Labour face court challenge over Corbyn leadership ballot

The exchange comes as the Labour Party’s turmoil continues, with former shadow business secretary Owen Smith announcing his intention to run in the leadership contest.

Leadership challenger Angela Eagle has pleaded with Labour backers to “save” the party and “heal” the country by signing up for a vote to kick out Jeremy Corbyn.

The Pontypridd MP, who cancelled his campaign launch in the wake of the terror attacks in Nice, has been given a boost after winning the support of Cardiff Central MP Jo Stevens.

Asked about the leadership race on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Smith said: “I think one of us standing would be better, is the honest answer, but I think the PLP has got to be a grown-up organisation and try to come to a decision in the next couple of days over who it is”.

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.

Mr Smith, who was not an MP at the time of the Iraq war, is positioning himself to her left, and distancing himself from Mr Corbyn’s most vociferous critics on the right of the party.

There have been mass resignations from his cabinet and a vote of no confidence among MPs after Mr Corbyn’s lukewarm European Union referendum campaign.

“Unfortunately the Labour Party is the butt of that joke and everyone has stopped laughing”.

He said: “And then we should give them another chance”.

Votes are counted on the basis of one person one vote – something that paved the way for Mr Corbyn’s landslide victory previous year.

“As someone who has also received death threats this week and previously, I am calling on all Labour party members and supporters to act with calm and treat each other with respect and dignity, even where there is disagreement”, he said. “Ideally, we would have one candidate, and the clarity of that one candidate versus Jeremy Corbyn”.

“To John McDonnell I said I feared he had decided that people in his part of the party wanted to split the Labour party – and he shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘If that’s what it takes, ‘” he said.

He said: “I think she would make an excellent leader of the party and if she were the leader of the party, I would work very happily alongside her”.