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So the fight’s under way. In the red corner Owen Smith. In the redder corner, Jeremy Corbyn. At stake, the undisputed leadership of the Labour party.

Except if Corbyn wins, the Parliamentary Labour Party may dispute it. They never wanted this election because they knew who would win. That’s why they tried to force Corbyn to stand down. And lost.

But the debate is under way. However, from my experience, it can be a unifying affair.

There’s nothing wrong with running for the top posts. I ran for deputy leader three times on a clear ticket of wanting to change the job. For years it was the wooden spoon for those who didn’t become leader.

I wanted to turn it into a cam-paigning role. I stood against Roy Hattersley and lost, then came second to Margaret Beckett, before finally becoming Tony Blair’s Number 2 in 1994. But crucially all three campaigns were comradely and good-natured. Maybe it’s because we didn’t have social media and smartphones to abuse our colleagues with back then!

I was old Labour, not troll Labour. If I had a problem with a fellow MP, I told it to their face.

Corbyn and Smith will put their views and what policies they’d introduce. That’s fine – but both should remember Labour has a policy-making process that involves all our members.

Take Trident. Jeremy’s camp claim that by being elected on an anti-nuclear platform, he had the mandate to change our policy of backing Trident’s renewal. No.

The policy is clear, though I don’t agree with it, that we maintain our nuclear submarines.

So Corbyn as leader was wrong not to support the policy in the Commons last week.

Both candidates say they want to see a gender-balanced Labour leadership, with either leader or deputy having to be female.

But a leader can’t decide that. It must be left to the members – one member, one vote. Now Owen Smith says he wants to change Clause IV to give a commitment to combat inequality. I remember the trouble Tony and I faced when we last changed it. It had to be discussed, debated and voted on by all the party.

The point is leaders can’t dictate to Labour and its members. But neither can Labour MPs dictate to their leader. There are some saying that if Corbyn does get re-elected, they won’t support him, with others threatening to resign the Labour whip and sit as independents.

They were elected because they were standing for Labour, not themselves. If Corbyn wins, we cannot go back to business as usual. We will need major changes and concessions from BOTH sides – the leadership and the MPs. It’s clear Corbyn finds it hard to be a leader.

(Image: rossparry.co.uk)

So it doesn’t help that some of the people in his office seem to be more interested in the politics than building relationships.

We need to see some experienced and sharp operators join Corbyn’s team to help him not only be a more effective leader bt to reach out to everyone in Labour, including the PLP and National Executive Committee.

But the Parliamentary Labour Party must change too.

The MPs are an important part of Labour, representing their constituents and holding the Government to account. But they are not above members or the leader.

It going to mean give and take on both sides. So I want a good clean fight, lads. No rabbit punches or blows below the belt. Let’s have the debate, judge the winner and get on with doing our true job. Because the real enemy are on the benches opposite, not the ones we sit on.