Between 1,700 and 1,800 people packed into Salford’s Lowry theatre after the event was announced earlier this week.
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He recognised condemnation of such “appalling behaviour” from Mr Corbyn and Mr Smith, among others, but added such comments are “meaningless unless they are backed up by action”. Among Labour supporters 48% said Corbyn and 22% May, while among Tory supporters 88% said May and 4% Corbyn.
Labour MP Michael Dugher, who was close to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, predicted that if May called an election with Corbyn as the Labour leader she would raise her majority from 12 to more than 100.
“What happens in parliament is important”.
He said it was a mistake to believe that it was exclusively what took place in Parliament that was important when it came to achieving change.
But with the rift between the leadership and the party’s MPs showing no signs of ending, McDonnell acknowledged there would have to be some form of mediation once the current leadership contest is over. “We have got to stop them”, he said.
“We owe it to the millions of people who need the Labour party to fight for them, to conduct our leadership election in a way that gives them confidence in our ability to build a better Britain”.
“Our party is changing-politics is changing”. Derek was one of them.
The pair will only appear at three scheduled events hosted by the Labour party before the victor is announced on 24 September, down from 11 held during last summer’s race. They are won because of public outrage.
Mr Corbyn told Sky News that he was “very surprised and very disappointed” that Labour MPs should accuse him of bullying.
Numerous people there were Labour party members, angry that Labour’s national executive committee has suspended party branch meetings in the run up to the election.
In another extraordinary twist in Labour’s internal turmoil, an MP accused Mr Corbyn of toying with the idea of approaching his father to ask him to persuade his son not to criticise his leader.
Numerous other speakers at the rally reflected that anger, as well as the optimisim.
“Every Labour leader who loses an election usually goes”, McDonnell said.
Mr McDonnell accepted that he and Mr Corbyn had made “mistakes” since winning the leadership previous year and they would have to resign if they lost the next general election.
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The more the Labour coup supporters say, the more they convince people that they live in an alternative universe of Westminster privilege where rather than being massively unappealing stances, self-righteousness, synthetic indignation, fabricated evidence and empty rhetoric are the debating tactics of choice.
