Sadiq Khan warns Labour won’t win with Corbyn as he endorses Owen Smith

Sadiq Khan has said that Jeremy Corbyn has “failed to win the trust” of voters, as he endorses Owen Smith in the Labour leadership contest.

The Mayor of London has become arguably Smith’s biggest backer, with the announcement coming just months after the election that gave him the biggest personal mandate in UK political history.

Ballots in the leadership contest will be sent out to members and supporters from tomorrow, with voting taking place until September 21.

Khan has laid out his support for Smith in an article for The Observer today, in which he says that “if Jeremy remains as leader, Labour is extremely unlikely to win the next general election”. He argues that Corbyn is lacking in electability and “has failed to win the trust and respect of the British people.”

“If we give up on winning, we give up on the very people who need us the most”, the former Tooting MP says. He writes that under Corbyn, “the Tories will stay in power, and Labour will stay in opposition.”

Owen Smith last night welcomed the support from Khan, saying that his victory in May “showed that a vision of hope and optimism can win, if it’s backed up with a credible plan to deliver real meaningful change for people’s lives.”

Khan, who nominated Corbyn last year and says he does not regret the decision, also criticises Corbyn’s leadership skills, saying that “Jeremy has already proved that he is unable to organise an effective team”.

“Jeremy’s personal ratings are the worst of any opposition leader on record – and the Labour Party is suffering badly as a result”, he writes. “He has lost the confidence of more than 80 per cent of Labour’s MPs in parliament – and I am afraid we simply cannot afford to go on like this.”

These criticisms come days after Heidi Alexander became the latest former Shadow Cabinet minister to speak out about her perception of ineptitude at the top of the party. Alexander, who served as Shadow Health Secretary under Corbyn until her resignation in June, said on Friday that she “hated being part of something so inept, so unprofessional, so shoddy.”

Writing in The Guardian, she said: “I wasn’t part of a plot. I wasn’t part of a coup. I had tried hard to make it work. A leader who had been willing to engage, support, take difficult decisions and able to build a team might have made it work. But we didn’t have one, and in Jeremy Corbyn, as much as it pains me to say it, we never will.”

Corbyn, meanwhile, is expected to address over 4,000 people at a rally in North London tonight.