Corbyn on Owen Smith's 'great campaign' - and more

Image caption, 'Carwyn and I get along fine' - Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
  • Author, David Cornock
  • Role, 大象传媒 Wales Parliamentary correspondent

I've spent a few minutes with Jeremy Corbyn chewing the fat over his views on (among other things) Welsh Labour, Carwyn Jones and Owen Smith.

He denied that he wanted to block a Welsh Labour seat on Labour's national executive committee.

But he did little to dispel the suggestion that he and Carwyn Jones are at odds over how that representative should be chosen.

His conviction that the new member should "enjoy the confidence of the executive and so on in Wales" is in line with his desire for wider democracy within Labour. The current proposal, which Corbyn supporters tried but failed to delay, is for the seat to be filled by the Welsh Labour leader or his/her representative.

Unusually, Mr Jones decided to attend Monday's 7:30am meeting of the NEC to make his point that watering down the proposal would be politically damaging.

"What I want to do is have agreement within the party about how the nomination should take place to the NEC so that is enjoys the confidence of the executive and so on in Wales. That surely is just a basic proposal. Carwyn and I get along fine and we've had a very good discussion about it."

Delegates are due to vote on a package of reforms, including NEC seats for Wales and Scotland, on Tuesday.

On his challenger for the party leadership, there were warm words but no guarantee of a front bench job should the Pontypridd MP change his mind about serving under the re-elected leader.

Although Mr Corbyn does politics differently from most leaders, there were signs during the interview that he is becoming more "on message". A question about UK Labour's performance under more left-wing leaders was met with a response detailing Welsh Labour's achievements.

And a question about Lord Kinnock's fear that he won't see another Labour government in his lifetime prompted a response focusing largely on Mr Corbyn's mandate.

"Owen Smith fought a great campaign," said Mr Corbyn. "We met each other obviously all over the country at hustings and so on and I don't know what Owen's intentions are at the present time but I'll obviously be happy to talk to him."