FORMER Worcester MP Mike Foster has emailed Labour Party members across the city urging them to NOT vote for Jeremy Corbyn - only to be on the end of abusive messages.

Your Worcester News can today reveal how the man who was the city's Labour MP for 13 years has made a dramatic intervention into the contest to replace Ed Miliband.

Mr Foster has taken the step of emailing members of the party with a controversial message saying "it really is as simple as ABC - Anyone But Corbyn".

The email says Labour "lost its compass" in the 1980s, insisting the historic backing of left-wing leaders meant it "ceased to appeal to voters in places like Worcester", and pleading with them not to "once again alienate ourselves" from city householders by backing Mr Corbyn.

We can also reveal:

- Mr Foster received some angry responses, including one member who called him a "Blairite" c-word

- Councillor Adrian Gregson, who leads the Labour group on Worcester City Council, has suggested the email was "unhelpful and divisive"

- The party's finance spokesman in the city, Councillor Richard Boorn, says he disagreed with Mr Foster's intervention but admitted he might be tempted to quit the party if Mr Corbyn does win

- The Worcester branch has agreed to not endorse any of the four leadership candidates quite unlike 2010, when it backed David Miliband

Mr Corbyn is the clear bookies' front runner to be new Labour leader despite coming in at a rank 100/1 outsider just a few weeks ago.

The veteran left winger, who favours nuclear disarmament, moving the Royal Family from Buckingham Palace to more modest accommodation and ending austerity, has the backing of the largest tally of party branches, the biggest unions in the country such as Unison and even the Tories, who are hoping his socialist views lead Labour to disaster like Michael Foot.

Mr Foster, who was Worcester's MP for 13 years until 2010 and won three elections under Tony Blair, said: "Let's not go back to the 1980s - if we do there will only be one outcome.

"I don't want to be saying in five years time 'I told you so', that's not me, so that's what the email was about.

"If you can't win you can't govern."

He said he had around 25 to 30 responses back, with the "most outrageous" being the swearing.

Among the mixed views, including some of support, was one saying "that was brave, you know you'll never get elected again", while some suggested winning an election didn't matter as much as getting the 'right' leader.

The city branch has around 450 members, but not all of them are on email.

Mr Foster also said he felt the whole contest was being “hijacked” by people who have signed up just to vote in Mr Corbyn – a view which has gained serious traction in recent days amid claims members of the Green Party and various socialist groups have been lobbying their supporters to get involved.

One email to Mr Foster was from someone who said they’d be prepared to join the party only if Mr Corbyn won the contest.

“They said they’d vote for Jeremy, and that if he won, they’d then consider joining,” said Mr Foster. “To me that just feels wrong.

“In many ways the debate around a new leader has been healthy, the trouble is the process of electing one has been hijacked.”

Today, Councillor Adrian Gregson said: "There was an interview with Andy Burnham in The Guardian over the weekend and he said some of the arguments and comments made about the leadership have been divisive and unhelpful - I'd tend to agree with that line.

"It's also spectacularly taking attention away from the Government's benefit cuts, public sector reductions, issues around the health service and so on while we give the newspapers and media in general this to latch onto."

Councillor Richard Boorn said he'd be "considering my position" if Mr Corbyn won but added: "Ultimately the email isn't particularly welcome, we all have to make our own decisions - nobody needs any guidance.

"I have the utmost respect for Mike, but I won't be replying."

Some party members in the city have also taken to Twitter to comment on the email, with one, Josh Nullis, saying it "seems like an attack on Corbyn and anyone supporting him".

Roger Jenkins, secretary of Worcester Labour Party, said: "The branch has made the decision not to nominate a candidate, we think it'd be divisive.

"We're a broad church, people should make their own minds up."

Mr Corbyn is competing against Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall, who is the rank outsider now.

Last month Tony Blair claimed people who are backing Mr Corbyn "need a transplant" while over the weekend both Neil Kinnock and Peter Mandelson criticised the left winger's vision in The Sunday Times.

WHAT MIKE FOSTER'S LETTER SAID

Dear Friend

I bet, like me, you’ve been inundated with emails about the Labour leadership. And I apologise now for adding to them.

Let me begin by being very clear - I am not emailing you to say who I am voting for; nor which individual candidate you should vote for. I am writing to impress upon you just how important this decision is.

I am the most privileged party member locally - I had the honour of being elected as Worcester’s first, and to date only, Labour MP.

I want to change that statistic and see a Labour MP elected for the city in 2020.

I know Worcester as well as anyone and after serving its constituents for 13 years, I appreciate what makes them tick politically.

And yes, it still hurts to see a Conservative re-elected as the City’s MP.

Because of the importance of this decision, I do want to share with you my take on the Labour leadership candidates.

Liz understands the need to make our party as relevant to the electorate as we were in 1997 and she advocates the need for us to change, not hope the electorate do.

Yvette is also a moderate figure in our party, with a wide range of experience that would serve us well as our leader.

I also can’t disagree with the view that it is time for us to have a woman leader.

Andy is a personal friend, and I have shared many an hour with him discussing how we can take politics out of the London-centric prism it is often viewed in.

All three could lead us to victory in 2020.

I did begin by saying I would not ask you to support any one individual but I am urging you not to vote for Jeremy Corbyn.

I have nothing against him personally but his politics are a different matter. I was a member all through the 1980s, when our party lost its compass. When we ceased to appeal to voters in places like Worcester.

I have also tasted victory. I know which is better.

If we once again alienate ourselves from the voters of Worcester, we face years (remember those lost 18 years) out of office. And you can’t govern unless you win, it’s as simple as that.

When your ballot paper arrives, it really is as simple as ABC. Anyone But Corbyn.

My very best wishes,

Mike Foster