Corbyn’s Nottingham backers urge city’s rebel MPs to unite Labour party

Notts supporters of Jeremy Corbyn are urging those who backed his opponent in the Labour leadership battle to put it behind them and unite the party.

Mr Corbyn was re-elected as leader on Saturday, beating the challenge of Owen Smith with almost sixty-two per cent of the vote.

He went on to call for the party to unite under a “clean slate” after months of damaging division.

His victory will come as a blow to Notts MPs who resigned from his shadow cabinet in June amid concern about his leadership style.

Nottingham South MP Lilian Greenwood stepped down as shadow transport secretary, with Gedling MP Vernon Coaker and Ashfield MP Gloria De Piero also resigning from shadow cabinet jobs.

They all later backed Owen Smith’s bid, which was defeated at the party conference over the weekend.

Greg Marshall, a Labour Councillor for Broxtowe Borough Council and part of the Notts Momentum group, said: “It’s fantastic news that we’ve been able to engage hundreds of thousands of people across the Labour party to be engaged in the leadership contest.

“It’s also fantastic news that we can put this particularly bruising episode for the Labour party behind us and we can now go forward in unity.”

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Lilian Greenwood was among a number of local MPs to publicly abandon faith in Mr Corbyn.

When asked about the MPs who stepped down from Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, he added: “We are all Labour and there’s a responsibility on Labour MPs who have been dissatisfied over the last year to now get full square behind Corbyn and to play a role in tackling policies and Governmental direction.”

Nottingham was on the front line of the battle between Corbyn and Smith, with local members divided between the two candidates, who both visited the city as part of their campaigns.

Ms Greenwood had already expressed a desire for unity in the party whatever the result, saying last week: “We will need to focus on uniting the Labour party and getting on with our job – holding this Conservative Government to account.

“That’s what voters want and what Labour party members want.”

Mr Coaker has also indicated he would be willing to work with Mr Corbyn – saying an election for shadow cabinet positions would be an “olive branch”.

However the latest polls suggest the party has some way to go to wrestle back public opinion following the vote.

Some have put Labour as far as 14 points behind the Conservative Government – a division which would translate into a huge House of Commons majority for the Tories in a General Election.