Owen Smith’s campaign for the Labour leadership suffered another blow yesterday when one of Britain’s largest trade unions swung behind Jeremy Corbyn.
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“[The message] that’s being put forward by Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters is such a narrow message that it’s leaving so many people in the party who say “he doesn’t speak for me”.
Their letter is signed by former Reading West Labour MP Martin Salter, 18 sitting councillors, 23 former councillors and five current and former chairs of Reading Labour party.
Carrying banners reading “Scousers for Corbyn” and “We chose Jez”, the Labour leader’s supporters clambered on statues and railings to catch a glimpse of him as he spoke.
The Communication Workers Union backed Mr Corbyn, having supported him in last year’s election.
McDonnell said all candidates “must commit to respecting the outcome of this election” and called on Smith, the front man for the coup plotters, to condemn “the minority of MPs supporting his campaign who are threatening to subvert the outcome of this election and cause enormous damage to the Labour Party”.
Mr Smith triggered the leadership race after Mr Corbyn refused to quit despite losing a no-confidence vote of MPs by 172 to 40.
Jeremy Corbyn’s bid to be re-elected as Labour leader was boosted today by the backing of another major trade union.
Mr Corbyn had been preceded on stage by speeches from some Liverpool Labour councillors and was then introduced by Walton MP Steve Rotheram who joked that he has tried to get Mr Corbyn to “button his shirt and straighten his tie” and praised the leader’s integrity. “I’m standing in order to unite the party and stop the split from occurring”, he told ITV News. It is not enough to just be against things: we need to show people what a Labour government would do.
He said: “We only have to stay out of power as long as we were out of power between ’79 and ’97 for me to be approaching 80 by the time there will be another Labour government”.
“We are getting into some fairly weird territory here where unnamed MPs, funded from unnamed sources, are apparently trying to challenge – via the Daily Telegraph, very interesting – the very existence of this party”.
“We also need a positive vision for the future. He will continue to make that case and not be side-tracked by internal arguments”.
Ballot papers will be sent out from the week beginning August 22 and the deadline to vote is a month later on September 21.
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She continued: “Last summer, we were promised a revitalised and successful Labour Party, improving on the disappointing performance in the 2015 General Election”.
