He also addressed Corbyn’s poor opinion poll ratings, saying they are the worst of any opposition leader on record.
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London mayor Sadiq Khan has come out and urged Labour members to ditch Jeremy Corbyn and support Owen Smith for leader.
“Jeremy has already proved that he is unable to organize an effective team and has failed to win the trust and respect of the British people”, Khan said in an article he wrote for the UK’s “Observer” newspaper.
“We need to put all our efforts into fighting for a Labour government at the next election, and I believe that Owen Smith is the best person to lead that fight”.
Mr Khan said that it was not enough to blame the media for the outcome of the referendum and “let Jeremy and his team off the hook”.
At the hustings in Birmingham, Mr Smith said: “I feel right now we are not about to win in Kingswood and Milton Keynes and Cardiff North and all of the 116 seats we have got to win from the Tories”.
“I’ve been a member of Labour for more than 30 years and in that time I have not exactly been wild about every leader but I have backed them and it is important that we all do that”.
They also warn of “militants in both wings of our party who are determined to carry out a civil war against each other, whether it harms working people or not”, and say a unifying leader was the only solution. However, preaching to the converted and appealing to the general public are two fundamentally different things.
Even so, many rank-and-file Labour members remain supportive of Mr Corbyn, and bookmakers make him the clear favorite to retain the leadership.
Matt Wrack, the left wing general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union and a strong supporter of Mr Corbyn, said Mr Khan’s comments were “a little bit disappointing but possibly no great surprise”. “Because the Tories will stay in power, and Labour will stay in opposition”.
Both said they would have to work with Donald Trump if he was elected U.S. president.
The Scottish Labour leader’s office said Dugdale had no plans to meet either Corbyn or Smith before or after their sole Scottish clash at Glasgow’s SECC on Thursday.
Recently Corbyn’s supporters won all six of the contested seats on the NEC and as Corbyn tightens his grip on the party’s governing body it could mean that McNicol’s position is under threat if he is re-elected in September.
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“Yes, we do have to win over some people that have been tempted to vote Tory”.
