This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/19/owen-smith-jeremy-corbyn-labour-leadership-angela-eagle

The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Owen Smith to face Corbyn in Labour leadership challenge Owen Smith to face Corbyn in Labour leadership challenge
(about 2 hours later)
Owen Smith is set to challenge Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership in a head-to-head race following the decision by Angela Eagle to pull out. Owen Smith will take on Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership in a head-to-head race that will see the pair clash repeatedly during the summer before a result is announced at the party’s conference on 24 September.
Eagle, the former shadow business secretary, said she would back Smith in the bid to lead the party after she attracted 72 nominations from MPs and MEPs, 18 below Smith’s 90. The Pontypridd MP became the sole challenger to Corbyn following a decision by Angela Eagle to pull out of the race after it became clear she would fall short of her opponent when it came to nominations from MPs and MEPs.
Eagle made her move before the nomination process officially ends at 5pm on Wednesday to allow the party’s MPs who oppose Corbyn to focus their attention on signing up registered supporters. Teams backing Corbyn and those hoping to remove him have until Wednesday afternoon to persuade people to pay the controversial £25 fee, agreed by the party’s national executive committee, in order to be able to vote in the leadership contest. Eagle said she would throw all her “enthusiasm and might” behind Smith, as she urged people to pay £25 to sign up as registered supporters before 5pm on Wednesday so they could vote in the contest.
She said that she would back Smith will “all my enthusiasm and might” and said the pair would be “in lockstep together”. The pair indicated they would be putting themselves forward as a joint ticket, with Eagle saying she would work in “lockstep” with the former shadow work and pensions secretary.
After thanking her supporters, she said: “Owen Smith has a lead and I think it is in the best interests of the Labour party that we now come together so that we can have one candidate. So I’m announcing that I’m withdrawing from this race and supporting Owen.” Related: Angela Eagle was never going to be Labour leader. You can guess why | Anne Perkins
She called on Labour supporters who want the party to be an effective opposition to take on the Tories and win to sign up as registered supporters before 5pm on Wednesday so they could vote in the contest. Smith will seek to present his campaign for a leadership team drawn from all sides of the party. Describing Eagle as a great friend and a pioneer in the party, he added: “I will want to work side by side with Angela throughout this contest. I want Angela to be at my right hand throughout this.”
“We have a Labour party that is not working, we have a leader that doesn’t have the confidence of his members of parliament and isn’t reaching out to the country,” added Eagle. “We need to have a strong and united Labour party so we can take the fight to the Conservative government and heal our country.” Smith had attracted the nominations of 90 colleagues, including 88 MPs and two MEPs, while the Guardian understands that Eagle had the backing of 63 MPs and a further nine MEPs.
A source in the Eagle camp said the contest was close, and might have been closer by the end of Wednesday, but she had moved quickly to allow MPs to “unite without rancour”. Both men will now take their campaigns to members, with ballot papers and online voting information being sent out to eligible members, who joined before January, on 22 August. They then have a month to decide before returning their papers by 21 September or voting online, with the result announced at Labour’s Liverpool conference.
The Guardian understands that the two camps received the names half an hour before the 5pm publication point, with Eagle’s team taking the decision to pull out of the race because of the disparity. Corbyn, who was challenged following a vote of no confidence by three quarters of Labour MPs, is expected to launch his campaign this week.
The numbers were not officially published, but the Guardian understands that Smith’s nominations were made up of 88 MPs and 2 MEPs, while Eagle had 63 MPs and 7 MEPs, meaning he had a lead of 25 among Westminster politicians. His pitch to the members who supported him in large numbers last summer is that he has led the party to successful results in local elections and deserves credit for his anti-austerity stance and for government U-turns on “cruel tax credit cuts” and reforms of disability benefits.
Both candidates have been under pressure because of an overwhelming desire within the PLP for a single candidate to take on Corbyn during the race which will stretch over the summer. Some had expected Eagle to stand down earlier in the day because of rumours that Smith was well in the lead, but she held out until receiving the numbers. In a note to members, Corbyn conceded that “our party is divided” but argued that he could unify it again.
The contest was triggered by Eagle, who argued that she deserved the nominations of colleagues because of her courage in putting herself forward but also because she is a woman from a working-class family in the north, who has performed well in PMQs. “We need to use this contest to bring people together around strong policies to turn our fire on to the Tory government. There must be no personal abuse or threatening behaviour,” he wrote, after Eagle and he faced death threats.
Smith later entered the race, with the backing of MPs such as Lisa Nandy and Kate Green on the soft left of the party, arguing that Eagle had attracted too much support from the right of the party. He has also claimed that a “newer generation” candidate would have a better chance against Corbyn. “Let’s have a comradely debate this summer.”
All three candidates in the leadership race appeared before colleagues in a hustings on Monday afternoon, but only Eagle and Smith required nominations after the NEC decided Corbyn should be automatically placed on the ballot. Smith, who admitted it would be a difficult few months, is preparing to go to members with policies such as restoring wage councils, a £200bn investment plan, a referendum on the Brexit deal, an ethical foreign policy, and a new war powers act to help parliament scrutinise future conflicts.
At the hustings, when Yvette Cooper asked the two challengers if either was prepared to step aside if they won lower levels of support from MPs, Eagle said she would not make “backroom deals”. But under pressure from MPs, she later made a deal, hammered out between the two candidates and their closest MPs and aides, under which the pair will end up running as part of a joint ticket. “It’s clear that we must oppose failed Tory austerity. However, it is not enough to just be anti-austerity, we need a concrete plan for prosperity,” he said in his note to members, in a swipe at Corbyn who he has accused of offering slogans but not solutions.
Her supporters have complained about what they say are unfair attempts to push her into stepping aside. But others said the momentum was shifting to Smith because he was seen as more electable by Labour members who overwhelmingly backed Corbyn last summer. Smith said the party owed Corbyn a debt of gratitude for helping Labour to rediscover its radical roots. “But we need a new generation of Labour men and women to take this party forward.”
One Smith supporter had said there was a pattern emerging which showed MPs who had been in Ed Miliband’s frontbench or in government were supporting Eagle, while the newer generation of MPs from the 2010 intake onwards were voting for Smith. “I think there is a sense those people may want a bit of a restoration project, there is certainly that dynamic there,” the source said. “But the most important thing is there is unity across that divide: if Owen wins he should offer Angela a very, very senior position.” He said his decision to stand was partly because Labour was at a moment of real risk, arguing that the “possibility of split is dangerously real”.
Emma Reynolds, MP for Wolverhampton, told the Guardian she had thought Eagle should be chosen “because she’s got the experience that we need and also she’s a northern woman from a working class family”. But she admitted she wanted a single candidate, adding she was now fully behind Smith. The Welsh MP, who was nominated by the former leader Ed Miliband, will now win the backing of the vast majority of Labour MPs as Eagle supporters swing behind him in their bid to defeat Corbyn.
Two MPs have gone to great lengths to cast their nomination preferences. Jim McMahon and Judith Cummins sent their choice in from mid-air over the Atlantic, using their plane’s Wi-Fi, believed to be a first for the PLP. Both voted for Smith. But there was some disappointment that Labour would not be putting forward a woman, after the Conservative party welcomed its second female prime minister.
Jess Phillips MP said she was completely behind Smith, but added: “All credit to Angela because she was brave and she came out and stuck her head above the parapet. It is much worse for female Labour MPs, the amount of hatred and vitriol that comes our way.
“Why would you sacrifice time with your family, time to do your job properly, see your constituents properly to basically be a figure of hatred, deep twisted hatred? The message it sends out to women activists around the country is politics is not for you, it’s not worth it.”
Others were quick to highlight that Smith was backed by a large number of women, with his campaign being co-chaired by the former shadow cabinet members, Kate Green, Heidi Alexander and Lisa Nandy.
“It would be amazing to see Labour deliver a woman as prime minister but first we have to unite this party, heal and turn into an effective force to win a general election,” said Nandy.
She said Smith was a campaigning politician who was aware that this was the moment that members could choose to “set the Labour party back on the path to power”, a move that she argued was critical for many women in her Wigan constituency.
“Angela is an incredibly tough politician who has acted in a way that shows, as always, that she has the interests of the Labour party at her core.”
Eagle had come under pressure to step down halfway through the period for nominations by MPs and MEPs following a clamour within the party for a single candidate to take on Corbyn.
There were fears that the battle between the pair was a distraction from a campaign called Saving Labour, which is trying to persuade people to sign up to vote against Corbyn by Wednesday’s deadline.
But the Labour leader is also backed by the grassroots movement Momentum, which has a network of more than 100,000 supporters and the ability to mobilise people quickly.
The contest follows a fierce battle within the party’s national executive committee, which has triggered legal challenges from both sides. It decided that Corbyn would automatically be placed on the ballot without nomination, but also laid out new rules for a £25 fee and blocked more than 130,000 new members who have joined since January from voting.
Stephen Doughty MP, who had backed Eagle, said her supporters were naturally disappointed but full of praise for the way she had conducted herself at every stage of the contest with “dignity and courage”.
“I have no doubt all of us who supported her will now throw our full support behind Owen – who has also showed a significant ability to communicate and inspire with a radical anti-austerity programme to stand up for our communities and take the fight to the Tories.”