Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith: The two politicians battling to be the next Labour leader

As the two men go head to head for the leadership challenge, how similar or different are they

While Mr Corbyn spent his youth joining CND and dropping out of school to volunteer overseas in Jamaica, Mr Smith studied at the History at Sussex University

After weeks of high drama and great delay, Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith will finally battle it out for the role of Labour Party leader. The next eight weeks will see the pair ruthlessly compared and contrasted as they are pitted directly against each other.

Angela Eagle dropped out of the leadership race on Tuesday after receiving 20 votes less from MPs and MEPs than Mr Smith, making him the sole contender to take on Mr Corbyn.

Since then, Mr Smith, a name which means little to those outside of Westminster, has been thrust headfirst into the unremitting limelight of the media.

But how do the two men compare? While Mr Corbyn spent his youth leaving school with two "E's" at A-Level to volunteer overseas in Jamaica, Mr Smith studied at the History at Sussex Univeristy and while Mr Corbyn was busy working for trade unions, Mr Smith was making money at a lobbyist pharmaceutical giant.

Here is a lowdown of their respective backgrounds, past jobs, routes into politics, 'guilty pleasures' and more.

Age

Jeremy Corbyn 67

Owen Smith 46

Background

Jeremy Corbyn

Born in Chippenham and brought up in nearby Kington St Michael in the West Country town of Wiltshire, Mr Corbyn grew up in what he has since referred to as a rural “Tory shire”. The youngest of four sons, his mother Naomi was a maths teacher and his father was an electrical engineer. Both peace campaigners, his parents met in the 1930s at a committee meeting in support of the Spanish Republic at Conway Hall in the midst of the Spanish Civil War.

Owen Smith

Although he was born in Morecambe in Lancashire, a Northern seaside town close to Blackpool, Mr Smith grew up South Wales. His father Professor Dai Smith was a leading Welsh historian and was one-time chairman of the Arts Council of Wales. He has also a Beeb executive and was editor of BBC Wales and head of programmes.

School

Jeremy Corbyn

Mr Corbyn attended Adams' Grammar School as a day student. It was here that his interest in politics was quickly piqued. While still at school, he became active in his local Labour Party, the Wrekin constituency Young Socialists, and the League Against Cruel Sports, and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He stayed at school until the age of 18 but wound up leaving with just two A-Levels, both at grade “E”. Following this, he embarked on a course in Trade Union studies at North London Polytechnic but ended up leaving after rowing with his tutors over the curriculum.

Owen Smith

Mr Smith was educated at Barry Boys' Comprehensive School in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales. It was here that he first became involved in politics, joining the Labour party at the age of 16 while he was still a pupil. In recent speeches, he has credited the 1984 miners' strike as his “political awakening”, at which point he must have been around 14. He went on to study History and French at the University of Sussex.

Previous jobs

Jeremy Corbyn

After leaving school, Mr Corbyn worked as a reporter for a local Shropshire newspaper for a brief stint and then spent two years completing Voluntary Service Overseas in Jamaica. On return, he started working for trade unions and eventually became the national organiser of the National Union of Public Employees. He was elected to Haringey Council as councillor at the age of 25.

Throughout this time, Mr Corbyn became steadfastly committed to radical left politics and was an ever present figure at demos and marches and stood on a long list of committees.

Owen Smith

After leaving university, Mr Smith joined BBC Wales as a radio producer in 1992 where his father was appointed editor of BBC Wales and head of programmes in the same year. During his ten years at the BBC, he worked across a wide range of programmes, including Good Morning Wales and political programme Dragon's Eye. He has been described as a member of the “Taffia” - the Welsh political and media establishment.

Following this, he became a “SPAD” - a special adviser who advises ministers and helps formulate policy - for Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy. At this point, the role of “SPAD” was a surefire way to climb party ranks, with Ed Miliband and David Cameron both having worked as special advisors during their political careers.

Following three years as a special adviser, Smith left the public sector and moved to Surrey to be the Head of Government Relations for lobbyist pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, on a reported salary of £80,000 a year.

Route into parliament

Jeremy Corbyn

Mr Corbyn was elected to Parliament in 1983 to represent Islington North where he lived. He is popular in the area and has held the seat ever since, increasing his majority from 5,600 to 21,000, over this period.

As a backbench MP he was known for his activism and rebellious streak, frequently voting against the Labour whip when Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were in power. He took up the causes for a United Ireland, the Anti-Apartheid Movement, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the gay rights movement, chaired the Stop the War commission and was a member of the Socialist Campaign Group.

Owen Smith

Mr Smith became the Labour MP for Pontypridd in 2010, winning the safe seat with a significantly reduced majority. Prior to him, it was held by Kim Howells, a friend of his father, who held a number of ministerial positions within the Blair and Brown governments.

In May 2012, the former Labour leader Ed Miliband appointed him to his Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Wales. He went on to become the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary last September. In 2015, Mr Smith tripled his majority and was re-elected to the seat.

Embarrassing moments

Jeremy Corbyn

Mr Corbyn has been left embarrassed on several occasions over spelling errors. At the beginning of June, he tweeted out a strong defiant statement on his leadership but spelt his name wrong in the signature, calling himself “Jeremy Corybn” instead. He also had to pull a campaign video after an embarrassing spelling gaffe in which the word “generation” was spelt “genertaion”. This lead to an onslaught of mocking from the SNP and even its party head, Nicola Sturgeon.

Owen Smith

Mr Smith recently found himself in the midst of a Twitter backlash after talking about his own family in a TV interview. In the interview, he appeared to claim he was normal because he has a wife and children. After a journalist described him as normal, Mr Smith perceived the term as a compliment: “I'm glad you think I am normal. I am normal. I grew up in a normal household. I've got a wife and three children. My wife is a primary school teacher”. Critics, in turn, accused him of being homophobic towards his former competitor Eagle who is in a civil partnership.

Guilty pleasures

Owen Smith

He lives in Pontypridd with his wife Liz and three children and enjoys watching rugby at his local club. He is a Bruce Springsteen aficionado and has previously described his “guilty pleasure” as “too many beers”.

Jeremy Corbyn

Mr Corbyn lives in Islington with partner Laura Álvarez and has a cat called 'El Gato’. He is known far better for his frugality than his guilty pleasures: he usually has the lowest expenses claims of any MP. Asides from this, he is a keen cyclist who doesn’t own a car, an avid Arsenal supporter, a keen gardener who enjoys making jam with fruit grown on his allotment, and belongs to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Cheese.