One would see the shadow cabinet elected by an even mixture of members, the leader and MPs, Mr Corbyn’s preferred choice.
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The Labour leader told ITV’s Peston On Sunday that Mr Watson and Labour general secretary Iain McNicol were “obviously part” of the discussion the group were having about the future of the party, but insisted “we’re going to carry on winning together”.
“I think the idea that’s come out that the PLP potentially could elect a certain percentage of the shadow cabinet, the leader another percentage and the membership another percentage is a genuine idea and something that should be discussed and reviewed”, he said.
The committee will also consider plans – backed by Mr Watson – to reinstate elections to the shadow cabinet scrapped in 2011 – in favour of the leader picking his top team.
He added: “Whether they’re going to love me at the end of it?”
The idea will be seen by some in the party as a rebuke to Tom Watson, the deputy leader, who is due to put forward plans to put the election of shadow cabinet ministers exclusively in the hands of the parliamentary Labour party.
He added: “If there are enough people like that in such an organisation and particularly in the leadership of such an organisation then an inquiry would be certainly appropriate, in order to safeguard the well-being and good name of the Labour Party”.
Today’s marathon meeting of Labour’s ruling NEC neither saved the party or consigned it to the dustbin of history.
If you can vote, and you are a Labour party member, you should have received your ballot by both email and post.
“A lot of people say lots of things in the heat of the moment”, he explained.
In response, Momentum offered to meet Mr Smith about his “inaccurate” comments and to “clear up misconceptions” about the activist movement.
Members tested his leadership qualities as they asked him how he would seek to bring unity to the deeply divided ranks of the Labour party.
Corbyn, the biggest Labour rebel when Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were in office, scored a surprise win in last year’s leadership election, and he enjoys wide support among the party grassroots, despite failing to win over the bulk of his colleagues in Parliament.
Meanwhile, anti-Corbyn former Labour leader Lord Kinnock said Labour was facing its greatest crisis since the 1930s.
But he said he was happy to lose his current role as Party Chairman, which the party leader assigns.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Watson urged MPs who had resigned from the shadow cabinet at the start of the summer to rejoin but said he understood there was a “dignity issue”.
And Mr Smith described his bid to become Labour leader as more important than his special adviser duties linked to the Northern Ireland peace process.
What I’m suggesting is we go to a system where we have an electoral college…
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“We have a responsibility in the Labour Party to lead the way because we have always stood for something better. I would say it, I would mean it and I would do something about it”. I should be the MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, a hard-working, life-long member of the Labour Party. It’s a huge honour and responsibility and we’ve got to try and deliver for the people.
