“It’s right we’ll be discussing elections to the shadow cabinet at the national executive committee this week, as well as who might take part in those elections, and how to ensure proper representation of the regions, nations, general and ethnicity”. The NEC meets on Saturday and we’ll have further discussions at that point.
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But Mr Smith warned it would be hard to unite the party under Mr Corbyn’s leadership, telling BBC One’s Breakfast programme: “I’ve been warning for months now that there was a danger that we could be going into an election sooner rather than later”.
Corbyn ally Jon Trickett said: “We agreed to continue conversations”.
But his allies upped threats of deselection and suggestions that deputy leader Tom Watson and the party’s national secretary Iain McNicol could be deposed.
“We lost, I think, a large group of people who are Jeremy Corbyn supporters, never again should we allow that to happen”.
But Corbyn and his supporters’ attempts to hand party members a say were rejected by his leadership rival Owen Smith.
Mr Watson insisted he was “open-minded” about whether shadow cabinet elections should involve MPs only or a mix of members, the leader and MPs.
These “tutorials” from former senior ministers and shadow ministers would aim to stop them being accused of being incompetent, and improve relations within the parliamentary Labour party and make them more effective in the House of Commons.
But Mr Corbyn will argue that any changes to the party’s democratic structures should be part of a wider review to take place after the conference is over.
“I think it’s going to be tough … to meet the levels that we got previous year and I say that because they have thrown everything against us”, he added.
The grassroots group, formed from the bones of Mr Corbyn’s 2015 leadership campaign, has been at loggerheads with rebel MPs.
Mr Corbyn – who is widely expected to retain the leadership in the ballot of Labour members – confirmed he was prepared to give Labour MPs a say in choosing at least some members of the shadow cabinet.
OWEN SMITH began laying the ground for a likely defeat in the Labour leadership election yesterday after claiming he did not want to challenge Jeremy Corbyn.
Facing the prospect of Corbyn being reinstated as Labour leader indefinitely, Watson attempted to pass a motion for the return of Shadow Cabinet elections. I guess for a leader they would have to balance up whether they wanted people with an alternative base of authority rather than coming from fellow colleagues in Westminster or from a leader.
“It doesn’t mean everyone agrees on everything all of the time, that I understand”.
And Mr Smith described his bid to become Labour leader as more important than his special adviser duties linked to the Northern Ireland peace process.
Speaking at the north London hustings, Mr Corbyn reiterated his argument that the boundary changes will lead to selection battles.
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“When he tried to bring in, and indeed did bring in, tuition fees, I opposed him on that”. I didn’t indulge in that language that many have used against me, and I never will.
