Voting has ended in the contest between Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith in the Labour leadership contest.

Around 640,000 members and party supporters were eligible to cast a vote in the election.

The contest was triggered in July after 172 Labour MPs expressed no confidence in Corbyn's leadership of the party after the majority of his shadow cabinet resigned following the sacking of the then shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn.

Opinion polling has show Corbyn in the lead throughout the contest.

On Monday, Corbyn visited a phone bank being staffed by his supporters who made 10,000 calls to possible voters.

He said: "When we're campaigning we're reaching out to people to say: 'Austerity - doesn't have to be, student fees don't have to be, homelessness doesn't have to be, inequality doesn't have to be, discrimination doesn't have to be'.

"Whatever the result is, we - all of us - have mounted the most incredible campaign, mobilised a lot of people, and we've actually changed the political discourse in this country."

His rival Smith said the campaign was "bruising" in an open letter to party members.

Smith was heckled at the contest's only Scottish hustings in Glasgow in August.

The Welsh MP said his ideas, whatever the result, would remain "as relevant after this contest as they have been during".

He added: "It has been a long and bruising contest, and I know many of you didn't want it to happen. But the truth is it had to happen."

The result will be declared at the party's conference in Liverpool on Saturday.