He said the party’s MPs were the “heart of the Labour party” and should be the ones to elect a shadow cabinet, although he added he was “open-minded” about party members having a say.
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The changes would then be debated at the party’s annual conference next week.
The deputy leader also said he would be asking the NEC to look at the way the party elects its leader, but the changes would not come into place until the new leader had resigned.
In a bid to break the impasse, the Labour leader has agreed to hold meetings with his MPs between now and Saturday in a bid to agree a deal.
Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, has proposed giving MPs the right to choose the party’s frontbench as a way of “bringing the band back together” following a bitter leadership contest.
Some former frontbenchers have suggested in recent days that they would return to a shadow cabinet under Mr Corbyn’s leadership if it is elected by the parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), as it was until 2011.
Responding to the questions, he revealed that he was in ongoing talks to secure the return of former Shadow Cabinet members if he emerges triumphant in the Labour leadership election.
Labour faces a choice between pursuing power and being satisfied with opposition, Owen Smith has told party members as the voting deadline in his leadership battle with Jeremy Corbyn approaches.
Jeremy Corbyn can “very easily” be Labour’s next Prime Minister as long as the party unites concentrates on fighting the Tories, Tom Watson has insisted.
“We lost, I think, a large group of people who are Jeremy Corbyn supporters, never again should we allow that to happen”.
“One of the things that makes me most angry about this whole thing is that I’ve ended up as the Jewish MP”. I don’t want to go back to some of the proposals that have come forward of an electoral college.
Corbyn told the Today programme this morning: “Of course I’m going to reach out to them as I’ve reached out to them in the past”.
But as well as votes from MPs, the top team may have to garner the support of members and the leader in a potential three-way split of the electorate in plans to be discussed at a meeting of the party’s ruling committee on Tuesday.
But in a plea for unity, he said: “We’ve had a very bruising summer”.
“At a time when far right abuse is increasing, and online hatred, racism and misogyny is silencing people from speaking out, the Labour movement needs to stand up for people against intimidation and bullying just as we have always done throughout our history”. Corbyn’s critics claim the left winger is incapable of attracting the middle ground support required to take Labour back into government. A clear example has been his enthusiasm for abolishing Trident – seen by most people as an essential part of British defence, which until global disarming (an increasingly unlikely event) a large majority of voters think should remain at the forefront of the defence budget as a deterrent and as a determined political statement of strength, if nothing else.
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But Smith is expected to lose the election to Corbyn, who attracted nearly 60% of the vote in 2015.
