Labour leadership race: Candidates heckled in second hustings event
The candidates in the race to become Labour leader have clashed in a debate over the direction the party should take in the future.
Liz Kendall, Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper were all heckled by the audience – comprised of potential Labour voters – as they talked about Trident and welfare.
They were all greeted by calls of "shame" as they expressed their support for a like-for-like replacement of Trident.
Corbyn, the left-wing candidate, received warmer responses from the audience, as he said he was "morally" opposed to Trident.
Shadow health secretary Mr Burnham said: "As Prime Minister of this country the safety of this country must come first".
While Cooper said she wanted to see the number of nuclear weapons reduced around the world, she stated: "In the absence of that I would renew Trident".
As Kendall made a similar assertion, the audience turned to Corbyn's more radical opposition to the nuclear system.
In response to the audience's heckling, she said:
‘Shame’, some people say, and there will be big differences in our party. Some of you won’t like it, but I have got to tell you like it is.
The three frontbenchers in the race also avoided condemning Conservative plans to reduce the benefit cap from £26,000 to £23,000. Burnham said that Labour could not appear "comfortable" about people receiving more than a normal salary.
Kendall was turned on by her rivals over her support of the Tories' free schools. Cooper and Burnham attacked her previous comments, where she said people who want to want new schools should get "credit not criticism". The two frontrunners blasted this policy as a "waste of money".