Jeremy Corbyn last night claimed he could re-unite the troubled Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) after the leadership election is finally over in two weeks’ time. To laughter and boos, Smith claimed that he was incredibly confident of beating Corbyn when the result is announced on 24 September.
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Mr Smith said: “Under Jeremy’s leadership, we’ve seen people coming into the Labour party from the hard Left, people who are bringing into our party anti-Semitic attitudes and that can not be acceptable”.
Sturgeon said: “I have just seen a comment, and I don’t know whether it is true or not, a comment to the effect that Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesperson has said that it is not Labour’s position to argue for continued membership of the single market”.
In addition, it confirms a Labour government under Corbyn would match all European Union environmental directives if Britain leaves the European Union and oppose any Brexit deal that curbs environmental protections, which some leading Leave campaigners have argued should be scrapped.
He said: “I think after the election is over and after the conference is over you will see the wish of MPs to reflect the wishes of party members all over the country that there is a coming together in order to oppose this Tory government”.
Jeremy Corbyn has floated the idea of letting Labour party members choose some members of his top team in a move to counter calls for the return of full shadow cabinet elections.
The prime minister picked up on the tweet, and read it out in the first PMQs session after the Commons summer break.
Smith said a win for the current leader would not inevitably lead to a split but he would not serve in a Corbyn shadow cabinet because he did not feel he could do so with integrity. They want the United Kingdom to stay within the single market.
But leadership rival and Pontypridd MP Mr Smith highlighted comments from August a year ago in which Mr Corbyn said mines in South Wales could be reopened.
Asked if that means to ignore the Brexit vote, he replied: “W ell, exactly”.
He saw Mr Corbyn continue to press on with his housing questions, as he warned the Citizens Advice Bureau believes one sixth of housing benefit goes to private sector landlords renting out “unsafe homes”.
Jeremy Corbyn’s critics have claimed his re-election as Labour leader would leave a generation without homes and millions without power.
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“So in some interpretations of the single market, that’s part of the whole package but what he has said is that Labour is supporting access to the single market in terms of goods and services”.
