Labour leadership hopeful Owen Smith has said it would be “tempting” to stop the United Kingdom from leaving the European Union if he became Prime Minister.
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But Ms Eagle refused to give the same assurance, instead insisting that she is in the best position to beat Mr Corbyn to become leader in a national ballot of members.
Last night, Labour’s largest individual donor, John Mills, who has given more than £1.6 million to the party, said: ‘I am aware of these sorts of discussions, but I am very reluctant to get involved in the plots and schemes.
“Whenever I’ve been asked to stand up and step up to the plate I have”. But they accept that even their party’s rather embarrassing failure to get anywhere close to the Tories in terms of female leaders is a second order problem compared to getting rid of Jeremy Corbyn.
LEADERSHIP is about many things.
Angela Eagle and Owen Smith appeared alongside Mr Corbyn at an hour-long hustings for MPs in Parliament – an event which was closed to the public.
By positioning themselves in that way, they think they could potentially be acceptable to both wings of the party.
Meanwhile Mr Corbyn will fight to remain Labour chief after securing his place as a candidate in a leadership contest.
Corbyn was elected leader in September 2015 after an election prompted by the resignation of Ed Miliband when Labour lost the May 2015 general election. “We owe it to the millions of people across Britain who look to the Labour Party to provide hope and optimism for their lives”. “We can trust them again in 18 months time to check it’s absolutely what they wanted”.
In a speech in his Pontypridd constituency, Mr Smith will commit funds to housing, transport and “investing in people”.
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”.
Ms Eagle borrowed Theresa May’s famous 2002 description of the Conservatives as she called for action from the Labour leadership on “abuse, misogyny, homophobia (and) anti-Semitism” affecting the party.
Speaking to the BBC Sunday, Smith said that “one of us standing would be better” and that “whoever the person is who commands the largest degree of support” among parliamentary members “is the unity candidate, and that’s the person who should go forward and take Jeremy on”. We have to stamp it out.
“I’ve launched a campaign called “Keep It Comradely”.
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The plot emerged as this newspaper also established that Mr Kinnock, the son of former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, has held secret talks with former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown about “safeguarding the interests of our country”.
