Speaking to the Guardian this morning, Mr Smith restated his pitch as the candidate who could stop the Labour party breaking apart as MPs refuse to accept Mr Corbyn’s leadership.
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A number of Labour MPs opposing Mr Corbyn as leader fear there will be moves to deselect them when constituency boundaries are redrawn in 2018.
Jeremy Corbyn will pledge a mass expansion of new council homes and free universal childcare when he lays out his leadership manifesto today.
Promising a “revolution in workers’ rights”, the former frontbencher will continue his attempt to grab support from Mr Corbyn with a string of reforms he insists will make Britain the “envy of the world” for employment rights and job security.
McDonnell told Sky News: “We shouldn’t be going into a leadership election saying, “Vote for me or some of my supporters will split the party”.
“Labour will pledge to rebuild and transform Britain with a bold #500 billion programme of investment”.
Mr Smith will say: “For the last six years, British workers have experienced a ideal Tory storm of falling wages, the watering down of workers’ rights and cruel cuts to social security – resulting in the sharpest fall in living standards ever recorded for low paid British workers”.
Conservatives would win 375 seats, Corbyn’s Labour 166 and the progressive alliance 31 – giving the Tories a majority of 100.
It comes after the Labour leader, who has been highly critical of “mainstream media” coverage, pulled out of a Channel 4 News hustings on Monday which Mr Smith then attended alone. “It’s the Labour party or nothing for me”.
Contrasting himself with them, he said: “I am not a splitter, it is the Labour Party or nothing for me, and I will never be anything other than in the Labour Party, fighting for my values through the Labour Party”. We could all be living richer lives in a sustainable, more prosperous and more caring society.
Around 2.5 million people are expected to lose out by more than £2,000 under the new Universal Credit system, according to analysis by the Resolution Foundation think-tank.
“Worse, Jeremy has allowed this great schism in the party to emerge”.
Further concerns over the leadership voting process will also be aired on Thursday when a group of Labour members launching an urgent legal challenge.
Asked how he would fund his pledges including £500 billion of investment, Mr Corbyn said: “We pay for it through an expanding economy and driving down tax evasion”.
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“The whole point behind our economic plan is one of investment – investment in order to improve the infrastructure”.
