As a Corbyn supporter who used to work at Sports Direct, I found Owen Smith's remarks deeply upsetting

Sports Direct represented the very worst of capitalism, with one woman giving birth in a toilet at the warehouse because she was so afraid of losing her job. Owen Smith cannot seriously believe Jeremy Corbyn – who champions workers' rights – is running a similar show

Owen Smith said Jeremy Corbyn was running Labour like Mike Ashley ran Sports Direct (AFP/Getty Images)

Since the announcement of the Labour leadership challenge, all I planned to do was support Jeremy Corbyn without getting involved with any mud-slinging from either side. I didn't want this election to descend into damaging “red-on-red” attacks and negative stories about the opposing candidate. I truly believe that politics can be kinder, gentler and more decent. But after Owen Smith's comments this morning comparing Jeremy Corbyn's leadership to the disgraceful management of Sports Direct, I feel like I can’t stay quiet any longer.

Earlier this week, Corbyn spoke about the need for greater party democracy. What he said was hardly controversial or surprising. In many ways, it was common sense.

But this morning, Owen Smith waded in to opine that Corbyn's leadership seems like "the sort of thing you might see at Sports Direct." This is a good moment in time to remind Owen Smith of the things which happened at Sports Direct.

At Sports Direct, workers could hand in a sick note and on the same day be laid off with no explanation. Women have spoken of being forced to publicly talk about their periods in order to explain why they had been off sick. One woman even gave birth in the warehouse toilets in fear of losing her job. At that same warehouse, 110 ambulances or paramedic cars were called to deal with health and safety issues. 50 of those cases were deemed as “life-threatening”. Workers have spoken about being subject to strip and search procedures on their way home, often after having clocked out hours earlier than home time, working for free to keep the supervisor happy, which was necessary to keep their jobs secure.

This business represents the most dire aspects of capitalism, free market exploitation at its very worst. For Smith to compare Jeremy Corbyn's comments on Constituency Labour Party procedure to the grotesque exploitation of workers across this country is short-sighted at best and shameful at worst.

As someone who took a zero-hours job at Sports Direct to get through sixth form, Owen Smith's comments are hurtful to me. While he positions himself as the people's champion, these comments demonstrate that the ex-big pharma lobbyist simply doesn't get it. The basic salary for an MP is just under £75,000 a year. To suggest that Smith and his parliamentary colleagues are working under Sports Direct conditions is ludicrous.

In his campaign launch yesterday, Corbyn put working conditions and issues of pay at the centre of his platform; one of the central policies he announced concerned forcing companies with over 21 members of staff to publish salary information in order to target the gender pay gap. He has made fighting for workers’ rights his life work. Owen Smith is completely disingenuous to claim otherwise.

There is absolutely no need for Smith to sink his career with this sort of nonsense. He could have come out of the leadership battle – one he’s almost guaranteed to lose – with his integrity intact, but cynical claims like these are nothing more than headline-grabbing PR tactics. Smith tried to position himself as a champion of working people at the beginning of his campaign, but now all he's done is show that he'll exploit us for a political opportunity.

It's clear now, more than ever, that to change British politics there is only one choice for Labour.