Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Constituency Labour Party (CLP) last week voted to nominate Owen Smith as the next leader of the Labour Party.
The vote, 23-12 in favour of Owen, was welcomed by MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland Tom Blenkinsop, who also nominated the challenger in the contest.
Tom said:
“I am really pleased with this overwhelming vote to support Owen Smith as our next Labour leader.
“I know some of those who voted for Owen at this meeting supported Corbyn in the last election, which I think says a lot about both Corbyn’s leadership and Owen’s radical and practical vision for our country.
“As well as our local party and unions such as Community and GMB, polling shows the general public also believe Owen should be the next leader of the Labour party. I hope party members and supporters listen to these voices and vote for Owen Smith.”
The vote was carried despite one Jeremy Corbyn supporter, who is not a Labour party member, trying to enter the meeting using someone else’s membership card. CLP staff spotted the discrepancy and ensured the individual was prevented from participating in the meeting.
Tom said:
“I am grateful that vigilant staff prevented this attempted entryism from influencing our nomination meeting. I will be informing the national party of the incident and will ask that they provide additional support to CLPs around the country to stop these sort of underhand tricks undermining the nominations process.
“If this is happening in local nomination meetings then we must be aware of what Corbyn supporters from outside our party may be doing to undermine the upcoming national voting process.”
This follows the news that Jeremy Corbyn has dismissed evidence from Tom Watson, Labour’s Deputy Leader, of hard-left groups organising to influence the leadership election.