According to the party, more than 640,000 members and supporters are eligible to vote in the contest between Mr Corbyn and Mr Smith. “I’m very clear that I want Scotland to stay in the United Kingdom”.
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“Instead of welcoming the enthusiasm of our new members, instead of celebrating the strength of our mass membership, they have been behaving as if it is something to be afraid of”, she added.
Labour leadership candidate Owen Smith has said he would not oppose a second Scottish independence referendum.
The Walsall North MP said the current situation was quite different from the early 1980s when nearly 30 Labour MPs defected to the breakaway Social Democratic Party.
Labour was plunged into a leadership crisis after Corbyn received a vote of no confidence from MPs.
“There is now just under a month until the leadership election and party members will be hoping to see support for Owen Smith in the coming weeks to propel him to victory in this contest”.
The challenger’s campaign will be anxious by the news that just 33 per cent of those who intend to vote for him, and 12 per cent of the overall selectorate, believe that he can win the next general election.
“We ended up having a vote in Britain largely to satisfy the internal politics of one of our political parties and we now face the prospect of Britain being worse off as a result”.
The Labour MP, whose Islington South constituency borders Mr Corbyn’s in Islington North, launched the outspoken attack in a Facebook post to local party members.
“I think Jeremy has been very slow to take a clear line on this”, he said. We will channel this new energy and creativity into Labour’s general election campaign whenever it comes.
The “Traingate” controversy where Corbyn said he was forced to sit of the floor of a Virgin train because it was “ram-packed”, which was later disproved, has had little impact on the Labour leader with only 5% of respondents saying that it changed their view of him.
39% of members thought the party likely to split after the leadership campaign.
Some 640,500 people are eligible to vote in the Labour contest, and more than half joined the party in the past year, The Times said. “Labour must be a party that fights for black, Asian and ethnic minority communities – and a diverse and united Britain”, declared Mr Corbyn.
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Her comments come after shadow chancellor John McDonnell accused Labour officials of carrying out a “purge” of Mr Corbyn’s supporters after a prominent union chief was suspended.
