Britain's opposition Labour Party said today a leadership contest had been officially triggered following the receipt of sufficient nominations for a rival candidate to left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn.

"I have now received sufficient nominations to trigger a contest for the position of Leader of the Labour Party," party General Secretary Iain McNicol said in a statement. He said the party's National Executive Committee would meet to confirm arrangements for the contest.

Earlier, Labour lawmaker Angela Eagle launched her bid to take over the leadership of the party, saying Corbyn was unable to defeat the ruling Conservative Party.

"(Corbyn) doesn't connect with Labour voters, he doesn't connect enough to win an election ... and I really think now the time is for him to consider his position," she said.

Corbyn had earlier said he expected to be on the ballot automatically for a leadership contest and would fight any attempt to prevent him entering the race.

He told the BBC: "I'm expecting to be on the ballot paper because the rules of the party indicate that the existing leader, if challenged, should be on the ballot paper anyway." He said legal advice he had received backed this view.

Some Labour lawmakers fear Corbyn, who spent three decades on the hard-left fringe of the party before a surprise wave of grassroots enthusiasm swept him to victory in a leadership contest last September, will be voted back in by the party membership if he makes it on to the ballot.

"I am not contemplating losing this contest, I am in it because I want to win it for the best interests of a strong Labour Party," Eagle told ITV.

"This is a battle for a healed and a united Labour Party."

Corbyn said he was disappointed with Eagle's bid to unseat him and would challenge any decision by the national committee to block him from standing again.

"I would also just ask anyone in the party to just think for a moment: is it really right that the members of the party should be denied a decision, a discussion, a choice in this?" he said. "It is a democratic party not a dictatorship. I was elected by a very large majority of members and supporters."

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