Mr Smith pledged to make Labour the party of “investment, not cuts” and spend £200bn on Britain’s “failing” infrastructure.
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But Ms Eagle refused to give the same assurance, instead insisting that she was in the best position to beat Mr Corbyn to become leader in a national ballot of members.
Wednesday is the deadline for the nominations for the contest, with Corbyn already on the ballot paper as one of the candidates. We need a kinder politics in reality, which is why I’ve called on the leadership to not just call out such behaviour but to take action too. It’s not enough just to be anti-austerity, you have to be pro something.
He told Mr Corbyn that although he supported his anti-austerity “slogan”, Labour are “not on the pitch” in British political debate.
More than half the Welsh Labour MPs are supporting the Pontypridd MP. “They understood what Labour was for”.
Mr Smith postponed the launch of his leadership campaign, scheduled for Friday, following the previous night’s terror attacks in Nice. “The Labour government should be committing to that”.
‘We’ve been keeping the banks afloat in this country. “We’re a country where people feel that their wages, their security, the future of their communities, the hopes they have for their children, can not be realised”.
After Labour MPs criticised Mr Trickett’s post, he said: “Okay okay”. “We’re on the sidelines”, he explained.
He said: “Jeremy has been right about so many things”.
Billing himself as a “radical and credible” candidate, Smith has also hinted at more radical proposals. “Inequality, it’s a disgrace”.
“We have a wider gap between the haves and have nots in this country than any of us have known in our lifetimes and it is for the Labour Party, our party, to fight to reduce that gap”.
“If I’ve got anything to do with it, never on my watch will this party split”.
But certainly from today’s indication I think there’s a great deal of support out there certainly. He also said he would re-nationalise the railways. And make sure every department worked towards a low-carbon future. He added: “The Labour party is always a party that believes in peace and internationalism above everything else. I can not be certain that we will be able to form a front bench again if he does win but I will do my best to sort that out”. We’re the people’s party, never forget it. A new war powers act would allow parliament to properly scrutinise the government of the day, he argued.
“We trusted people, rightly, to take the decision”.
During a Q&A session, the former Pfizer lobbyist was asked about his links to big businesses and whether that may be off putting to more left wing members of his party. We need to overhaul our tax system. “Divides. must be put aside”.
Speaking during a visit to the Express & Star’s Queen Street offices, Ms Eagle said: “I’ve been in the Labour party for 40 years”.
Working people in this country can not afford it to split.
This would mean both camps agreeing to say how many supporters they have as early as tonight, before MPs submit their nomination papers – which can not be retracted – to gauge support. We can not afford it to split.
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‘Every Labour policy has to be tested against that benchmark.
