‘Stop it immediately’ John McDonnell attacks Owen Smith for ‘blackmailing’ Labour Party

In a heated debate frequently interrupted by loud boos and cheers from the studio audience, Corbyn and Smith locked horns on the economy, Trident, and Labour disunity, but throughout the 90-minute discussion scarce mention of the low-carbon economy was made by either candidate.

Asked why he did not want Mr Smith as leader, Mr McDonnell said: “Owen is a great guy, I like him a lot”.

When Mr Smith met the Shadow Chancellor and Labour leader before resigning from the frontbench, they discussed the prospect of the party splitting. “They are riding roughshod over us”.

Bobby Smith, 34, and Martin Mathews, 49, clambered onto the roof of Mr Corbyn’s home in Finsbury Park, north London to campaign for the New Fathers 4 Justice group.

Mr Smith pointed out that Mr Coprbyn is lagging behind Theresa May in the popularity stakes and that Ukip are making inroads in many Labour heartlands.

The two contenders traded promises to fight austerity, boost employment and offer protections to workers.

But he insisted “history showed” how this approach would ultimately fail, adding: “You have got to have power”.

Smith also defended Labour MPs, the majority of which passed a vote of no confidence in Corbyn.

For Labour to really win for working people, it has to be bold.

“The family of the Labour Party that helped to put them into Parliament in order to represent Labour views and Labour values”. “I come from a different tradition”.

“But personal abuse is simply not acceptable, endlessly personally briefing against people is not acceptable”.

Ahead of the showdown, both politicians have been touring the country laying out their vision for the party and trying to galvanise support. They are not Blairites.

Meanwhile, the decision to bar Labour members who joined after January 12 from voting in the election is being challenged in the High Court, in a crowd-funded case brought by some of the estimated 130,000 people who have been excluded.

We are not behaving like comrades to each other in this party. He said: “We are fighting like ferrets in a sack. We wait with interest to see if this follows at the further hustings planned as part of their leadership battle”.

“As Labour councillors, we probably contribute more than anyone to the party and are the foot soldiers”. It is assumed he means the party has to unite behind him rather than Corbyn to avoid a split, which could be catastrophic for the party.

He added: “Maybe some of the reason Jeremy hasn’t worked so hard, in my view, at holding together the Labour Party, is that he doesn’t see that as important. So we are going to invest in those communities and invest in our people”.

He accused Mr Corbyn of presiding over an increasingly divided Labour Party that looks more like a protest movement than a Government in waiting.

Mr Corbyn’s call on the day after the poll for the withdrawal process to begin immediately had effectively “allied ourselves to the Tories” he said. “I travelled the whole country doing a very large number of meetings”. “You’ll be eligible to vote in leadership elections”. We’ll stay here as long as we have to.

The issue of Britain’s nuclear deterrent and whether to renew it was perhaps the biggest sticking point of the night.

Mr Corbyn was greeted with loud cheers when he told the audience: “I voted against the renewal of Trident”.

“The prosperity that a few enjoy is not shared by the many, our economic model in Britain is broken”, said the Labour leader. He described the message coming from some of Smith’s friends as a threat and said he did not think that was acceptable.