TWO former Labour parliamentary candidates for North and South Swindon have joined calls for Jeremy Corbyn to resign.

Mark Dempsey and Anne Snelgrove, who both contested last year’s General Election for the party, signed a letter along with 55 other former candidates.

Their intervention comes as Corbyn faces growing pressure from MPs to resign after a lacklustre EU referendum campaign and a growing belief that he is not the best person to lead Labour into a possible General Election later this year.

The letter, addressed to the Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, outlined why the former candidates believed that Corbyn could no longer command the confidence of the country.

It suggested that he was not seen as a credible Prime Minister and that if a General Election were held today, Labour would fail to win.

Mr Dempsey, a former councillor who stood against Justin Tomlinson in North Swindon in 2015, said: “It is widely known that I did not support Jeremy in the leadership contest.

“However I believed that he should be given the chance to lead and we should wait and see whether he was able to secure more support for Labour.

“At a time when we should have a double digit lead over the Tories in the opinion polls we remain behind them with the great danger of facing a crushing defeat if there were a snap General Election in the autumn.

“On the doorstep I hear from resident after resident who tell us that they have no faith in our leader and that we need to change.

“We are moving away from the people and the people are moving away from us - as a result the country is moving to the right.

“That’s why I believe we need to change leader and today I have supported this letter.”