It comes after saying he thought 'long and hard' about the position but said he had 'unfinished business' in the region and that they were 'on the cusp' of major investment.

In a public tweet, he said: "I'm humbled by the messages of support, but I won't be putting myself forward to be UK Labour leader because of my commitment to serve as the Sheffield City Region Mayor.

"I look forward to a comradely content and working hard to support our party back in government."

Mr Jarvis, who was elected as Sheffield City Region mayor in 2017, said he has received ‘thousands’ of emails from supporters ‘across the country’ from both the left and right wings of the party. Two Twitter accounts were also set up to urge him to run.

The mayor, who previously said the party needed a ‘clean break from Corbynism’, said Labour needed to return to being an effective opposition before it started thinking about running the country.

He also said there was no guarantee South Yorkshire folk who voted Tory for the first time would come back without a ‘credible national leader’.

So far, Keir Starmer, Emily Thornberry, Jess Phillips, Clive Lewis, Lisa Nandy and Rebecca Long-Bailey have put forward their intentions to be leader.

Nominations on Tuesday, January 7, for candidates to formally declare their intention to run.