Labour leadership: Yvette Cooper becomes fourth candidate to enter race

Her announced comes hours after Andy Burnham's

Yvette Cooper hopes to become Labour leader (AFP/Getty)

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has become the fourth person to join the Labour leadership race.

She will run against Chuka Umunna, Liz Kendall and Andy Burnham, who announced his candidacy hours before Ms Cooper.

Ms Cooper declared her candidacy in an article for the Daily Mirror, in which she promised to use the leadership to make life better for families.

Addressing Labour's disastrous performance during the general election last week, she admitted the party's message lacked hope.

Distancing herself from the party's past and marking herself out against Blairite candidates Chuka Umunna and Liz Kendall, the former work and pensions secretary rejected calls to "go back to the remedies of the past" that worked for former prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

She instead proposed that Labour should "move beyond the old labels of left and right" and be "credible, compassionate, creative and connected to the day-to-day realities of life".

"The fracturing of politics reflects the fracturing of our country and our communities. Divided between rich and poor, north and south, city and small town. And it leaves Britain a darker, narrower place," she wrote.

"But that's why Labour needs to be bigger in our appeal, bolder in our ambitions and brighter about the future.

"I don't want to be the next leader of the Labour Party just because there's a vacancy. I want to make life better for Britain's families. It isn't enough to say we can stop bad things happening - we need to show how good we can be for people too," she said.

Following a vote by party members, the new Labour leader will be announced at a special conference on 12 September.

Additional reporting by PA