Kezia Dugdale: I’m backing Owen because Corbyn only speaks to the converted

Owen Smith received a fresh boost to his campaign today when he won the backing of Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale.

Dugdale, who is widely respected across the Labour movement, said she was supporting the challenger because Jeremy Corbyn speaks “only to the converted”.

She also said Smith, the former shadow Work and Pension Secretary, could unite Labour and lead the party Labour back into government.

Just 24 hours after Smith received an endorsement from Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, Dugdale used a Daily Record article to shower praise on Smith.

“Owen understands that to have a chance of implementing Labour values, we need to win over some of those who didn’t vote for us at the last election,” she wrote today.

“We can’t pin our hopes on a leadership who speak only to the converted, rather than speaking to the country as a whole.”

Dugdale has so far remained out of the Labour leadership contest but said she would not be able to her job if 80 per cent of her colleagues in the Scottish Parliament did not support her – a reference to Corbyn’s heavy defeat in a vote of confidence among the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) earlier this summer.

Smith said he was “incredibly proud” to have won the backing of Dugdale.

“Kezia and I want to see a strong Labour Party that can defeat the Tories in Westminster and take the fight to the SNP in Holyrood,” he added.

“But that will only be achieved if we can unite our party and demonstrate we have a radical, credible plan to rebuild communities right across the United Kingdom. I’m pleased therefore that Kezia has backed my vision for a £200 billion British New Deal, the strengthening of workers’ rights and a Labour Party that puts tackling inequality at the heart of everything it does.”