VOTERS simply did not trust Labour to govern the country, candidates hoping to replace Jeremy Corbyn have admitted as they refused to say if he had been a good leader of the party during his four-year tenure.

As four of the five candidates for the leadership took to the airwaves, one, Emily Thornberry said there were a number of reasons for Labour’s fourth consecutive defeat, including a “very badly” organised election campaign and a lack of clarity about the party’s priorities, admitting there was “too much” in the manifesto.

The Shadow Foreign Secretary told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “We won’t get the opportunity to serve if people don’t believe us and they don’t believe in us and if we’re not competent and if we’re not trustworthy, then they won’t give us the chance to do it.

"So, what we need to do is not have some sort of existential crisis about who it is that we are. We know who we are, the country knows who we are but we need to be clear about what our plan is, where we’re going and we have to be able to convince people that we have certain priorities and those priorities are theirs.

“We need to make sure that we listen to the country and we listen to what their problems are and we put forward solutions in a way that are meaningful and they can believe in us.”

Asked if Mr Corbyn was a good leader, the London MP replied: “Jeremy had many, many talents and…the reason he was popular in the Labour Party was because he spoke from the heart. When he was first elected he had an authenticity about him that people found really attractive and he moved us[to] anti-austerity from all this triangulation.”

Fellow contender Lisa Nandy insisted a lack of trust and a “disconnect” between the Labour hierarchy and ordinary voters were at the heart of the party’s election defeat.

“Trust was the issue, not the radicalism, not the deeper fundamental change we were promising, but trust," declared the Wigan MP.

Also asked whether Mr Corbyn was a good leader, she replied: "He did something profoundly important for us and I want to say this because it really matters to me and we're in danger of learning the wrong lessons from what has just happened."

Ms Nandy explained: "What we hadn't understood is that 'take back control' resonated like no other slogan in my lifetime. Why did it resonate? Because people lack the means to affect change in their own lives."

Admitting she had a long way to go to become Labour leader when presented with the current polling figures, the backbencher added: "This is actually quite profoundly disrespectful to try and bounce people into thinking that there's only one candidate and one candidate can win."

Sir Keir Starmer, a staunch Remainer who will launch his Labour leadership bid in Brexit-backing Stevenage in Heretfordshire, called on the party to listen to voters to win back their trust.

He admitted the “argument about Leave and Remain” went with Brexit.

The Shadow Brexit Secretary told BBC TV’s The Marr Show: “This election blew away the argument for a second referendum, rightly or wrongly, and we have to adjust to that situation.

“The argument has to move on and the argument now is, can we insist on that close relationship with the EU, close economic relationship, but collaboration in other areas? And also what is the framework now for future trade relations?

“Because my concern is less about technical membership of the EU now, it’s if we shift our focus from the EU and move away from those standards and arrangements, it is inevitable that Boris Johnson and his Government will look to America for a trade deal and we need to know the terms of that because we’ve had a lot of discussion about the NHS being part of those negotiations, but all public services could be part of those negotiations.

“So, the argument has to move on and we, the Labour Party, need to accept that Leave/Remain, that divide, goes in a few weeks’ time and we need to focus on what comes next.”

Sir Keir suggested it would be a mistake to now shift from Labour’s radical prospectus.

He explained: “What Jeremy Corbyn brought to the Labour Party in 2015 was the stance of saying we should be anti-austerity, we should be pro-public services.

“That is right. We don’t want to throw that away. Now, I’m not pretending that we keep everything as it is, I’m not pretending that there was anything good about that General Election result. It was devastating. But we shouldn’t retreat from the radical, fundamental change, which is needed in this country and we must deliver it,” he added.

Jess Phillips admitted Labour’s worst General Election defeat since 1935 was down to a mixture of Brexit, Mr Corbyn’s stewardship and the party’s packed manifesto. But the MP for Birmingham Yardley suggested there was an over-arching reason. “The fundamental thing is that the country didn’t trust us to govern. It didn’t trust us to deliver on what we were saying and we have got to listen to that,” she told the Marr Show.

“Politics has changed and we have got to show that we can change with it. Doing the same thing again it just simply won’t be enough. People have got to feel a connection with us again.

“People have got to feel like we are on their side and currently - I’ve heard it since the election, I’ve heard it before - they just didn’t trust that we were going to deliver the things that we said,” declared the backbencher.

Asked if she had shown loyalty to Mr Corbyn, Ms Phillips replied: “This shouldn’t be a test now of how we feel about each other in the Labour Party. This has got to be about whether the Labour Party can speak and connect and be trusted by the public.

“None of it matters about this fight with this person in the Labour Party unless we can win an election and Labour values is what matters to Labour members and activists.”

Conspicuous by her absence from today’s airwaves was Rebecca Long Bailey, regarded as the preferred candidate by Mr Corbyn and John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor, and thus, because the leadership race will be determined by the still largely Corbynite membership, favourite to win if she stands. The lack of a media presence ahead of tomorrow’s meeting of Labour’s executive meeting, which will determine the rules of the contest, could suggest she is getting cold feet.

The ruling NEC is expected to fire the starting gun on both the leadership and the deputy leadership elections on Tuesday.

Ian Murray, the only Scottish MP Labour has in the Commons, is poised to enter the deputy leadership race. Dawn Butler, the Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary, and Richard Burgon, the Shadow Justice Secretary, have already announced their candidacies.

The results of both contests are expected in March.