Keir Starmer has urged the Labour party to “move on” beyond Brexit and focus on toppling the Tories. 

The Labour leadership frontrunner, one of the key figures who pushed the party to support Remain, ruled out campaigning to rejoin the European Union. 

He said: “We are leaving the EU in the next few weeks and it’s important for all of us, including myself, to realise that the argument for Leave and Remain goes with it. We are leaving. We will have left the EU.”

The shadow Brexit Secretary said that Labour’s election defeat “blew away” the argument for a second referendum and that the debate would now move on to Britain’s future relationship with Brussels.

As he confirmed he was entering the race to replace Jeremy Corbyn, he said: “We need to focus on what comes next. Picking over the last manifesto is not the job in hand. The job in hand is to write and start writing that 2024 manifesto.”

Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee will meet in London on Monday to set the timetable for the contest, which is expected to formally start on Tuesday.

The NEC will also set the deadline for those signing up to vote in the contest as well as the cost of becoming a registered supporter – non-party members who can vote in the race.

Five candidates have already announced their leadership bids – Mr Starmer, Jess Phillips, Lisa Nandy, Emily Thornberry and Clive Lewis. 

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long Bailey, seen as the continuity Corbyn candidate, is expected to confirm she is running later this week.

She will stand for leader on a joint ticket with her close friend Angela Rayner as deputy, with the flatmates understood to be sharing a policy platform.    

Ms Rayner, the favourite to take over from Tom Watson as deputy, will launch her campaign on Monday on the council estate in Stockport where she grew up. 

The new leader is expected to be in place by the end of March.

Ms Phillips opened up a Brexit divide with Mr Starmer, who a poll of members suggested was the early favourite, suggesting she was prepared to push to rejoin the EU.

“I have a Leave seat but I campaigned for Remain because I thought it was the best thing for the people I represent. I am not just going to change my mind on that,” she told the BBC. 

Boris Johnson’s Brexit bill cleared its first parliamentary hurdle before Christmas and is expected to pass in time for the UK to leave the EU at the end of January.

Ms Phillips, a prominent backbencher who has promised a bold campaign, declined to rule out Labour becoming the party of rejoining the EU if she won the leadership. 

“You would have to look at what is going on at the time. What our job is, for the next three years, is to hold Boris Johnson to account for all the promises,” she said.

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