“The Labour Party I lead will champion British industry and defend the jobs that are under threat from Brexit and Jeremy Corbyn’s misguided policies”.
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He said it was a briefing note compiled by a junior researcher: “That release came from the campaign – it didn’t come from Jeremy”.
But Mr Corbyn hit back, saying: “It’s not about pulling up ladders, it’s about providing a ladder for every child”.
The Labour leader also said he was growing an olive tree as part of efforts to rebuild relationships with Labour MPs.
The list was released just hours before a Sky News debate between Corbyn and Smith.
Quizzed by Sky News host Faisal Islam, he said: “There was information put out there which is statements that colleagues made on the record and it’s all stuff that is out there on the public record”.
Owen Smith will today launch one of the strongest attacks yet on Momentum and say centrist MPs face “exactly the same tactics” as used by Militant in the 1980s. “That isn’t unifying. That is deeply divisive”, he said.
Corbyn is now facing a leadership challenge mounted after the resignation of around 20 members of his shadow cabinet, and a no confidence vote in which 172 out of Labour’s 230 MPs voted against the party leader.
He tweeted: “Desperate, trial by troll, victim-culture claims from an anonymous source backing Corbyn this eve”.
The list, obtained by the Press Association, highlighted the behaviour of a number of Labour MPs, including Jess Phillips for telling Corbyn’s ally Diane Abbott to “fuck off”, John Woodcock for dismissing the party leader as a “fucking disaster”, and Tristram Hunt for describing Labour as “in the shit”.
It includes the names of Anna Turley, MP for Redcar and Tom Blenkinsop, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland who are both supporting Mr Smith in Labour’s forthcoming leadership election.
Corbyn-backing Darren Williams, who joined the NEC earlier this year, said that the process of choosing candidates to fight new or altered seats in the 2020 general election would provided an opportunity to select individuals who are “in tune with the views of ordinary party members”.
Mr Smith will add: “We are the party of Jeremy Corbyn and Tony Blair – not the Party of Jeremy Corbyn or Tony Blair”.
The evening was organised by Momentum Watford, a group independent of the Labour Party but it also works to promote the values that Mr Corbyn valued during his campaign, such as fair and honest debate. And those of us who don’t think of ourselves as either Blairites or Corbynites – which is most of us – are welcome in this party too.
He has written a formal letter of complaint to Mr Corbyn, warning him that he will be speaking to a lawyer about the list which he considers “a deliberate act of defamation”.
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The Welsh MP was insisting the party needed to acknowledge its Blairite heritage as well as other strands of political thought.
