The Labour leader is facing a challenge from former shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith in an all-male contest, after Angela Eagle withdrew her candidacy on Tuesday. He will stand against Smith in a vote of Labour activists and party supporters, with a result due September 24.
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A sharply attired May’s performance in the gladiatorial encounter in the House of Commons reminded many of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, as she took on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and joked about the travails within the opposition party.
One of the two lawmakers vying to replace leader Jeremy Corbyn has dropped out of the leadership race.
Labour’s NEC voted 18-14 in a secret ballot after a tense six-hour meeting that Corbyn, as the incumbent, was not subject to the rule that forces candidates to show they have the backing of 20% of the party’s MPs and MEPs. After revealing she enjoys “porridge for breakfast” on live TV, Angela Eagle, who announced she was challenging Corbyn earlier this month after weeks of speculation, pulled out of the race.
She said: “I think Owen has the traditional Labour values and socialist vision, with the leadership and management skills to actually make it happen”.
Labour is in deep crisis with Corbyn wildly popular among the party’s grassroots, but deeply at odds with an overwhelming majority of his MPs.
Future Labour government will require firms that employ more than 21 people to publish equality pay audits.
“We do need a new generation of Labour men and women to take this party forward and get us ready for government once more”.
Ms Abbot also laid into Mr Smith for having worked as a lobbyist for pharmaceuticals firm Pfizer, saying party members would think it was “distasteful”.
They are, he said: “Inequality, neglect, insecurity, prejudice and discrimination”.
“If this happens, then Labour MPs will have to accept the outcome of this leadership election, get behind him and campaign to win in 2020”, Chilton said.
The leadership vote is also open to the party’s 380,000-plus members who signed up before January 12 and affiliated supporters from unions and other organisations.
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Among his backers were ex-leader Ed Miliband and former interim leader Dame Margaret Beckett, who past year said she had been a “moron” to nominate Mr Corbyn to broaden the debate, without having any intention of voting for him.
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