Labour’s leadership contest has become very interesting all of a sudden now the contenders include more than just white, middle-aged men, including brothers to boot, with little to differentiate between them, according to Labour’s left wing MP Diane Abbott, who has just thrown her hat in the ring.

She insists she is serious about this, and that none of the current frontrunners in the race would admit that the immigration system is “still inefficient and unfair and brings abuse, but nobody will say we have to address the underlying issues behind black and white working class unease about immigration, aout housing, job insecurity.

“And, you know, if we are going to have a debate about immigration, I am the child of immigrants. Don’t the millions of British people who are the children of immigrants have a voice in this debate also? I could not be more serious.”

Diane Abbott is Britain’s first black woman MP and brings the number of Labour’s contenders up to six. According to this betting website her odds are 25/1:

• D Miliband 4/7
• E Miliband 11/4
• A Burnham 8/1
• E Balls 8/1
• D Abbot 25/1
• J McDonnell 100/1

Her life has not been without controversy, but she has filled the female void in this leadership contest, and this now promises to be a much livelier contest.