Nottingham backers of Jeremy Corbyn insisted he can win a General Election as they launched a local campaign to win him support.
The Labour leader faces a challenge from Owen Smith after three Notts MPs joined a walk-out of his shadow cabinet in June.
The rebels say they believe he is incapable of leading the party back to power and are backing Smith to take his job.
The division has caused a debate about the future of the party, led to legal wrangling over membership and leadership rules and caused public rows between senior Labour figures.
On Wednesday Pro-Corbyn supporters organised a phone bank on Clarendon Street in the city to contact Nottinghamshire party members and urge them to back his campaign to retain leadership of the party.
Corbyn backers spent an evening calling Nottinghamshire party members
Among the phone bank volunteers was party activist Louise Reagan.
“For me a leader is someone who engages people, that is honest and fair, and that allows people to become part of the party,” she said.
“Jeremy has clearly done that over the last year – thousands and thousands of people have joined our party of the last year and it’s now the biggest political party in Europe.
“Those people have joined because he talks about the things that affect us, when for many years people have been turned off by politics.”
Umaar Kazmi, a law student who organised the event, said: “I think the main divisions are in the parliamentary Labour party and people over-state the divisions within the membership.
“I think generally we are conducting this campaign in a comradely and friendly way but obviously I think it’s unfortunate we are in a leadership election.
“If our MPs had respected the mandate given to Jeremy we wouldn’t need to be here.”
Last week supporters of Mr Smith, the MP for Pontypridd, ran a similar event for their campaign at the Vat and Fiddle on Queensbridge Road in the city.
Video: Three Labour MPs publicly backed Owen Smith last week
Gedling’s Vernon Coaker, Lilian Greenwood of Nottingham South, Chris Leslie of Nottingham East were among Labour MPs backing the event.
But other Notts MPs including Nottingham North’s Graham Allen have spoken out against the bid to unseat Mr Corbyn.
