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Owen Smith has intensified his efforts to paint Jeremy Corbyn as a mild London liberal.

The Pontypridd MP used an interview on BBC Radio 2 to try to recast the left-wing Labour leader.

He liked him to Tony Blair, saying they had both failed to be radical enough.

Former shadow work and pensions secretary Mr SMith described himself as "massively to the left" of Mr Blair.

He told BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine programme: "Crucially, I think we need to be less timid, as we speak, I think Jeremy and Tony have got something in common in that respect, neither of them has been very forthright when it comes to really radical policies to change things."

Mr Corbyn rebelled hundreds of times when Mr Blair was leader and has called for the ex-premier to be "held to account" for the Iraq war.

"I think Jeremy has shared some of the traits of New Labour in that he's not been bold enough," Mr Smith added.

"We have not put pen to paper on policy in almost any area in the last nine months.

"Some of the big victories he talks about, tax credits for example, getting the Government to row back on that, getting it to row back on cuts to disabled people, well, I led those, I led that opposition in Parliament. "

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(Image: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)

Mr Smith said he "didn't start" the attempt to oust Mr Corbyn, insisting he "wasn't part of the coup" and "didn't know anything about it".

Britain should be "borrowing to invest" and "obsessing" over the deficit since 2010 had been "utterly self defeating", he said.

"I'm very clear that we need to spend more money," Mr Smith told the programme.

The former shadow work and pensions secretary said it was "ironic" that Conservatives were saying "we should be borrowing to invest".

"Why in Labour we have been so slow to make that argument is beyond me," he added.

Mr Smith insisted he was "not ashamed" of his work as head of policy at Pfizer, adding "you have got to live in the real world" about the role the pharmaceuticals companies play.

Mr Corbyn is fighting a legal battle over his place in the contest, after he was automatically named on the ballot paper without having to secure nominations from the party's MPs.

Labour donor Michael Foster, a former parliamentary candidate, has brought a claim at London's High Court against the party's general secretary Iain McNicol, who is being sued in a representative capacity, and Mr Corbyn.