This could get even more complicated soon, because most Labour MPs supported Tory party policies on welfare and immigration and war, so when the General Secretary gets round to banning them, there will end up being a minus figure of members, meaning any candidate who wins nought votes will be the clear victor.
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A poll last week suggested that Mr Corbyn could win the Labour leadership with an even bigger mandate than last summer.
But leadership rival and Pontypridd MP Mr Smith highlighted comments from August a year ago in which Mr Corbyn said mines in South Wales could be reopened.
He said: “I think after the election is over and after the conference is over you will see the wish of MPs to reflect the wishes of party members all over the country that there is a coming together in order to oppose this Tory government”.
The opening question cut right to the heart of the issue: “Jeremy has no support from Members of Parliament and Owen has no support from Party members: should they both not stand aside to give Labour a chance?”
The Labour leader would also bring back the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) within his first month of office after it was scrapped by Theresa May within her first week as prime minister.
“There are people on the far Left flooding in to our party”.
Sturgeon said: “I have just seen a comment, and I don’t know whether it is true or not, a comment to the effect that Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesperson has said that it is not Labour’s position to argue for continued membership of the single market”.
Asked by journalists whether the Labour leader wanted Britain to remain a member of the single market, he said: “There’s a question of what membership of the single market actually means, because it’s often interpreted to mean the whole collection of treaties and directives around the four basic pillars of the European Union in free trade, goods, services, labour, and so on”.
A YouGov poll for the Times published last week placed Mr Corbyn 24 points ahead of Mr Smith, with a predicted 62% share of the vote.
The former work and pensions secretary said keeping the Labour leader in post would lead to another Tory general election victory and a continuation of the “housing crisis”.
Mr Corbyn ordered a review, carried out by Shami Chakrabarti, into racism earlier this year.
The revelation comes as Mr Smith attacked his opponent in a BBC Question Time hustings.
His dossier states: “Jeremy Corbyn says he won’t tolerate abuse but he has repeatedly downplayed or denied abuse was happening, told people to ignore it, criticised actions to tackle it and his campaign and those in his inner circle have actively taken part in it”. As presenter David Dimbleby made clear at the beginning of the programme, the audience was made up of “Labour voters, evenly divided between the supporters of the two candidates, but also some voters from other parties, Conservative, Liberal, UKIP, Green”.
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A Labour spokeswoman said: “The Labour Party has a robust validation process for all votes to ensure every vote cast is eligible in keeping with the Labour Party rules”.
