Any delay would mean Labour holding its annual party conference without a confirmed party leader.
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Four more hustings will take place before the result is announced on 24 September.
“Some can remain in denial if they wish, but considering twelve months ago Northampton supported Yvette Cooper, this nomination is proof indeed that Jeremy has the support of a majority of local party members”.
Mr Coleman, who is working as an advisor to Mr Smith and previously helped deliver the Olympics for Boris Johnson, said Mr Corbyn’s challenger was better placed to deliver the economic policies proposed by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.
Other unions to back Corbyn include the Communication Workers Union, the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union, Aslef, the FBU, Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association and UCATT.
Mr Corbyn said that was “genuinely disappointing to me” as he had been pleased when Mr Smith became shadow work and pensions secretary past year: “I would’ve thought you would want to continue that kind of work”. “I will do what I have always done is vote Labour”.
A Labour Party supporter later said on social media: “It was an bad meeting though and I hate voting the same way as people who defend antisemites and shout over women”.
But Mr Corbyn, who has set up a Brexit monitoring group, said the party should focus on building relationships with other socialist movements to ensure that protections, such as workers’ rights, gained through the European Union are not lost.
General secretary Steve Gillan said: “The executive endorsed Jeremy Corbyn previous year and see no need to alter that this time around”.
“I think he is a good politician who is good at asking the right questions but he’s not good at providing the answers”.
And he claimed that as shadow work and pensions secretary he had just one meeting with Mr Corbyn in nine months, despite the fight on issues like tax credits and eventual Tory U-turns.
Corbyn shot back: “Are you becoming a mind reader?”
Union leaders want Labour to be “respectable”, and could drop Corbyn if they believe his leadership will make the party unelectable. “He said it”, Mr Smith said.
Smith, who appeared to have abandoned the cautious tone in which the early stages of the leadership debate were conducted, reiterated that he would offer Corbyn a shadow cabinet post – but said he would refuse to serve under Corbyn on the frontbench.
Smith launched his most vehement attacks to date on Corbyn’s leadership, warning that he had turned it into a “protest” movement rather than a Government-in-waiting.
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Referring to the criteria for voting, Mr Sheldon said the NEC “defines the precise eligibility criteria, meaning it fixes the eligibility criteria, it sets the boundaries, it sets the limits for the eligibility criteria”.
