“I think we have to stick with one-member one-vote”, he said.
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Jeremy Corbyn has thousands of fans – but can he win over his party’s MPs, and then get a majority in the country?
On Wednesday, Corbyn himself pledged to “wipe the slate clean” for those former members of his frontbench team who quit after the Brexit vote in June.
Looking to the future, he said: “I will build on the broad policy agreement that stretches across our party, based on a clear anti-austerity agenda”.
The question remains whether the Labour Party can unite again.
Mr Corbyn confirmed he is to hold discussions with MPs and others in the next few days on a new relationship with the Parliamentary Labour Party. “All Labour party members and MPs have a responsibility to work within the democracy of our party and respect the leadership of whoever is elected”.
“Any mathematician can quickly work out that in fact Labour areas were the strongest to vote Leave and any well organised party, sampling ballot boxes, will know that in Labour areas it was the Tory voters who tended to vote Remain and it was large blocks of Labour trade unionists who voted Leave”.
“Anything else would be destructive and self-indulgent”.
Mr Corbyn is expected to be re-elected as Labour leader when the results are announced on Saturday.
Pontypridd MP Mr Smith seized the chance to run against Mr Corbyn after former shadow business secretary Angela Eagle triggered the contest in July.
Murray said: “I think if this is a way of uniting the party it’s a good start, it’s an olive branch, and I would suggest Jeremy grabs it with both hands”.
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. “We understand that people can become angry when they feel that matters about which they feel strongly are not being dealt with as they wish, if that anger escalates into aggression towards you, we consider that completely unacceptable”.
She also questioned Mr Corbyn’s leadership skills after spending virtually all his working life as an MP – as well as questioning whether the politics of the 1970s are “relevant to the 21st century, and to post-Brexit Britain”.
The Labour Party conference returns to the ACC Liverpool conference centre on the waterfront for the first time in five years, arriving in the full glare of the spotlight after a hard few months of party in-fighting which has kept Labour on the top of the news agenda for the wrong reasons.
Corbyn, who secured nearly 60% of the vote in 2015, is expected to retain the top job. “We are going to do even better”.
Corbyn thanked NEC members for their work during the marathon meeting on Tuesday, but it is understood that he also insisted that the abusive behaviour that has characterised the debate over the summer must end.
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Fears have been raised that Labour could break apart if Mr Corbyn is re-elected this weekend.
