A FORMER Labour parliamentary candidate has likened Jeremy Corbyn to a company boss who has "lost the majority of his workforce".

Businessman Dan Walton, who stood for Labour in West Worcestershire at last year's general election, has urged senior party figures to stop the fighting and get on with finding a leader to take on the Conservatives.

It comes as Theresa May makes an early pitch for England's heartlands by vowing to help ordinary workers.

Mr Walton said: "It's a shame it's got to this stage, I was hoping the Parliamentary Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn would have been able to sort things out without getting to this point, it's disappointing all round."

He added: "If you look at the Labour Party as a business at the moment, we've got a leader who has lost the majority of his workforce."

Labour's civil war has taken an ugly turn after a brick was thrown through Angela Eagle's office window.

Mrs May's opening gambit has been to insist that "Brexit means Brexit", suggesting she intends to move quickly on enacting the wishes of voters following the EU referendum.

The PM-in-waiting has set out her stall early by appearing to appeal to blue collar workers, pledging to clamp down on banking fat cats and tax dodgers, and make Britain a nation "that works for everyone, not just the privileged few".

During a speech in Birmingham, Mrs May said an "irrational, unhealthy and growing gap" has opened up between company bosses and the workforce at-large.

A Tory MP in Worcestershire has responded to her rise by saying she is confident Mrs May will carry on with the key elements of the party's 2015 manifesto.

Harriett Baldwin, who represents West Worcestershire, said: "Theresa has been a strong and successful Home Secretary, and was much the strongest candidate to put her name forward to be our next Prime Minister.

"I've supported her campaign from the beginning, and think she will do an excellent job negotiating Brexit as well as continuing to deliver the Conservative manifesto on which I stood for election last year."

* TORY LEADERSHIP: Call a snap general election, Worcester Labour politicians urge PM-in-waiting Theresa May