Towards the end of a heated 90-minute debate in Gateshead, chaired by Sky’s Sophy Ridge, he said serving under Mr Corbyn would be “futile work”.
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The meeting, which was held to decide who to support in the forthcoming leadership contest, voted by 124 to 64 to support Jeremy Corbyn, handing a victory to the pro-Corbyn group, Momentum, against the wishes of the local MP.
Mr Smith said: “It’s a great honour to receive GMB’s nomination to be the next leader of the Labour Party after a consultation with its members”.
Jeremy Corbyn’s own constituency party has been caught up in the ongoing crisis over antisemitism.
Mr Corbyn questioned whether they should continue in the darkness, while Mr Smith joked: “I blame the Tories”.
Mr Smith is also backed by shopworkers’ union USDAW, the Community Union and Musicians’ Union.
Mr Smith attacked the Labour leader for being “7/10” in favour of remaining in the European Union and now being “10/10” as the United Kingdom prepares to quit the bloc, citing his call for Article 50 soon after the referendum result came in.
But the meeting took a dark turn after one pro-Corbyn speaker said during the meeting: “It’s very hard to get elected in this country without the support of the Israeli ambassador”. He pledged to make sure the “political spectrum” within the party was represented in his shadow cabinet.
His leadership challenger, Owen Smith has the backing of just 25 CLPs, including East Lothian.
“But I would serve Labour on the backbenches, because I am Labour to my bones and I will always be Labour”. I won’t do what Jeremy Corbyn did and won’t vote against this party, my party, 500 times.
Mr Corbyn said: “I am proud to have the support of Unison members”.
Mr McDonnell had earlier claimed the decision to appeal had been taken by a “small clique” who opposed the Labour leader. “I don’t want to be engaged in a protest movement, talking to myself”.
He said he had been “delighted” to vote for Mr Corbyn last summer and to be given the policy job, but his experience in the leader’s office had led him to conclude that Mr Corbyn was not suited to lead.
“With hundreds of thousands of progressive voters flooding to support the Labour Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn neither the media nor Tom Watson’s fertile imagination can conjure a real threat from a handful of obscure sectarians”.
The riposte from those moderates to Rotheram would be that the membership has more and more people in it who want to change Labour, rather than sharing its aims and values as they stand on the membership card now.
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Ballot papers are due to be issued on August 22 before a result on September 24. “Members listened carefully to what everyone had to say”.
