Owen Smith cancels Labour leadership launch after Nice attack

Leadership bid: Labour's Owen Smith
Bruce Adams/Daily Mail
Robin de Peyer15 July 2016
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Owen Smith has cancelled the planned launch of his Labour leadership campaign in the wake of the Nice terror attack.

Mr Smith was scheduled to launch his bid to be Labour leader with an event in his Pontypridd constituency today.

But the former shadow work and pensions secretary, who is challenging Angela Eagle and incumbent Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership, tweeted that the event has now been called off.

He said: "In light of the heartbreaking news from Nice, I am cancelling today's campaign launch. Solidarite et fraternite avec le peuple Francais."

Mr Smith was due to warn that he believes the Labour Party is heading for a "disastrous split".

He was due to say: "This is a moment of deep peril for Labour, if we carry on as we are the party I love will end up in a disastrous spilt. I am not prepared to let that happen.

"The Labour Party must pull through this crisis and unite. We owe it to the millions of people across Britain who look to the Labour Party to provide hope and optimism for their lives."

Angela Eagle has already launched her campaign to try to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.

Mr Smith was also due to say that he believes he is the only candidate that can unite the party, which has been rocked by turmoil in recent weeks.

He was going to say: "So now it falls to a new generation of Labour MPs to step forward and secure Labour's future. I am the only person in this race that can do that.

"It's not enough just to talk about being anti-austerity. Labour needs to set out the details of how we overcome Tory austerity and secure the next Labour government that delivers investment, not cuts.

"That's what I will be doing throughout this campaign; setting out the vision and policies that can unite the party and lead us into government."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in