Ed Miliband has officially endorsed Owen Smith for the Labour Party leadership
Former Labour leader Ed Miliband has officially endorsed Owen Smith for the party leadership.
Miliband, who resigned from the post last year after losing the general election, has appeared in a YouTube clip urging Labour members to vote for Smith in the upcoming leadership contest.
The Doncaster North MP says Smith is a leader who can "rise to the challenge" of opposing a Tory government and unite the party by reaching out to "every part" of the country.
Former shadow work and pensions secretary Smith is challenging Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership after the vast majority of Labour MPs backed a "no confidence" vote against the current leader earlier this summer.
Miliband said:
"I want a Labour leader who can rise to the challenge of this moment. I want a Labour leader who can unite our party and make us a serious alternative government. I want a Labour leader who will reach out to every part of Britain and can do what Labour has done in the past, which is out of this crisis, make a progressive moment.
"That's why my choice for Labour leader is Owen Smith. I've got to know Owen as a colleague, and also as a friend. He would always urge me, as leader, to go further and be bolder, and now he's standing to be leader of our party. We have seen that vision of a more even society shining through in his campaign, and we've seen him translating that into a programme as well."
You can watch Miliband endorse Smith in the clip below.
Miliband's declaration of support for Smith is unlikely to majorly improve his chances of being elected Labour leader next month. At 1/20 (95%), Corbyn is still the overwhelming favourite to win the contest and retain his leadership.
The current Labour leader enjoys huge support among the party membership and was boosted yesterday when a high court ruled that Labour had acted unlawfully by banning new members from voting in the leadership contest.
David Moon, a politics lecturer at Bath University, told Business Insider last week that the Labour Party under Corbyn is destined for electoral disaster as the veteran socialist is an "inherently" bad leader.