Pontypridd MP Mr Smith also said that voters in Labour heartlands had lost faith and hope in Labour because of Mr Corbyn’s leadership and failure to speak powerfully for the party at Westminster.
Advertisement
It comes after Labour suspended its Brighton constituency party and annulled a vote that installed officers supportive of Mr Corbyn in key roles.
“He talks about austerity, I call it living within our means”, she replied.
He went on to say that he and Angela Eagle had both faced death threats since announcing their intention to run against Jeremy Corbyn.
Owen Smith, who is attempting to oust Mr Corbyn in a contest over the summer, has said the deal negotiated by the Government for Brexit should be tested in a second referendum or a general election.
Future Labour government will require firms that employ more than 21 people to publish equality pay audits.
183,000 people have signed up in the last 48 hours to vote in the head-to-head battle, many of whom are suspected to be Corbyn-supporters.
A “culture of bullying” has taken hold under Mr Corbyn’s leadership, Mr Smith said, as he warned the party could be “destroyed” and “consigned to history” unless it could unite. We have contacted the police and they have said we should cancel surgeries for safety reasons.
“Anybody who thinks that that isn’t happening doesn’t live in the same world that I live in”.
But in an indication of the scale of division within the Labour ranks, a total of 162 of the party’s MPs – some 70% of its representation in the Commons – nominated Mr Smith for the leadership, along with half of Labour’s MEPs.
He said: “I say to Labour MPs quite simply this”.
“I am interested that he refers to the situation of some workers who might have some job insecurity and potentially unscrupulous bosses”, she told Mr Corbyn.
Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Kenwright, from Merseyside Police, said: “We have given Ms Eagle advice about her surgeries, at her request, but the decision to cancel surgeries is not a police matter and would lie entirely with them”. She said: “It’s all very well to condemn it but there’s a permissive environment”.
He stressed all Labour MPs would have to apply for reselection for their seats after a constituency boundary review expected to be completed in two years’ time.
A spokesman for the group – which is backed by celebrities like Harry Potter author JK Rowling – said there was evidence that “peak Corbyn” was over and that numerous new members were returning “moderates” who left the party after he became leader.
‘What happens to that package and how it is negotiated, at that stage the question of how it should be held to account, whether through Parliament or other mechanisms will become clearer.
“For all the good things Jeremy is about, if you look at the polls or how we have fared in the last 10 months, I don’t think you can say he can achieve those ends and that is why I will vote for Owen”.
Advertisement
A confident Jeremy Corbyn launched his leadership re-election bid on Thursday, reminding fellow Labour MPs they have “the job, the duty, the responsibility” to stand by the party in the fight against the Tories. There has been intolerance in the Labour Party and abuse in the Labour Party that we have never seen before.
