David Miliband emerges as favourite to take over Labour leadership

London, July 21 (ANI): Britain's shadow foreign secretary, David Miliband, is the preferred choice of business leaders and ordinary voters to secure the Labour leadership, two opinion polls have found.

There are five contenders for the Labour crown.

According to The Telegraph, Miliband was named as the best leader of the party by 17 per cent, with Diane Abbott, the Left-wing backbencher, in second place on 10 per cent. Ed Miliband, the shadow energy secretary and brother of the former foreign secretary, was third with seven per cent.

The remaining candidates, Ed Balls, the shadow education secretary, and Andy Burnham, former health secretary, were each named as favourite by six per cent of voters.

Miliband was also picked as favourite by Labour supporters, many of whom will take part in the leadership election.

He was backed by 29 per cent, with Balls second on 13 per cent and Ed Miliband third on 12 per cent, according to the survey by YouGov for the Sunday Times.

In the second poll, a survey by business leaders carried out by Com Res, 51 per cent named David Miliband as the candidate who would pose the greatest threat to the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government if he was elected leader.

Ed Miliband was in second place with 21 per cent, followed by Balls on 15 per cent, Abbott on eight per cent and Burnham five per cent.

The older Mr Miliband is now the clear front-runner in the contest, having secured nominations from 109 constituency Labour parties, compared to 84 for his brother.

Burnham has 21, Abbott 14 and Balls nine.

Members of Labour's electoral college begin voting next month in the contest to replace Gordon Brown as leader, with the result announced at the party's annual conference in September.(ANI)