The other banner, held by Mr Smith, says “Give me back Elmo”, a reference to his child he is believed to be locked in a custody battle over.
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“It’s a very great responsibility to be elected as a Labour MP to represent our party, our movement and its values”, he said.
Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith have faced off in their first hustings of what has already proved to be a bitter leadership campaign.
Creating a million jobs across the United Kingdom by investing £500 billion in infrastructure, manufacturing and new industries backed up by a publicly-owned National Investment Bank and regional banks.
“It would be a good thing if Labour MPs got behind their leader and worked with them rather than briefed against them all the time”, said Mr Corbyn. Labour wasn’t in crisis, he insisted, to wild applause, and Corbyn pointed to Mayoral wins (never mind the distance Sadiq Khan placed between himself and the Labour leader in campaigning), local election victories and the insistence that he could win a General Election.
He said: “You can not want that because you want a Labour government, you want to put into practice our principles, you don’t just want to protest about I hope, you want to actually deliver something for this country”.
“Mr Corbyn’s policy to introduce free universal childcare will appeal to many parents of disabled children, 66% of which say that they have to pay more for childcare for their disabled child than for a non-disabled child in order to meet their often complex health and social care needs”.
“But there is vast potential in the skills and talents of our people and huge opportunities ahead of us in science, technology and culture”. “For too long many communities in Britain have been neglected”.
From the start, Smith attacked Corbyn for Labour’s current standing in the polls and warned the party was heading for defeat at the next election.
Pontypridd MP Mr Smith is going head to head with Jeremy Corbyn in the election, with the victor due to be announced on September 24. “If you are going to exclude over 100,000 voters, you are not going to get the full picture of what people actually want”.
“I think I’m the person who’s got the energy in the debate and I think I see very clearly that we’ve not been what we need to be in recent months – which is a powerful, credible opposition to the Tory Party”, said Mr Smith”.
Mr McDonnell told Sky News it was “not right” for Labour members voting in the contest to be given an ultimatum and called for a return to an “amicable” and “comradely” contest – before branding Mr Smith the “disunity candidate”.
WE Party Leader Sophie Walker, said: “WE said it would change British politics for women everywhere”.
Turning to Corbyn he added: “I know you’re radical, I’m radical, but I want us to be radical in government”.
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On Thursday, Mr Smith told BBC Radio Wales he feared the Labour Party could not close the gap on the Conservatives.
