Smith is reported to have the support of around 90 Labour MPs and MEPs, which his supporters believe is around 35 more than Eagle.
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“The Labour Party must pull through this crisis and unite”.
“I’ve been a member of the Labour Party for 45 years, I intend to die in the Labour Party but not for many years yet and we are passionate about the values and beliefs of our party and we are staying”. However, the challengers are keen to whittle the choice down to Corbyn and one opponent.
Asked whether it would be better to have a single challenger, Mr Smith, sitting alongside Ms Eagle on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, replied: “One of us standing would be better, is the honest answer. but I think the PLP has got to be a grown up organisation and come to a decision in the next couple of days about who it is”.
“We need to come to some idea of what we’re actually getting”, he said. “But my view is, whoever is the person who commands the larger degree of support in the PLP is the unity candidate, and that’s the person who should go forward and take Jeremy on”.
“I don’t think it’s a binary choice because the reality is we don’t know what those terms are going to look like”. Pressed by Marr how an agreement might work, she added: “We’re not going to do a deal here on your sofa, attractive though it is”.
One of the leadership contenders, Angela Eagle, has faced intimidation since declaring her candidacy.
“Instead I will continue to do my work as Labour councillor, representing people in Pitsea North West and leading the Labour Group to positions of power that we have not held since 2002”.
A former member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), Mr Smith also said he will vote to renew Trident in a Commons’ vote on Monday.
Corbyn is not happy with the ruling, and said: “If they can’t afford the £25 what do they do?”
“It was a mistake of Jeremy’s to say that”. I believe in bringing about democratic socialism through the parliamentary route and that means working with businesses and understanding where money is generated.
She told, him: “I don’t want to be involved in a back room deal before nominations are open”.
“And it’s terrible that we have got to do that, but I’m afraid it’s true”.
“I’m hoping there will be an understanding that it’s simply not very fair to say to people that joined the party in the last six months that “sorry, your participation is no longer welcome because we’re having a leadership contest”. “But to cancel meetings because there’s a perception that intimidation might take place I think is a big mistake”, he said.
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Ms Eagle borrowed Theresa May’s famous 2002 description of the Conservatives as she called for action from the Labour leadership on “abuse, misogyny, homophobia (and) anti-Semitism” affecting the party.
