![](\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.com\/files\/2016.07\/thumbnail\/57974433c461882b178b45d7.jpg\")
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Labour leadership challenger Owen Smith MP claims Jeremy Corbyn does not \u201cunderstand\u201d patriotism. At the same time, Smith is defending himself against claims he took free advice from a firm linked to \u00a0\u201cindustrial scale\u201d tax avoidance.<\/p>\n
The Rotherham MP told BBC Newsnight that Corbyn holds \u201cliberal<\/em>\u201d ideas that are at odds with traditional Labour notions of nationhood, nationalism and patriotism.<\/p>\n Smith claimed Labour leader Corbyn\u2019s \u201cmetropolitan<\/em>\u201d perspective is not central to the Labour tradition.<\/p>\n The leadership challenger says he will keep NATO\u2019s target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense, will ensure Trident nuclear weapons are renewed and is prepared to launch a nuclear strike if he becomes prime minister.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the weaknesses we have had recently is that people worry that Labour isn\u2019t serious about security, that it is a lesser issue for Jeremy<\/em>,\u201d Smith told the BBC.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure that\u2019s right, but he has certainly got a different perspective on some of those things – on patriotism if you like; and on security, on defense I think I have got a more traditional Labour perspective on that – an old-fashioned Labour perspective, if you like<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith went on to say he thinks Corbyn \u201cdoesn\u2019t really understand<\/em>\u201d people\u2019s sense of where they are from.<\/p>\n \u201cI am not sure I\u2019ve heard him talking much about Scotland and identity or about Wales and identity or indeed about England and identity<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cI suspect that Jeremy has got a rather more metropolitan sense of that and that\u2019s not one I think is central to the Labour tradition<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith\u2019s comments come days after he was accused of accepting \u00a360,000 worth of free advice from accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) while serving as shadow Treasury minister in 2011.<\/p>\n Smith received the gift, worth a total \u00a358,530, in November 2011. He claims it was a \u201cdonation in kind<\/em>\u201d of \u201cad hoc<\/em>\u201d advice provided to Labour during the passage of the Finance (No. 4) Bill.<\/p>\n The MP received this guidance over a six month period, until May 2012.<\/p>\n Former Chair of the Public Accounts Committee Margaret Hodge described PwC\u2019s relationship with MPs as \u201cinappropriate<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n In a February 2015 report, she accused PwC of \u201cthe promotion of tax avoidance on an industrial scale<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesman for Smith said: \u201cWhen working on complex legislation, MPs routinely take advice from relevant experts. In 2011 Owen was one of several shadow ministers who received some advice from PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and this was registered as a donation in kind for the work he performed<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Labour leadership challenger Owen Smith MP claims Jeremy Corbyn does not \u201cunderstand\u201d patriotism. At the same time, Smith is defending himself against claims he took free advice from a firm linked to \u00a0\u201cindustrial scale\u201d tax avoidance. The Rotherham MP told BBC Newsnight that Corbyn holds \u201cliberal\u201d ideas that are at odds with traditional Labour notions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":258314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-258313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire","8":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}