Webchat with Labour leadership candidate Owen Smith MP, Tuesday 23 August at 2pm

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello

We’re pleased to announce a webchat with Owen Smith MP on Tuesday 23 August at 2pm.

Owen has been the MP for Pontypridd, his hometown, since 2010, and has worked as a shadow minister for (at various times) Wales, health, the Treasury, and work and pensions. He spent three years at the Northern Ireland Office and most recently as Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary he led on campaigns that forced U-turns over cuts to support for disabled people and tax credit cuts. He is now standing against Jeremy Corbyn for leadership of the Labour party.

Before Parliament, Owen worked as a journalist at the BBC and as a special adviser to the Labour government, and then as head of policy at Pfizer and head of public affairs at biotech company Amgen. He is married with three teenaged children.

The deadline for voting in the Labour leadership election is 21 September, and the result will be announced on 24 September.

Please do join the chat on Tuesday at 2pm, or if you can’t make it, please leave a question here in advance. And do bear in mind the webchat guidelines - one question each only (follow-ups allowed if there’s time) and please do be polite.

Thanks
MNHQ

@FrameyMcFrame

Hi Owen, I've just voted for you in the leadership election.

This has been a horribly divisive time for labour, it seems you can't have a sensible conversation with a Corbyn supporter without being insulted or called a neo liberal or a Blairite

I'd like to ask how can we unite the party if you win?

Hi Framey, thanks very much for the support. I will not let you down!
I agree that this has been an awful and hugely divisive time for the party, but I sincerely believe that the vast majority of Labour members share my values and my belief that we have to unite to speak for the best values and to translate those values into practice through government.

I set out in a speech yesterday some of the ways in which i hoped to bring us all together under my leadership, including through electing a members shadow cabinet to advise the one made up of MPs and through making our conference sovereign again to guarantee that members interests and values are properly reflected in our programme for government.

@OddBoots

If I had looked at your voting record without knowing you were Labour I would have guessed that you were a Conservative. What in your view tells you apart from a Conservative MP?

With respect, Oddboots, that's an offensive and slightly silly thing to say. I led our opposition to the recent Welfare Bill, delivering the U-turns from the Tories on Tax Credits and PIP cuts. I was the first Labour frontbencher to call the NHS Act for what it was - the privatisation of our NHS. I fought against Tory cuts to the budget of Wales for three years. I will always stand up against the Tories and for Labour values. I vote Labour.

That was your job. Left to your own devices you would have abstained.

@CormoranStrike

Owen, Jeremy has failed to unite his party and failed to lead effectively.

Succinctly, what would you have done differently in the past year?

Scotland feels like a labour no go area at the moment. What would you do to give the party a chance of winning seats?

I would have (1) worked harder to maintain unity of purpose in the shadow cabinet and the PLP - I had just one meeting with JC as Shadow DWP Sec in 9 months, despite his interest in the department, and the same was true of most of my colleagues.

(2) I would have been much more robust at PMQs and in the media in calling out the Tories for all the damage they are doing to this country.

1. I would have fought a lot harder for the UK to remain within the EU. We have just made life much harder for a millions of British people by the decision to leave and I would not have give the Tories a free pass to cut workers rights and open up the NHS to commercial competition, as I suspect will now happen.

On Scotland, i think my experience as a Welsh MP in a devolved era gives me insights into what we need to do to win back support. First we need to show that Labour understands the importance people attach in Scotland to their patriotism and their identity and to allow the Scottish party and the Scottish people to determine their own destiny. Too often we looked far too London-centric. Secondly, we need ton invest in Scotland and i would through my £200BN British New Deal.

Hello,

Corbyn has ignited an energised movement of diverse people behind social justice and a brighter future. How will you truly be able to offer a similarly different radical agenda, when so much of the grassroots are so committed to Corbyn's ideas?

Thanks!

@VanillaSugar

What's your favourite biscuit?

I am BIG on biscuits. Custard creams a definite favourite, but round my nan's as a boy I used to like a Garibaldi. You've got to like a biccy named after a revolutionary.

I joined the labour party under Milliband. Couldn't bring myself to do so under Blair or Brown as I think they took the party too far right. I didn't vote for Corbyn in the last leadership election and am currently undecided. My MP supports you and that is a big plus point for me as I have a lot of time for her, plus I'm not a big fan of the SWP who have not infiltrated the party but walked in through the front door (which was open to welcome them apparently) and seem very keen on Corbyn. I'm just a bit worried you would take us back to the bad old days of Blair/Brown. Very much on the fence at the mo...
After all that, slightly obtuse question - what do you think of the idea of letting people who pay £3 to be a supporter vote as if they're members? (Personally, I think it was an astonishingly stupid idea that has got us into this current mess!)

@Girlwithnotattoos

Hi Owen, I'd like to know why Labour didn't stand together on the EU referendum with a single stay message? I'd also like to know where you stand on Brexit and whether you would try to keep us in if elected to be the leader. The Brexit issue is making me reconsider my allegiance to Labour in light of the lacklustre performance and I have a vote in the leadership election.

Good questions! I'd like to know why we weren't stronger on the EU, full stop! The truth is that even at the end of the campaign too many labour voters weren't sure what our position was. JC has to take some blame for that - as all of us in positions of leadership must. I thought we made far too narrow an argument about the EU. We should have made a bigger case for internationalism and collaboration across the peoples of the EU - that's the only way we will deal with x-border issues like corporate tax and environmental damage.

My position is clear. We should demand a seat at the Brexit talks. We should try and defend all of the gains that we have made or had safeguarded by the EU. and if the deal turns out to be damaging for working people in the UK - if there isn't an extra £350m for the NHS! - then we be bold enough to reject the deal and put it back to the people either at a general election or a second referendum.

@MsDeerheart

Hi Owen, I will be voting for you - my question is how do you deal with abuse online or in real life and how do we get rid of it in the Labour party? What particularly upsets me is when people say that say Jess Phillips or Angela Eagle are lying about what they have experienced. The #webelieveyou campaign on her had a big influence on me and this seems the opposite of that approach

Hello, Ms Deerheart! Thanks for the vote!

What I wouldn't do is what Jeremy says: 'ignore it'. I would tackle this growing problem with the seriousness it deserves. It is entirely unacceptable that any women - Jess, Angela or any other - should be subject to this sort of abuse and intimidation. We should start by setting examples ourselves within Labour and having zero-tolerance for it. Calling out those guilty of it, and investigating and disciplining those within our ranks who engage in it. Beyond our party we need to work with internet providers and platforms to ask them to be more responsible in the platforms that they offer and to encourage greater respect and tolerance through our culture and, where necessary and possible, our legislation. I fully endorse the aims of the Reclaim the Internet campaign in this regard and i have already committed that if i am the leader I will set up a taskforce led by women in the party to bring forward recommendations to end misogyny in Labour.

@CreamCrackerundertheSettee

Do you support the refusal to allow new members of the Labour Party to vote in the leadership election?

I joined after the EU vote because I'm angry with the lack of credible Labour opposition. Jeremy jumped on people joining the Labour party as a sign of support for his leadership whereas I, and presumably many others, had the opposite motivation.

I fully understand your frustration about this issue. I know many others feel the same. Unfortunately, I can't affect the rules of the contest, I simply have to abide by them. what i would say is that if I win the contest, I will look at how we ensure any future leadership contests are less beset by such procedural problems. The last thing we want is for our party's rules to be determined in the courts.

On the EU, I was also incredibly angry and disappointed at our weak efforts to stay in and if I am leader we will redouble our efforts to do just that.

@CreamCrackerundertheSettee

Do you support the refusal to allow new members of the Labour Party to vote in the leadership election?

I joined after the EU vote because I'm angry with the lack of credible Labour opposition. Jeremy jumped on people joining the Labour party as a sign of support for his leadership whereas I, and presumably many others, had the opposite motivation.

I fully understand your frustration about this issue. I know many others feel the same. Unfortunately, I can't affect the rules of the contest, I simply have to abide by them. what i would say is that if I win the contest, I will look at how we ensure any future leadership contests are less beset by such procedural problems. The last thing we want is for our party's rules to be determined in the courts.

On the EU, I was also incredibly angry and disappointed at our weak efforts to stay in and if I am leader we will redouble our efforts to do just that.

Did you come on here because you actually care what female/mother voters have to say, or just so you can say 'I'm not a misogynist, I went on mumsnet!'

Don't expect an answer. But that's what I see.

Thanks for answering my question.

I joined as a registered supporter, reluctantly paying £25 so I'll be voting for you.

@scratchypoopants

I joined the labour party under Milliband. Couldn't bring myself to do so under Blair or Brown as I think they took the party too far right. I didn't vote for Corbyn in the last leadership election and am currently undecided. My MP supports you and that is a big plus point for me as I have a lot of time for her, plus I'm not a big fan of the SWP who have not infiltrated the party but walked in through the front door (which was open to welcome them apparently) and seem very keen on Corbyn. I'm just a bit worried you would take us back to the bad old days of Blair/Brown. Very much on the fence at the mo... After all that, slightly obtuse question - what do you think of the idea of letting people who pay £3 to be a supporter vote as if they're members? (Personally, I think it was an astonishingly stupid idea that has got us into this current mess!)

Hi, I have absolutely no intention of taking us backwards. I think the last Labour Government did a lot that we can and should be proud of: Sure Start, trebling spending on the NHS, taking a million children and a million pensioners out of poverty. However, as I said in a speech just yesterday, we also made mistakes, and one of those was to narrow the gap (especially in the language we used) between us and the Tories, leading to that dreadful charge that "you're all the same." But this is not 1997, and we need modern, Labour answers to the real problems we face in Britain - low wages, insecure work, under-funded public services, a productivity crisis in industry. I will help Labour provide those answers. On the 3 quidders: Welcome to the Labour movement!

@BastardDailyMail

"I was the first Labour frontbencher to call the NHS Act for what it was - the privatisation of our NHS."

Surely that's a typo - shouldn't that be 'last' not 'first'. It was blatantly obvious that this was the case years ago - surely this hasn't only just occurred to you?

This is an interesting related article owen-smith-issues-stark-warning-future-nhs-ignores-one-crucial-detail

I say it, cos it's true. Here's the link to the speech in which i said it in 2011.

@SpecialAgentFreyPie

Did you come on here because you actually care what female/mother voters have to say, or just so you can say 'I'm not a misogynist, I went on mumsnet!'

Don't expect an answer. But that's what I see.

Hello Special Agent, I'm doing this because Mumsnet asked me to, and because I thought it would be a good way to hear the views of women and mums (or Mams, as I call mine)

Actually, Owen - Corbyn hasn't just told Labour MPs to 'ignore abuse' has he? he's publically spoken against abuse on all sides, but that doesnt fit your narrative, so you can just ignore it here and here

@BastardDailyMail

Is that it??

No, there's more: you can sign up to my campaign for all updates at www.owen2016.com or like me on Facebook.

Signing off now. Bye all. Hope to do this again soon. Invite me back, Mumsnet!

As a former Labour supporter (I haven't voted Labour since the Iraq war) one aspect of this current internal battle seems to be a conflict between those who believe they represent their constituents and those who think they should 'educate' their constituents. Where do you sit on this? In a conflict between the desires of the membership and the aims of the PLP, where does your allegiance lie?

Did you type that great subtweet about the Virgin expose of Corbyn's "ram packed train" stunt yourself?

twitter.com/OwenSmith_MP/status/768078650235166722

Oh well, 2 questions not answered.
3 if I include the one to MNHQ about when Corbyn's chat will be. . .

Ah - so he's not prepared to promise he won't strut around pretending he has a solid gold mandate if he wins, when all he really is an "at least you aren't Corbyn" supporter base.