Outspoken MP Jess Phillips has urged Labour to elect “a different kind of leader” as she confirmed her bid to succeed Jeremy Corbyn.
The Birmingham Yardley MP, a prominent backbencher, is the third politician to throw her hat in the ring after Emily Thornberry and Clive Lewis.
Others are expected to declare shortly, including the early frontrunner Sir Keir Starmer.
Ms Phillips, a long-time critic of Mr Corbyn, warned that Labour would experience more crushing defeats like the last election if it does not recognise politics has changed in a “fundamental way”.
The 38-year-old also warned Labour was in “big trouble” if it could not win back the trust of its working class base, after the party suffered its worst general election result since 1935.
The Remain-backing MP said voters had lost trust in Labour and stressed the need for the prime minister to be challenged with “passion, heart and precision”.
She criticised the current leadership for its “woeful response” to antisemitism in the party and for Mr Corbyn’s ambiguity on Brexit.
Ms Phillips said: “We have got to be brave and bold and bring people with us, not try and look all ways. Trying to please everyone usually means we have pleased no one.
“Now is not the time to be meek. Boris Johnson needs to be challenged, with passion, heart and precision.
“We can beat him. We need to speak to people’s hearts, and people need to believe we really mean it when we do.
“Now is not the time to play it safe. What I’ve heard so far in this debate is totally inadequate to the scale of the problem. Voters have changed.
“We need to recognise that politics has changed in a fundamental way by electing a different kind of leader. More of the same will lead to more of the same result.”
She added: “We’re a party named after the working class who has lost huge parts of its working class base. Unless we address that, we are in big trouble.”
Ms Phillips will on Saturday meet former Labour voters in the Bury North constituency, which the party lost to the Tories.
She also announced her candidacy with a video in which she visited the North Wales constituency of Delyn. Labour lost the seat to the Tories for the first time since 1987.
Ms Phillips had already hinted she would enter the race to lead Labour, calling for the party to “to try something different”.
The straight-talking MP was first elected in 2015.
Although she has held no frontbench role, Ms Phillips has captured attention with her campaigning on equality issues and tackling violence against women.
In the wake of Labour’s drubbing at the polls, she argued the party needed “to radically change”.
In her re-election speech, she said: “The reality is that the Labour Party has got to do a huge amount more than just think that getting rid of one man… will just simply make it OK.”
Before being elected, Ms Phillips worked for Women’s Aid, supporting female victims of domestic abuse.
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In the first poll of Labour Party members since the election, Ms Phillips was placed third in the race to succeed Mr Corbyn.
It suggested Sir Keir had opened up a solid lead over his rivals, with shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, the favoured successor of the Corbyn camp, in second place.
Wigan MP Lisa Nandy is also considering running for leadership.
The official contest is yet to get under way, with Labour’s ruling national executive meeting on Monday to agree the rules and the timetable for the leadership election.
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