Jeremy Corbyn pulls out of poster launch after Labour's draft manifesto leaked

Leader 'preparing for Clause V meeting' that will decide policy document's final form

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wears a Rotherham United scarf after making a speech on the general election campaign trail in Rotherham (PA Wire/PA Images)

Jeremy Corbyn has pulled out of a key election poster launch event after Labour's draft manifesto was leaked to the press.

He was set to unveil the party's first general election poster campaign on the South Bank in London this morning.

A Labour spokeswoman told the Daily Telegraph Mr Corbyn was preparing for a crunch meeting and had asked election coordinators Andrew Gwynne and Ian Lavery to step in.

The "Clause V" meeting will decide which policies officially end up in Labour's manifesto.

The new poster features the slogan: "The Tories have held Britain back long enough".

According to a leaked draft of the manifesto, Labour will pledge to renationalise the railways and Royal Mail, spend an extra £6bn-a-year on the NHS and abolish university tuition fees alongside the bedroom tax.

The party will also consider proposals to review the Government’s plans to increase the state pension age to 67 in the next decade.

Speaking to the BBC's Today programme on Radio 4 on Thursday morning, Mr Gwynne said the manifesto leak was "not ideal".

He added: "On the plus side, we are all talking about the Labour Party this morning, we are all talking about some of the visions of how this country can be better. We think we've got here a package of policies that are genuinely transformational."