POLITICAL heavyweights in the Labour Party will battle it out when Labour’s leadership contest comes to town.

Political heavyweights Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall, Jeremy Corbyn and Yvette Cooper will all lock heads in the town in a battle for the top job in the Labour Party in front of an audience of party members and the public who have all reserved their seats ahead of the event.

Meanwhile, Stella Creasy, Tom Watson, Caroline Flint, Ben Bradshaw and Angela Eagle are all competing for the deputy leader role and will also take questions from the public in the leadership hustings.

Doors to the event at an undisclosed location will open at 10.30am on Saturday before the hustings begin in earnest at 11.30am.

The event is part of Labour’s commitment to have an open contest in the hope they can then elect a leader in touch with voters who will lead them to victory in five years time.

The leadership battle began soon after Ed Milliband stepped down from the leadership role following the May 7 national elections.

During the campaign Swindon was seen as an important town, and many senior figures came to the area during the pre-election fever.

When announcing the series of regional public hustings and televised debates Harriet Harman, acting party leader, said it was important the new leader understands why they were not successful in places like Swindon.

She said: “You can see the hustings on television to help you decide. Not in a cosy interview, but being grilled by a studio audience with tough questions.

“And we won’t just hold hustings in our Labour heartlands. We are coming back to towns like Swindon here in the South West, seats we didn’t win, to ask local people to be brutally honest about what they want from us.

“This process is not merely electing a new leader and deputy leader, but the beginning of helping to rebuild our connections with a public that rejected us in north and south Swindon.”

A number of televised debates have already taken place. The four candidates who are visiting Swindon have each received 35 signatures of support from MPs ahead of a vote from all party members later in the summer.

“We want as many people as possible to have their say, so we are doing things differently this time,” said Mrs Harman.

“In the past we have elected our leadership team, and then introduced them to the public. This time we are introducing the contenders to the public first.

“Labour is the first political party to invite people to have their say in who should lead our party.

“We need the right leader, a leader who can lead us forward to a General Election victory the country will, we believe, need more than ever. So no more asking ourselves, who do we like? That was the wrong question. We will ask, who does the country like?”

All members, registered supporters and affiliated supporters who join before noon on August 12 can vote in the leadership battle. Ballots will be sent out on August 14 by post and people can also vote online. All votes need to be received by September 10. For more information you can visit http://www.labour.org.uk/index.php/leadership