ANDY Burnham, frontrunner in the Labour leadership contest, has hailed Britain's entrepreneurs as heroes as he and the other main candidates hit the campaign trail emphasising their ordinariness.

The Shadow Health Secretary, in a speech to business leaders in central London, also talked up aspiration; the issue many felt the Labour leadership failed to address during the General Election campaign.

The 45-year-old politician, who earlier this month raised eyebrows when he said there was "a case" for looking at Scottish Labour becoming a completely autonomous organisation separate from the UK party, made clear that Labour was right to challenge indiscriminate welfare cuts like the bedroom tax. Yet he also suggested that there should be further benefit cuts, although at a level below the Conservative plan for savings of £12 billion.

He stressed how his party needed to win back people who felt Labour wanted to give an "easy ride" to those who "don't want to help themselves".

The Shadow Secretary of State said: "We must change that perception before we can win. The Labour party I will lead will once again truly be the party of work."

Faced by captains of industry, he made clear that if he became leader "the entrepreneur will be as much our hero as the nurse".

He admitted that Labour had "far too rarely" in recent years "spoken up in praise of the everyday heroes of our society - the small businessman or woman, the sole trader, the innovator, the inventor, the entrepreneur".

Turning to ambition, he warned that politicians made a terrible mistake when they tried to compartmentalise voters, speaking only to those in certain parts of the country or those who frequented certain shops.

"Aspiration is not reserved only for those who shop at John Lewis; it is universal. It is felt just as keenly by Asda and Aldi shoppers too, perhaps even more so."

Mr Burnham decried how connections and background often counted more than talent and hard work and he personally felt a sense of injustice when "I finally arrived at Cambridge, when I finally got my first job in publishing and then when I arrived in Westminster".

He added: "So in this contest when people ask me what will the Labour Party you lead be for, my answer will be simple: to help everyone get on."

Meantime, his rival Liz Kendall, seen as the modernising candidate, drew on her own roots as "a state school girl from Watford", who rose to become an MP in 2010.

Speaking to an audience in Leicester, the Shadow Health Minister and local MP said she recognised some people might think it was audacious to suggest she might lead her party but she argued while education had opened doors for her, those same doors remained shut for "far too many fellow citizens".

Earlier this month, Ms Kendall came out firmly against Scottish Labour breaking away from the UK Party, saying: "I don't believe that becoming ever more nationalist is the solution to the challenges we face."

Elsewhere, another candidate, Yvette Cooper, warned that Labour had "got left behind" and simply could not convince voters it had a strong enough plan for the future.

During an event at Tech City in London, the Shadow Home Secretary said: "People want to feel ambitious for their future, not fearful about what tomorrow will bring. Yet, in the end, Labour couldn't convince enough people we would deliver the jobs, business growth, opportunities or the security they wanted in future."

And she warned: "It would be the biggest mistake of all to seek comfort in past victories or defeats. We can't get sucked back into replaying Miliband v Miliband, Blair v Brown, or trying the old campaign playbooks from the 1990s or the Noughties.

"Britain has moved on. We need answers for tomorrow, not yesterday."