Usdaw follows steelworkers’ union Community and the Musicians’ Union (MU) in endorsing Mr Smith.
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The Labour leader claimed that his deputy was “peddling baseless conspiracy theories” after an interview in which Mr Watson alleged that young activists who back Mr Corbyn are being manipulated by experienced Marxist ideologues who are not interested in seeing a Labour government elected.
“I want a Labour leader who can rise to the challenge of this moment”, he said.
The union, the third biggest affiliated to the party, asked its 600,000-plus members if they wanted to support Mr Smith or Jeremy Corbyn.
The debate began with a clash on Europe and the European Union referendum, with Mr Smith accusing Mr Corbyn of poor leadership during the referendum campaign.
But the meeting took a dark turn after one pro-Corbyn speaker said during the meeting: “It’s very hard to get elected in this country without the support of the Israeli ambassador”.
“Jeremy can’t do that and that’s why we need to change the leader of the Labour Party”.
“I have lost confidence in you”, Mr Smith told the Labour leader in a much more punchy performance than he gave in the first hustings, in Cardiff a week ago.
“I would not, as Jeremy has done, vote against my party 500 times”.
Mr Corbyn responded saying he was “saddened” by the vote and he did not want the United Kingdom to be a “bargain basement’ island with low taxes and low workers rights”.
While Corbyn has accepted Brexit, Smith has said Labour should fight it if Brexit means a worse deal than what we have now.
He insisted his support for the ruling was not because it could improve Mr Corbyn’s chances of victory.
The falling-out came as Andy Burnham won the race to be Labour’s candidate for Greater Manchester mayor in a 2017 election he will be widely expected to win, given the party’s support in the city. There’s no place in the party for witch hunts against MPs, councillors and party staff.
Cllr Crooks said he believed the Labour party had a viable future across Britain, and in Scotland for voters “crying out” for an alternative to the SNP. But they haven’t managed to organise a Labour membership that recognises a dud leader when it sees it and thinks he should be remove.
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“I look forward to working with the GMB, its members and all in the Labour movement to tackle inequality, invest in strong public services, and for Britain to have trade union and workers’ rights that are the envy of the world”.
