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Owen Smith fan flings obscenities at CLP meeting

A SUPPORTER of Owen Smith shouted obscenities at Labour activists who voted to support Jeremy Corbyn at a local party nominations meeting this week.

The incident took place on Thursday evening at a meeting of the Barrow and Furness Constituency Labour Party to decide which candidate to nominate in the leadership contest.

Local members voted by 100 to 37 in favour of supporting Mr Corbyn’s re-election campaign.

The result was a major coup for Mr Corbyn given the constituency is home to the Trident shipyard and nominated Andy Burnham in last year’s contest.

It is also significant because John Woodcock, the former chair of Blairite faction Progress which has actively undermined Mr Corbyn’s leadership from the outset, is the MP for the constituency.

Mr Woodcock did not attend the meeting but sent an email to all members urging them to back Mr Smith.

One member at the meeting, who asked not to be named, reported how one supporter of Owen Smith flew into a rage when the result was announced. 

The source told the Star: “It was quite well behaved, there wasn’t any hassle except at the end where one young guy who had passionately lectured everybody on how we couldn’t possibly win under Jeremy threw into a total sulk, stormed out and then walked back in and shouted: ‘Well you can all fuck off’.”

Dan Holt, another member present, wrote on social media: “The ONLY mud slung was from Smith speakers, obviously Dan lost it at end telling us all to f off.”

Mr Corbyn now has the support of 271 constituency parties, compared with just 41 for Mr Smith.

The nominations process closes on Monday.

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