Labour leadership hopeful says he’s never taken Viagra because ‘he doesn’t need it’
Owen Smith says he's 'like a Duracell bunny' in his willingness to take on Jeremy Corbyn
OWEN Smith has revealed he has never tried Viagra in a bizarre interview which was supposed to be about his Labour leadership hopes.
The rival to Jeremy Corbyn used to work for the drug company Pfizer but said he has never needed the drug when with Mrs Smith.
When he described himself as being "like a Duracell bunny" in his willingness to take on party leader Jeremy Corbyn in debates around the country, Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan asked him if he had ever tried or tested any of the pharmaceutical products.
Mr Smith said: "That's for me and Mrs Smith to know about."
Mr Morgan asked him if he had ever tried Viagra and he laughed as he answered: "No, I haven't actually, I haven't needed it."
The Labour leadership candidate worked in the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals industry for five years before he was elected as MP for Pontypridd in 2010.
He said he had had his arm twisted in the decision to run against Mr Corbyn, whom he had previously supported.
He said he had received more than 30 phone calls from colleagues urging him to stand in the contest.
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Mr Smith, who is Mr Corbyn's sole opposition after Ms Eagle's decision to pull out of the race, said he had spoken with his leader and asked him to change tack, but he was "completely intransigent" and would not step aside.
Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain he said people are worried "that under his (Mr Corbyn's) watch the Labour Party will split, so great are the divisions growing that we face the prospect of the Labour Party, that's been the greatest vehicle for social good in Britain for 100 years, splitting apart and being destroyed".
He added: "I am standing to heal the Labour Party, to unite us, to get us around a radical programme, to say to the country once more not just that we can be a strong opposition to a Tory Government that is frankly making life rotten for many people, but we can be a government in waiting."
Asked if he would authorise the use of nuclear weapons if he became prime minister, Mr Smith said: "Yes is the unfortunate answer to that because, if you are serious about defence and serious about having a nuclear deterrent, then you have to be prepared to do that."
Questioned by presenter Piers Morgan about an incident in his past when he called a police hotline for a comment on a story while working at the BBC, Mr Smith admitted he was embarrassed and had made a mistake.
He said: "There was a bit of a, to be honest, a culture of bullying."
He added: "It was very embarrassing with colleagues at the time, and it was very embarrassing when the police did make a complaint about it."
Mr Smith was also on Sky News where he said he had offered to make Jeremy Corbyn party president in a bid to get him to stand down.
He told Sky News he made the offer in talks with the Labour leader after the mass resignations of the shadow cabinet.
“I tried to resolve this crisis in the party without there being a leadership contest.
“I went and saw him several times and asked him to compromise and one of the compromises I suggested to him was that he become the president of the Labour Party, a figurehead if you like.
“Jeremy is a great Labour man with great Labour values, who has been in our party for a long long time, but he’s not a leader.
“He’s not a leader in Westminster.
“For Labour it has to be about being an effective opposition and really taking the Tories on and exposing where they are getting things wrong.”
Continuing his media appearances Mr Smith was on BBC Radio 4's Today programme where he insisted he never supported part-privatisation of the NHS.
Responding to attacks from Jeremy Corbyn's supporters who have branded him "Blair-lite", the former shadow work and pensions secretary said he was committed to a free health service.
Opponents have pointed to his time as a lobbyist for drug firm Pfizer in 2005 when he said choice was a good thing in the NHS.
Asked if he used the word 'choice' to advocate part-privatisation, Mr Smith said: "No, that's clearly not true, and it's a gross exaggeration, and extrapolation, of one comment in a press release about a report commissioned by Pfizer before I worked there, at a period in which the last Labour government was using a word like 'choice' to describe getting private providers to do hip and knee and cataract operations.
"So, I have never advocated privatisation of the NHS.”
Owen Smith says he thinks Jeremy Corbyn should be the Labour Party chairman or president but not the leader
Mr Smith added that he fully backed the NHS: “I believe in a 100% publicly owned NHS free at the point of use.
“It has been one of Labour's profoundest achievements.
“I grew up swaddled in stories of the Labour Party creating the NHS.”
And he said he did not know if he would have voted against the Iraq war if he had been an MP at the time of the decision.
"I thought at the time the tradition of the Labour Party and the tradition of left-wing engagement to remove dictators was a noble, valuable tradition."