LABOUR leadership candidate Owen Smith has pledged to win back the hearts of residents in Pendle, Rossendale, and Darwen, as part of his bid to oust rival Jeremy Corbyn.

During a visit to Ivy Street Community Centre in Blackburn, the Pontypridd MP promised to ‘put an end to austerity’ and address the problems of poor housing and major council cuts in East Lancashire.

In 2010 Labour lost power in the key marginals of Pendle and Rossendale and Darwen to Tories Jake Berry and Andrew Stephenson and failed to claim the seats back in last year’s general election.

Mr Smith insisted in his speech that he was the person revive a ‘weak’ Labour and put it back in the driving seat in East Lancashire.

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He said: “We are a weak opposition and have lost lots of credibility.

“We need to win it back and I have a real sense of what is wrong with Britain right now.

“We’ve got to get serious about the party winning back trust and I am more practical than Jeremy Corbyn about doing that.

“I can win back the hearts of people in Pendle and Rossendale and Darwen by assuring them that Labour is not about asking those people to pay more tax or be anti-aspiration like the Tories say we are, but that we are about pro-fairness.”

Back in May, Lancashire County Council announced it was to shut 54 of it’s buildings including libraries across East Lancashire.

This was closely followed by Blackburn with Darwen Council announcing the loss of 500 jobs, the introduction of fortnightly bin collections and a parking charge at Witton Park.

The former shadow work and pensions secretary blasted the cuts the Tories had forced upon local government and promised to introduce change.

He said: “We want to put an end to austerity.

“It’s completely wrong that they are spending 24 times as much money per head on infrastructure in the South East than in the North West.

“By 2020 the Tories will have cut resource funding for councils by 80 per cent, which is almost unimaginable.

“I want to address the problems of poor housing and major council cuts in this region.

“I have pledged to build 1.5 million homes over the next few years, build more social housing and cap rents.”

Blackburn MP Kate Hollern, who attended the event, said that she would get behind any leader so long as the fighting in the party stopped.

She said: “We should be challenging the Tories.

“It’s embarrassing when Labour MPs are fighting each other.

“I will get behind any leader of this party because without a Labour government, we are going to be struggling with jobs, the NHS and education.

“Only a Labour party can deliver for Blackburn and Lancashire.”