Andy Burnham has sent a formal complaint to the Labour party after it emerged mayoral ballot papers had still not been sent out to members across Greater Manchester.

The papers were originally meant to go out two week ago - but only started arriving today.

Some Labour party members are still waiting.

There have also been reports of confusion around e-ballots, which some members have either not received or have misunderstood and so deleted them.

Leigh MP Andy Burnham has now formally complained to the party’s general secretary, Iain McNicol, demanding the contest be extended.

In a joint letter with his friend Steve Rotherham - who is running in Merseyside’s race - he said: “The party has not been able to meet the arrival date for postal ballots, nor a revised arrival date a week later.

“With two weeks lost and two weeks remaining - half of the contest - what remains coincides with the start of the school break in which many families have a summer holiday.”

They are calling for a one week extension until August 12 and for e-ballots to be re-issued, arguing that otherwise Labour members will be ‘disenfranchised from taking part in these major decisions’.

It is unclear why the ballots have been sent out late and the party has refused to comment on the problems.

“Any extension of a deadline for voting would be a matter for the National Executive Committee,” said a spokesman.

However the contest has been beset with process problems from the start.

In March the NEC decided to cap communications spending on the campaign to around £3,000 each, not even enough to send out a second class letter to each member. After weeks of complaints and counter-complaints from candidates complaining of rule breaches, that was eventually hiked to £30,000.

One campaign insider said it had been ‘stupid and incompetent’ from the start.

Neither Tony Lloyd nor Ivan Lewis has backed Andy Burnham’s complaint. Mr Lloyd said extending the date when ballot papers have a deadline of August 5 printed on them would lead to more confusion.