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Corbyn rejects Labour split fears ahead of leadership hustings

Mr Corbyn is believed to be away travelling the country to drum up support in his leadership contest with Owen Smith.

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The challenger was booed and heckled by Corbyn supporters at the televised debate in Cardiff as he denied being part of a “coup” to oust the veteran left-winger.

The Labour leader Mr Corbyn claimed Labour had gained seats at the last assembly election, despite the party’s overall number of Senedd seats having fallen from 30 to 29.

However, while the government’s economic policy is now highly focused on Brexit, both Smith and Corbyn have pitched their investment plans as broad remedies to inequality, austerity and unemployment, rather than linking them to the vote to leave.

“When we work together we win; when we work together we do defeat the Tories”, he said, before accusing lawmakers opposed to him of being “silly and childish”.

Ahead of the first leadership debate of the contest, Mr Smith warned that Labour could “bust apart and disappear” if his rival wins the election on September 24. “Jeremy has done a good job of energising, motivating some people who weren’t involved in mainstream politics, and some people who weren’t involved in the Labour Party”.

The Women’s Equality Party (WE) have come out in support of Jeremy Corbyn’s 10-point plan for Britain.

A spokesman for the Jeremy for Labour campaign said: “Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, hundreds of thousands of people have joined the Labour Party and a large proportion of them have been young”.

Mr Smith, though, accused the party’s leadership of a “collective failure” to tackle the problem.

Mr Rickhuss said Mr Smith offered a “radical and pragmatic” agenda, adding: “In a short space of time he has laid out detailed plans to make workplaces fairer and more prosperous”.

Damning Mr Smith with faint praise he added: “Owen’s a great guy”.

William Hill cut them from 1/8 (88% chance of victory) to 1/10 (90%) favourite, while Hills lengthened Owen Smith’s odds from 5/1 (16%) to 6/1 (14%).

He said: “Jeremy Corbyn’s call for rent controls would be a disaster for tenants”. The party could be split.

“We could all be living richer lives”, he said.

Jeremy Corbyn said no Labour MP would dream of leaving the “family” that put them in Parliament, in an attack on rebels.

“We say they have been wrongly excluded by breach of contract from the right to vote”. We’re doing a lot of campaigning all over the UK.

But Mr Smith retorted: “I think we have got to do more than that”.

Under his leadership, Labour has won four Parliamentary by-elections, with an increased share of the vote in three.

But Mr Smith, who voted for the renewal of Trident, said the “terrible truth” is that Britain needs to retain its nuclear weapons if it is going to have any leverage to diminish stockpiles internationally.

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The party boasted a record income of £51.1m a year ago and spent £46.7m meaning it generated a surplus of £4.3m, according to figures from the Electoral Commission.

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