What does Smith’s leadership bid mean for his constituents?
So Owen Smith is to be the only challenger in the battle to wrest Corbyn's leadership from him. Single-handedly, and presumably resisting the temptation to wear his pants over his trousers, he claims he will put the broken Labour party back together again.
Recent press coverage has Pontypridd's Labour MP standing up for everything it seems – except maybe his constituency.
Residents must have been impressed by his recent comments as reported in the Evening Standard
"I May have launched my leadership campaign in Wales yesterday, but when announcing plans for a £200 billion New Deal numerous challenges facing Londoners were at front of my mind. A chronic lack of home sot rent or buy is holding millions of Londoners back."
People locally may well be wondering why he isn't quite so concerned about problems in his own back yard. After all it is only just over a year ago that he was re-elected after promising that he would be
"A strong voice for the Pontypridd constituency in Parliament – standing up for local people, jobs and public services."
He also, of course, promised to work to give children the best start in life and then stood idly by when RCT Council cut nursery education.
Obviously these promises came before he saw the perfect opportunity to make his move towards what he has wanted all along – to be leader of the Labour party. Make no mistake, for Mr Smith his career has always come first. Indeed when asked at a Q&A session in Tonteg prior to the election last year what his greatest achievement for Pontypridd had been in recent years he answered that he had helped make the Labour party a more socialist party.
He abstained from the Welfare Reform vote in July of last year allowing Conservative cuts to be put through. In answer to criticism he published a letter giving his reasons and stating that he wanted to vote against but the then temporary leader Harriot Harman said they should abstain.
""That left me and others in the Shadow Cabinet with the choice whether to resign our positions to vote against the party in whose name, and on whose manifesto we were elected, or to be loyal to the leader and abide by her decision and the rules of collective responsibility."
(Local Labour MPs abstain on Tory welfare cuts)
Obviously his slavish loyalty to the leader was a short term measure. His commitment to his own career, however, has been solid.
The people of the Pontypridd constituency have every right to feel short changed.
