The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Corbyn lashes back over EU
Leader attacks rival for suggestion he didn’t vote Remain in poll
Jeremy Corbyn was forced into an angry denial thathe voted for the UK to leave the European Union by his challenger to be the next Labour leader.
During an ill-tempered debate at Glasgow’s SECC last night, Owen Smith launched a series of personal attacksonthemanhe wants to replace.
Noise levels soared among the 400- strong crowd when the subject turned to June’s referendum.
Mr Smith said: “The reason I think Jeremy can be so complacent and passive
“You were meant to be winning Scotland back on the basis of being more radical”
about this is because he’s happy with the result.”
He added: “I’m not even sure Jeremy did vote Remain.”
Trying to make himself heard over the noise, Mr Corbyn hit back saying he thought the two candidates “were going to be grown - up” during the debate.
He said: “Owen, you know perfectly well what the answer is. I voted Remain and I am very surprised and disappointed you raised that question.”
Earlier, during the debate, in which moderator Lindsay McIntosh of The Times andMr Smith made multiple appeals for calm, Labour was accused of going “backwards in Scotland” under Mr Corbyn’s leadership.
The party has been overtaken by the Conservatives andMr Smithwasjeered as he went on to praise Kezia Dugdale, the leader of the Scottish Party in charge of delivering the manifesto and campaign, for doing a “good job”.
He told Mr Corbyn: “We have gone backwards in Scotland on your watch. You were meant to be winning Scotland back on the basis of being more radical. People in Scotland cannot look toLabour inWestminster right now and anticipate us winning a general election.
“Therefore, we are ill serving the ScottishLabour Party and we are ill serving the people of Scotland.”
Both candidates warned against the prospect of Labour splitting after the election, a suggestion which has been mooted if Mr Corbyn wins when the result is announced at next month’s party conference in Liverpool.
Mr Corbyn added: “It’s an enormous honour to be selected and elected as a Labour Member of Parliament. You have a huge responsibility to the community that has electedyouand the party that has selected youandputyouthere, sothe idea, as happened with the SDP in the 1980s, that you could walk away into the arms of wealthy donors and set up some other organisation is complete anathema to me.”