Smith, who has accused Corbyn of lacking leadership and failing to rally Labour supporters against Brexit, also issued a plea to his supporters.
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But he is also a giant of the UK’s film industry, helming acclaimed projects like Kes and The Wind That Shakes The Barley.
But she highlighted Mr Smith’s approach to the media and his ability to unite the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) as superior to that of Mr Corbyn.
“We now have to unite around Corbyn and fight back against austerity and attacks by this reactionary Tory government”.
Mr Corbyn’s team predict he will comfortably win the election, just months after more than 50 members of his shadow cabinet walked out in protest at his handling of the European Union referendum.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, right, at a Q&A following a keynote speech on the future of the economy, held at the Bloomberg headquarters in London, Sept. 15, 2016.
Corbyn is widely expected to win a renewed mandate when the results of the leadership challenge are announced in Liverpool on Saturday.
“But he does want to appoint people and get then back to work and is trying to strongarm and persuade MPs back with a series of bi-lateral meetings”.
Some Labour lawmakers have said they are thinking about creating a new centre-left party although analysts say most will do everything to avoid this.
He also insisted there would be “absolutely no split in the party” if Corbyn was re-elected, adding: “The party is far too important not just for the people who have been in it for an bad long time but for the values it represents and indeed for the way it wants to represent and govern the country”.
He spent much of the last full day of campaigning locked in a national executive committee (NEC) meeting, which failed to reach consensus on how to appoint the party’s shadow cabinet after nearly nine hours of talks.
In a message on Twitter after polls closed, Mr Corbyn said: “It has been a good debate”.
Ms Chapman told BBC Radio 5 Live Mr Corbyn was “totally committed, totally principled, and he’s a workaholic in the nicest sense of the word”.
But he insisted all MPs should now get behind the leader, whoever that is.
“Both sides of the argument felt we’d come to a better understanding of each other”.
Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee has put off a decision on MPs’ demand to be allowed to elect members of Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.
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“Mr Corbyn needs to answer these questions urgently so that we know whether he really is a committed anti-racist or whether, astonishingly, he endorses a sentiment that gives a free pass to racism against Jews”. In the longer term, the rift could cause even bigger problems as some political commentators predict that Prime Minister Theresa May could call an early general election in 2017 as she launches negotiations to leave the EU.
