In a scathing attack, Mr Khan said Mr Corbyn had failed to win the trust of voters and that Labour was “extremely unlikely” to secure a return to power as long as he remained leader.
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“Jeremy has already proved that he is unable to organise an effective team”, Khan wrote.
The event in Birmingham was the fourth of nine official leadership debates for the pair and tensions rose as Smith was booed after he said the polls show more Labour voters prefer Theresa May to the Leader of the Opposition. “I think we need to be a Labour government once more and I think we need to be a Labour government very, very quickly”.
The Labour Party has been flung into turmoil since the UK’s vote last June to leave the European Union, and Corbyn’s leadership is now being formally challenged by MP Owen Smith.
“Labour councillors are supporting Owen Smith because only he can unite Labour against the Tories, and lead us back to power where we can transform the lives of working people for the better”.
Mayor Sadiq Khan wrote a blistering article in The Observer newspaper on Sunday, attacking Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. A third of Labour voters said they didn’t know where the party stood on the referendum just a week before polling day.
“And you can’t just blame a “hostile media” and let Jeremy and his team off the hook”.
The Labour leader said “I would want to avoid us getting involved militarily by building up the diplomatic relationships. Why would things be different in a general election?”
Corbyn and his leadership rival, Owen Smith, were tested on their pop culture knowledge during a live debate on BBC One’s Victoria Derbyshire show on Wednesday. The London Underground introduced limited overnight service Saturday, a move city leaders hope will make the British capital a truly 24-hour city and bolster the local economy.
It is only a year since his election, and he can argue that this has been a successful year in which Labour have won every by-election, and numerous mayoral contests.
But most of the winners of those elections and now the London Mayor himself are backing Owen Smith.
Friends of Al-Aqsa are alleged to have given a cheque for £10,000 to Mr. Corbyn, an outspoken critic of Israel, when he was bidding to become Labour leader in 2015.
The former work and pensions spokesman is challenging Mr Corbyn for Labour’s top job, after the leader lost a no-confidence vote of his MPs.
He added: “Simply opposing Tory policies will never be enough to help the people we exist to support”.
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Corbyn is hugely popular with the Labour membership and will likely win the leadership contest.
