LABOUR leadership contender Owen Smith today tells his party that a vote for Jeremy Corbyn to continue as its leader will be a vote to keep Theresa May in Downing Street.
Advertisement
During an often-feisty exchange in Cardiff this evening, Mr Smith claimed Labour had never been “more divided”, “fractured and splintered” than under Mr Corbyn’s watch.
While Corbyn attacked Smith for “walking away” from the shadow cabinet and spreading “disunity” in the party.
“I want us to put a party together that does take it to the Tories”.
The Pontypridd MP said: “Jeremy, I’m not having that because you know, you know Jeremy, that I wasn’t part of any coup in the Labour Party”. Corbyn responded by accusing Smith of being disloyal and damaging the party’s chances by joining the mass resignation of Labour’s senior team in the House of Commons after the Brexit vote on June 23.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn yesterday pledged to drive the expansion of clean industries in the United Kingdom, increase clean energy investment and preserve European Union environment legislation in the face of Brexit as part of a 10-point plan to “rebuild and transform Britain”. I don’t think we’ve done enough to stamp it out.
Bookies slashed the odds of Mr Corbyn being re-elected after the TV debate.
But the former shadow cabinet minister believes his rival is talking to the converted, to those who already support Mr Corbyn’s hard Left ideology; in contrast, he is trying to reach out in areas where Labour needs to win if it is to seize power.
“We can’t have this sort of ugly dialogue in the Labour party”. I hope we will be able to fight and stop that split but I am deeply anxious. “It’s the Tories who will benefit if we are not united”, he said.
“We agree about so much of this stuff”, Mr Smith said.
“So why did you resign?”
While Mr Corbyn attracts thousands to his rallies, Mr Smith attracts hundreds as was the case in Milton Keynes this week when around 250 people turned up to hear the 46-year-old speak at the Open University.
He said: “You can not want that because you want a Labour government, you want to put into practice our principles, you don’t just want to protest about I hope, you want to actually deliver something for this country”.
He said: ‘I tried to talk to Jeremy in March and he was very rude to me, I wanted to talk to him about his role in blocking shared parenting of 50/50 contact back in 2011.
Mr Smith called for greater leadership in clamping down on incidents of anti-Semitism, while Mr Corbyn reiterated his opposition to the issue and said a lot of the allegations “predate my leadership”.
Mr Corbyn’s call on the day after the poll for the withdrawal process to begin immediately had effectively “allied ourselves to the Tories” he said.
Advertisement
The leadership result is due on September 24.
