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London mayor urges Labour Party to ditch Jeremy Corbyn

Mr Smith said he was “hugely honoured” to have Mr Khan’s support.

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He said that through the referendum and its aftermath, Mr Corbyn had “failed to show the leadership we desperately needed”.

The MP claims that the Labour members warned the only way to rid the party of Mr Corbyn would be for Labour to be “wiped out” at a general election and prove his unpopularity with the public.

“The hopes of the members who have joined our party would be dashed again”.

The result of the ballot was the declaration of Jeremy Corbyn as nominee from Walthamstow Labour Party by 205 votes to 103.

A Labour source said: “Kez has already made it pretty clear she doesn’t think Jeremy Corbyn can carry on as leader when he lost the confidence of his MPs. Every time, if I was to do so, every time I did an interview subsequently.I’d be asked about the internal runnings of the Labour party”.

Jeremy Corbyn will be the guest of honour at the campaign rally taking place inside Ruach City Church in Kilburn High road, Kilburn, from 6pm to 8pm.

However, the veteran left-winger maintains huge support from rank-and-file Labour members and is still expected to win the contest, which has five weeks to run.

Mr Khan, who had previously said he would not take sides in the leadership contest, said he was now backing Owen Smith as Labour was “extremely unlikely” to secure a return to power under Mr Corbyn.

Speaking at last night’s Labour leadership hustings with Owen Smith, Corbyn said he would seek to use diplomacy, rather than use armed force.

Responding to the boos, Smith criticised the “uncomradely” behaviour and said: “This is what is going wrong with the Labour Party”.

On the prospect of Republican nominee Donald Trump becoming U.S. president, Mr Smith said: “I’d be prepared to work with whoever the president was of America, that would be in the interests of the British people and we want a serious Labour government that would always act in the interests of the British people”.

Mr Smith questioned Mr Corbyn’s leadership style – suggesting he should have pressed former PM David Cameron harder on Iain Duncan Smith’s surprise resignation from the cabinet – and PM Theresa May on the implications of the European Union referendum.

“Owen Smith offers credible, radical policies and will in my view be the strong leader we need to lead us to victory in the next general election”.

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This is building up to a possibly split in the party after the leadership result is announced in September. “A third of Labour voters said they did not know where the party stood on the referendum just a week before polling day”, Khan wrote.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has backed Owen Smith as Labour's next leader saying Jeremy Corbyn cannot win a general election