She said Mr Smith’s policies were also radical and there was not much difference between the two in that regard.
Advertisement
“The ruling out of 130,000 members was a disgrace, to be honest, an absolute disgrace”, McDonnell said.
Labour’s sole Scottish MP has said he will only return to Corbyn’s frontbench team if the leader reinstates shadow cabinet elections.
There are a further 168,000 union affiliated supporters, although this number was expected to rise.
Asked if he feared being a repeat of Michael Foot, who won acclaim from Labour loyalists but led the party to a crushing defeat against the Conservatives, Corbyn replied: “Michael Foot did a great job and did his best”.
The decision to defer whether Labour adopts shadow cabinet elections until after the leadership result was backed by Corbyn, who said after Tuesday’s talks there needed to be a “discussion about the necessity of the leader being able to appoint key positions in the shadow cabinet”. Corbyn does indeed enjoy popularity among the Labour party members who elect him.
A recent YouGov poll for The Times predicted Mr Corbyn would win 62 per cent of the vote.
Brown is also urging Labour members not to quit the party and give a free run to the Left.
The Pontypridd MP then warned: “Our party is at a crossroads, and the choice we face is between renewing our party to pursue unity and power, or satisfying ourselves with ongoing division and opposition”.
“I’m 74, and unless things change radically, and rapidly, it’s very doubtful that I’ll see another Labour government in my lifetime”, Lord Kinnock said.
“I certainly wouldn’t stand for antisemitism if I saw it anywhere, whether it was in the Labour Party or anywhere else”.
Signalling that he does not want recriminations, he said: “As far as I am concerned, the slate will be wiped clean this weekend. We also expect a message of solidarity and support for unionised Labour Party workers in the face of any attempts to “purge” or “clear-out” hard-working staff”.
“That is what a lot of people admire, but that begs the question: Are the politics of the 1970s relevant to the 21st century, and to post-Brexit Britain?”
A spokesperson for the Jeremy for Labour campaign said: “Those taking part in the video were expressing their views on the allegations made that as supporters of Jeremy Corbyn they are somehow soft on antisemitism, something which Jeremy Corbyn has a record of campaigning and acting against, and has repeatedly and consistently said he takes extremely seriously and will not tolerate”.
“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”.
More than 300,000 calls were made to Labour members and supporters from phonebanks, with 111,000 more calls placed using a website app.
Advertisement
Setting out a vision for Labour’s future, to end austerity, invest in our NHS, build the 300,000 new homes a year we need to end our housing crisis, boosting workers’ rights and pay through a real living wage.
