Friday 7 August 2015

Owen Smith as Corbyn's Shadow Chancellor ?

The Labour Leadership has taken a new twist as Wales Online  muses that Shadow Welsh Secretary Owen Smith is being tipped as a potential Shadow Chancellor if Jeremy Corbyn wins the Labour leadership.
They say
 although the Pontypridd MP is backing Andy Burnham in the leadership contest, he has not ruled out serving under Mr Corbyn.

Speculation in the Times newspaper suggests that Mr Corbyn could pick Mr Smith, a former Shadow Treasury Minister, to replace Chris Leslie as Shadow Chancellor.
Mr Leslie has said he would not serve under Mr Corbyn. Leadership contenders Liz Kendall and Yvette Cooper have also declared they would not join a Shadow Cabinet led by the left-winger.
But is this enough to speculate Mr Smith after all plenty other MPs have not ruled out seving under Jeremy.
A Welsh Labour source said: I really love the Mules "sources" .
“Unlike others, Owen seems to be keeping his options open. If he wins, Jeremy Corbyn would want to unite the party behind him as much as he could.
"Owen’s an existing member of the Shadow Cabinet with experience shadowing the Treasury. With Chris Leslie gone, he could easily become the Shadow Chancellor – and if he is seen to do a competent job it could be the making of him. He’s very ambitious, and when Jeremy stood down from the leadership, he would be in a good position from which to make a bid for the top job himself.”
A spokeswoman for Mr Smith said:
 “Owen is on holiday and not able to be contacted on this occasion.”

The spokeswoman said she did not know whether the Shadow Welsh Secretary would be prepared to serve under Mr Corbyn or not.
And neither do I or the Mule or Times 
The Times refer to Owen Smith as being
 Firmly on the left of the shadow cabinet, onetime member of Treasury team
If Owen Smith is on the Left of the Shadow Cabinet then the centre has surly moved so far right the cabinet must be tipping over.

Its probably just a bit of mischief from the Murdoch press and Own Smith name was plucked out of the air but it maybe lucky he was unable to comment and I wonder how many Labour MPs are going to be desperate to reclaim their "Left" Credentials and desperately deleting "Stop Jeremy" Tweets  as a Corbyn victory looks possible

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