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Fathers for Justice stage protest on Jeremy Corbyn’s roof

Whoever wins the leadership will have a battle to overcome the lead in the polls for May’s Conservatives.

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Ahead of the showdown, Mr Corbyn unveiled his pledges in a speech in Dagenham, east London, including promises to create one million new jobs and guarantee “a decent job for all”.

His rival and incumbent Jeremy Corbyn said: “We did defeat the Tories in the May elections”.

Jeremy Corbyn has insisted Labour will not split as he prepares to go head to head with Owen Smith in the first hustings in the leadership contest.

The leadership contenders are to clash in the first set-piece debate of the campaign in Cardiff later on Thursday.

“Corbyn’s five commitments are a win for our Party – we said we would push women’s equality higher up the political agenda by threatening the votes of mainstream parties, and in this we have succeeded”.

Last month, the local party had voted against sending a supportive motion to Mr Corbyn amid the chaotic string of resignations from his front bench – a result that was seen by his opponents as a sign that his appeal was thinning.

But that was only a ballot of branch delegates, and the fact that Mr Corbyn has now been nominated by the CLP to stay on is being greeted by some of his supporters as an indication of what happens when the wider membership is allowed to participate. Corbyn said this would be financed by a resultant stronger economy and by cracking down on tax evasion.

Like Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign in the U.S., Corbyn has been seen as a progressive champion fomenting a populist insurgency against entrenched interests of powerful elites represented by the Tories, other right-wing parties like UKIP, and factions of Labour’s own liberal center-left.

The Women’s Equality Party (WE) have come out in support of Jeremy Corbyn’s 10-point plan for Britain..

Corbyn concluded: “As we build towards a general election we offer an alternative, a different way of doing things, where you ignore nobody, you forget nobody, you build a sense of inclusion, of decency, and moral respect within our society”. “The Tories have a 14-point lead”.

“The prosperity that a few enjoy is not shared by the many, our economic model in Britain is broken”, said the Labour leader. He said he was supporting the challenger “because he’s got a coherent plan for government”. “When you reach some limits of monetary policy you reach for fiscal stimulus”.

Criss-crossing the country – he is in Scotland next week – the underdog has spoken on the campaign trail this week of Labour “teetering on the edge” of a split should Mr Corbyn, who he feels can not revive or heal the party, win the leadership race on September 24.

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Mr Smith said he would invest an extra £1bn a year in resource funding, saying the Welsh Government could increase spending on the NHS by 4% every year in the next parliament. “The style of politics people want and that attracts them to Jeremy Corbyn is “what you see is what you get – principled, honest, straightforward”.

Jeremy Corbyn is the frontrunner in the leadership contest involving fellow Labour MP Owen Smith