LIVERPOOL-BORN Andy Burnham will today launch his bid to be Labour leader, telling the Daily Post: “I can be a unifying figure, to help Labour reconnect with ordinary people.”

The 40-year-old former Health Secretary will become the fourth big-hitter to declare he wants to succeed Gordon Brown, in a four-month race that will offer votes to up to 4m people.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Post, Mr Burnham admitted the new leader had a “very big job of work to do” to recover from Labour’s general election mauling.

But he said: “I have been a factional politician.

“It worried me, in the election campaign, that people felt Labour was no longer on their side – people who are working hard, trying to do the right thing.

“My passion in politics is to bring down the barriers that mean opportunity in Britain is still not fairly spread around. I want children from Liverpool to have the same chances that people elsewhere take for granted.

“I never thought, when I started out at my comprehensive school in Newton-le-Willows, that I would ever get this far, but I want to go further still, to make our country fairer for others.”

Among Mr Burnham’s early backers are Dave Watts, the St Helens North MP, and the former Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle.

The Everton fanatic, born in Old Roan, Liverpool, but who moved to Newton-le-Willows as a youngster, must now secure 33 signatures from fellow Labour MPs in order to enter the contest.

The winner is chosen from an electoral college, with one-third of votes allotted to MPs, party members and the trade unions.

Mr Burnham faces a battle to defeat former Foreign Secretary David Miliband.