SMITH SAYS CORBYN IS ‘NOT THE MESSIAH’
LABOUR leadership hopeful Owen Smith took his campaign to topple Jeremy Corbyn into “enemy territory”, telling supporters at a Liverpool rally: “He’s not the Messiah.”
Mr Smith was challenged by a Corbyn supporter at the event, who claimed the current party leader was “like the Messiah” who people were trying to “crucify”.
But the MP for Pontypridd, to the delight of around 200 supporters, shot back quoting from Monty Python’s Life of Brian: “He’s not the Messiah. He’s a very naughty boy.”
Mr Smith, the only challenger to Mr Corbyn for the leadership, said the Labour Party had been the greatest force for economic and social justice for working people in the country’s history.
But, he told supporters, the battle with Mr Corbyn for leadership was a fight for the future and “soul” of the Labour Party. He said the point of the Labour Party was not to be a “talking shop” or protest movement, but to get into power and decried “marches and protests” without power as “howling in the wind”.
He said under Mr Corbyn the party was “weak” and did not look like a governmentin-waiting.
He added: “Because the truth is, unless we win power, unless we p u t those principles into practice through government, all of these meetings, all of these marches, it’s just howling into the wind. It’s just protest. And we’re better than that. “We’re a party that was created a century ago to wrest power, through parliament, from the hands of the elite, to give it to people, to act on their behalf. To deliver a people’s government, that’s what we are about.” Mr Smith continued: “I like a march as much as Jeremy does, but I tell you what, I’d far prefer to have a Labour man or Labour woman in Number 10, putting into practice our policies, that’s what I came into politics for, not to talk about it, to do it. “So I say to Jeremy, ‘Don’t tell me you’ve got more principles or better principles than me’. “I’m a socialist, plain and simple, and I will cede to nobody my socialist credo. “I will tell everybody what I stand for and I will do that during this contest. “But we’ve got to win, Jeremy. We’ve got to win and at the moment we don’t look like winning.
“We don’t look like a party that the country looks to as having the people and the policies and the credibility and the radicalism, the solutions to the scale of the challenges that they know are out there.”
He pledged policies of fair taxes, £200bn more public investment, and an end to the freeze on pay for public sector workers.
He added: “Credible, believable socialist solutions to the problems we face in Britain. That will appeal everywhere.
“And if you give me a chance, if you put your faith in me, I promise you this, I will not let you down.”
Mr Corbyn is facing the challenge after 172 of his own MPs supported a vote of no confidence in his leadership.
The election campaign continues until September.