CLAIRE Hanna has confirmed that she will be standing for the SDLP's leadership, following Colum Eastwood's resignation last Thursday.

Widely tipped to become the new leader, Ms Hanna's bid was further strengthened after receiving the backing of the party's leader at Stormont, Matthew O'Toole.

In a statement posted on Twitter, the MP for South Belfast and Mid Down said: "Politics should be about finding practical solutions to the challenges faced by all our communities, that's what motivates me every day. But people are losing faith that Stormont and politics more generally will deliver for them.

"They live with failing public services and a politics driven by division, dysfunction and pettiness. This period has also been challenging for our party. The SDLP must have the humility to recognise that we have to work harder to resonate with people and earn future electoral success.

"We have to listen more, organise better, and offer a fresh, compelling message of optimism and clarity of purpose.

"We must more actively engage voters, including those who didn't grow up in the nationalist tradition, who share our social democratic and anti-sectarian principles, many of whom are curious about the potential of a reconciled new Ireland."

Should her bid become successful, which is highly likely, she promised that the party would offer opposition and accountability at both Stormont and Westminster.

"We need to offer and campaign with a dual mission of making life better in the present, while building for a new Ireland, explaining why we believe constitutional change will improve people's lives and opportunities.

"We have to make our values real for people and sell them relentlessly door to door. We need to recognise that too many towns and neighbourhoods don't see or feel the SDLP's effort locally.

"We have a real opportunity to grow our electoral reach. No other party is fundamentally committed to tackling all three of the major divisions inequality, sectarianism and partition – limiting our region's potential. No other party is driving accountability in Stormont, standing up for Northern Ireland in Westminster and actively shaping constitutional change."