Owen Smith, a former member of Corbyn’s top team, accused the veteran socialist of “sloganising” rather than holding the Conservatives to account, and of failing to campaign hard enough to prevent a vote to leave the European Union.
Advertisement
It came after Mr Corbyn’s leadership rival Owen Smith warned the Labour party could “bust apart and disappear”.
There have been some critics who have said that the Labour leader has massive core support, but few polices, well this afternoon he plans to change that.
Branding the leadership hopeful the “disunity candidate”, Mr McDonnell called for a return to an “amicable” and “comradely” contest.
Hundreds queued to see Mr Corbyn speak, with Swansea council’s deputy leader Christine Richards chairing th meeting – where she told the audience it had been a “kick in the teeth” when the Tories won Gower Constituency in the same hall on May 7 a year ago, but that Mr Corbyn and his followers were going to take back control.
They appeared to be referring to a Commons Justice Committee report into the operation of family courts, which said the Australian system – which favours shared parenting when parents split – had not contributed to children’s well-being.
“We said yesterday that we were delighted Jeremy Corbyn had accepted our childcare challenge to make childcare affordable for all, but we want to hear fully costed plans from both him and Smith on how they’d take this critical issue forward”.
Four other unions, the Communication Workers’ Union, the construction workers’ union UCATT, and the rail unions Aslef and TSSA have backed Mr Corbyn. Two million Labour voters think they would prefer Theresa May to Jeremy Corbyn as the prime minister of this country.
But Mr McDonnell insisted he does not want to see the party break up, telling the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “I don’t think I did say that”.
He repeated his claims that shadow chancellor John McDonnell said he was happy to see the party split in order for Mr Corbyn to stay in power.
He pledged that he would appoint a “broad” shadow cabinet and urged every Labour MP to work with him if he is re-elected on September 24.
“As Labour councillors, we probably contribute more than anyone to the party and are the foot soldiers”.
Corbyn concluded: “As we build towards a general election we offer an alternative, a different way of doing things, where you ignore nobody, you forget nobody, you build a sense of inclusion, of decency, and moral respect within our society”. He is one of the most ambitious career politicians I have met. I think we have moved on from that style of politics. The audience applauded the current leader as he added: “I have a democratic mandate in this country”.
“We could all be living richer lives”, he said.
Advertisement
“No-one and no community will ever be left behind by Labour”, he said.
