His comments come in the same week Matthew Dent, Southend Labour chairman, appeared to be on the brink of quitting after hitting out at the “toxic atmosphere” within the party.
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Labour leadership contender Owen Smith has promised to rewrite Clause IV of the party’s constitution to put tackling inequality at the heart of its mission.
But his stance has proved unpopular among south Essex Labour supporters.
Do those who are newly joining intend to stay and work with the party and help to get the policies right, or is it just a protest vote? I think it is effectively a lock down to stop legitimate discussion and debate, including discussion on whether MPs who backed the coup against Jeremy Corbyn without consulting local party members should be subject to deselection.
“We celebrate the diversity of our Party as a place where sexist, racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, homophobic, or other discriminatory or offensive abuse, has no place”.
“It won’t split because we can not afford it to split and, more important than that, working people in this country can not afford the Labour Party to split”.
Mr Smith also said as Prime Minister he would raise taxes on the richest in society, adding “we need to completely overhaul our tax system”.
In an email to party members she wrote: “During the past two weeks it has become painfully obvious that we have been unable to fulfil the very basic day to day operation as the official opposition in Parliament”.
The move effectively blocks more than 100,000 members who have joined the party since the European Union referendum unless they sign up as registered supporters for £25.
Mr Smith follows former shadow Secretary of State Angela Eagle in challenging Mr Corbyn.
Angela Eagle, one of the Mr Corbyn’s challengers, has had her constituency office in Liverpool vandalised.
Mrs May also enjoyed a commanding lead over her main opponent, Jeremy Corbyn, with more than half (55%) saying she is a strong leader compared to 13% for the Labour leader.
He said it would be “better” if only one candidate ran against Mr Corbyn.
She said her “ordinary background” meant she understood the difficulties of people who had grown up without a wealth of opportunities and said she wanted to “tackle the big issues of post-Brexit Britain” – including an economy starved of investment and helping young people go to university.
She later added: “I think we have to have the person who is most likely to beat Jeremy Corbyn, and I think that is me”.
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“I don’t think we should accept we’re on a definite path out”.
