Labour leadership candidate Owen Smith opens the contest with a disgraceful smear against Corbyn

[Denzil_DC]

12. T_I_B and I have discussed elsewhere

the absence of the more obvious high-profile challengers to Corbyn, such as Hilary Benn.

You could be right.

Or they could feel in their bones that unless the private legal challenge excludes him from the ballot, Corbyn'll inevitably win, so there's no point subjecting themselves to detailed scrutiny for nothing and, you know, coming up with a coherent policy platform beyond ditching Corbyn (and by association the inconvenient vast surge in membership since he came on the scene) that people can then hack away at. Cowards, basically, happy to gang upon and try to literally break the man in the committee rooms of Westminster, but scared of facing a fraction of the heat he's taken.

It doesn't sound like Smith's universally loved among the PLP anyway - a reputation for having a "massive ego", etc. etc. The idea he's going to be a meaningful unity candidate is his own fantasy.