LABOUR will not win the 2020 General Election without reviving its fortunes in Scotland, Liz Kendall, the self-styled modernising candidate in the party’s leadership race, has admitted.

The Leicester MP, trailing well behind her three rivals, arrives in Edinburgh today to campaign just as Jeremy Corbyn, whom she regards as “unelectable” as Prime Minister is due in the Scottish capital. It is also the day the first ballots go out.

In an exclusive interview with The Herald, Ms Kendall made clear she had concerns about the running of the contest; not least the registration of more than 150,000 people in the last 24 hours. But she is not, like others, calling for a halt, accepting – for the moment – the reassurances of Labour HQ that its process for weeding out entryists is robust.

The 44-year-old Shadow Health Minister admitted the fightback in Scotland, where Labour lost all but one of its 41 Westminster seats, would be a “long, hard slog”.

“It’s going to have to start from the grassroots up, convincing people house by house, street by street, community by community and bringing it always back to what people want for their lives. Without doubt, that’s going to be tough.”

She made clear she was not fazed by trying to promote a unified message that had to appeal to Scottish voters, who voted at the General Election for an anti-austerity agenda, and to English voters, who voted for a pro-austerity agenda, because people essentially wanted the same things; a good job, a decent wage, a safe home for their children and security in retirement.

The Labour frontbencher made clear the new Scottish Labour leader would not be beholden to London but would “lead for Scotland first, last and always”; the Scottish party would have more autonomy and that devolution meant there would be policy differences across the border.

“We have to have the courage of our convictions to allow those differences but not to have an independent party(in Scotland) because we are stronger together.”

Asked if her party could gain power in 2020 without a revival in Scotland, Ms Kendall , without hesitation, said: “No. We will have to win back support in Scotland...We had a catastrophic defeat, to put it mildly, but we also had appalling results elsewhere.”

Emphasising the scale of Labour’s challenge, she noted: “There are only 24 seats with a Tory majority of less than 3000 and we have to win back 94 seats to form the next government.”

She made clear Labour had “no God-given right to exist” but insisted that Mr Corbyn’s agenda of “turning back to the politics of protest or the politics of the 1980s” would not work.

“Having the leader of a Labour Party, who would not rule out voting for Britain to get out of the EU would be utterly wrong. To suggest that we could spend billions of pounds reopening coalmines rather than focus on high-tech jobs, on the future of science, car manufacturing and creative industries is wrong for the future.”

Asked if she agreed with Tony Blair that the contest was in effect a battle for the survival of the Labour Party, Ms Kendall replied: “We are at a moment of real crisis. The great tragedy is our values and principles are needed more than ever before.

“We know countries that are more unequal have slower and shorter periods of growth. We know the only way we will tackle major challenges like climate change is by engaging with the world and working with others.

“So our principles of a fairer society and our belief that, through the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we do alone, are needed more than ever before for Britain and the rest of the world.

“If we vacate the pitch, we won’t be able to put those principles in practice; that will be a tragedy not just for the Labour Party but for the country.”

The Midlands MP, often referred to as the Blairite candidate, said if Mr Corbyn won, Labour would be out of power for “a generation”, which she calculated was “without doubt over a decade”.

Despite the left-winger’s massive lead, she made clear she was not going to pull out and rally behind a single Stop Jeremy candidate but would “fight to the very end”; noting how the debate about what kind of party Labour was had been “simmering for years” and would continue to do so for a very long time following the September 12 result.

Asked if the contest had been a shambles, Ms Kendall paused, smiled and said: “It’s been a challenge.”

She expressed particular concern at the last day’s rush, which saw more than 150,000 register to vote but, when asked if she thought the integrity of the process had been comprised, said: “Not so far. But like everybody I want to be assured this is a far and democratic process.

“I have not called for it to be paused like some MPs have because of the information I have had from the party about the checking process. But that’s going to absolutely have to continue particularly with all these new people, who have joined up.”

She stressed: “We will be keeping an eye on that.”