There was perhaps no clear victor of the BBC Question Time hustings special in which Labour leadership candidates Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith faced questions from the crowd ahead of the election.
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In a briefing to journalists in Westminster following Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, the senior Labour source said Corbyn is against parts of the single market, such as “pressure on the privatisation or deregulation of public services”.
Speaking before a debate at the weekly meeting of the parliamentary Labour party (PLP) on letting the party’s MPs elect the shadow cabinet, a spokesman for the Labour leader said the party should also be considering letting members, or party conference, elect some shadow cabinet members.
Corbyn said he thought he would “see the wishes of MPs to reflect the wishes of party members” and there would be a “coming together to oppose the Tory government”.
She added: ‘What we do know is whoever wins the Labour party leadership, we are not going to let them anywhere near power again’.
The audience at BBC One’s Question Time hustings between the pair booed and jeered in a fractious opening, and it failed to get much better during the live head-to-head contest.
The audience was made up of Labour voters split between the two contenders and members of other political parties.
Theresa May branded Labour a “laughing stock” as she mocked Jeremy Corbyn over his summer train woes.
“You didn’t even ask her about the European Union, even though Brexit was and is the biggest challenge facing her government, and the reason for David Cameron’s resignation and her elevation to Downing Street”.
Cases of anti-Semitism in the party are expected to feature highly alongside other issues of communal interest, such as faith schools and the delegitimisation of Israel, and topics of general concern, including Brexit and the economy.
Mr Corbyn countered by saying house-building is now 45,000 a year lower.
Smith, the former shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, has refused to return to the shadow Cabinet if Corbyn is re-elected and has also offered the veteran left-winger the position of party president or chairman if he manages to unseat him.
Last night, Labour lost a council by-election in the Sheffield ward of Mosborough, to the Liberal Democrats, dropping 9.2 per cent of their share of the vote.
Mr Corbyn’s team described it as a “dodgy” collection of rehashed claims that shows Mr Smith’s desperation.
Mr Smith claimed “hard-left” activists were “flooding” in to the party to support Mr Corbyn.
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“I think some of the people around Jeremy are absolutely encouraging it, of that there is no doubt”, he said.
