Owen Smith has pledged that Labour policies will be bound by party conference decisions both in opposition and in government, as members began to receive their leadership ballots.

This followed Jeremy Corbyn’s announcement on Sunday of a raft of proposals for party democracy.

Smith said he understood the exclusion members felt during the years of Labour government when the party’s annual conference had not been sovereign, and said he would lead “a revolution in accountability” in which members would have to sign off on the general election manifesto.

“I know the biggest fear that is in members’ minds on this day when they are considering making up their minds on this choice, is a concern we will go back there again, to a period of top-down control where members were to be seen and not heard,” he said on Monday. “I promise you it will not happen if I am the leader of this party.”

Corbyn has also pledged a sovereign conference as well as measures to improve diversity in the party by giving women’s, black and minority ethnic and youth conferences clear policy-making roles.

Smith cited examples of conference votes against foundation hospitals in 2003, which the Labour government carried on with regardless. In 2004 and 2013, the Labour conference voted to renationalise the railways, which was not in either the 2005 or 2015 manifestos.

Smith also cited the party conference motion which supported Trident, which Corbyn “felt able to ignore”, he said.

“My promise to the party is that I will not ignore conference, I will bind myself to the decisions made by conference about party policy,” Smith said at his speech in Ely Valley miners’ welfare club in Porth, south Wales.

Earlier, Smith said the support for Corbyn showed it was clear from the leadership contest that many members did not feel the parliamentary Labour party was representing them.

He reiterated his promise to create a shadow cabinet of Labour members which he said would be an additional body to the national executive committee “to advise the party leadership on the issues the members hold dearest. MPs do not have a monopoly on good ideas in our movement or on our values.”

Smith’s campaign received two key endorsements on Sunday and Monday, from the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale. His speech on Monday came after Corbyn’s campaign announced a raft of policies on more direct democracy, including within the party.

These would “extend democracy in every part of public life: in national politics, communities, the economy and the workplace – and in our own party”, Corbyn said on Sunday night.

“Labour under my leadership will listen to ideas from the bottom up – and take radical action to transform and rebuild our country so that no one and no community is left behind. We need nothing less than a democratic revolution in our politics, communities and workplaces.”

Alongside his pledge for a sovereign conference, Corbyn also promised a charter of rights for party members and widening representation on the party’s NEC to reflect the rapid rise in membership.

His campaign director, Sam Tarry, dismissed Smith’s proposal, saying: “I would be astonished if most of the MPs backing Owen Smith would sign up to that; there’s a sell-by date of 24 September, when most of his policies will get shelved.”

Tarry also dismissed the endorsement of Khan, who was booed at a Corbyn rally in north London on Sunday night that was attended by 4,000 people. He also said the campaign would not take “many lessons from Labour in Scotland; Kezia delivered a disastrous result for us there”.

The Aslef union president, Tosh McDonald, told the Morning Star that Khan would not have won the London mayoral election without the Corbyn effect on his popularity. “My personal view is that not only is Sadiq Khan stabbing Jeremy in the back, he’s stabbing Aslef and all our members in the back.

“I don’t know where he gets this idea that Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable from. We keep winning elections under Jeremy – mayoral elections, byelections, even in Scotland we won a local authority byelection the other week.



“Sadiq Khan will be losing himself a lot of credibility in London, certainly among Aslef, who worked hard to get him elected and are working hard to get Corbyn elected.”

Ballots and online voting forms will begin to arrive with party members this week, with voters given until 21 September to decide and return their votes.

About 640,000 people – members who joined the party before January, along with registered supporters who have paid £25 to register their votes – will be able to vote in the contest. The result will be announced on 24 September at a special conference in Liverpool.