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Corbyn Offering 'False Hope' Says Cooper

Labour leadership hopeful Yvette Cooper has turned on frontrunner Jeremy Corbyn, saying he is giving people "false hope".

She took aim at what she described as his plan "for the Bank of England to print money" to pay for infrastructure projects during the final televised hustings before the party's new leader is named later this month.

In an event broadcast live on Sky News from The Sage in Gateshead, she turned to the left-wing favourite and said: "You're offering people false promises.

"Quantitative easing has stopped because the economy is now growing.

"If you simply keep printing money when an economy is growing it simply increases inflation.

"You're offering people false promise.

"It sounds brilliant - everyone claps because everyone wants to the see the schools and hospitals done. It's dishonest, it's false promise, we've got to offer people real hope.

"You're not being straight with people."

It was the third time during the debate that Ms Cooper took on the man who is popular with the Labour grassroots.

When asked about the possibility of putting "boots on the ground" against Islamic State in the Middle East, Mr Corbyn said an alternative would be to enter into "dialogue" with other countries in the region to isolate IS.

But Ms Cooper shot back: "ISIS is a barbaric totalitarian organisation ... it won't be dealt with by a few nice negotiations."

And when asked whether she would work with him if he was leader, she pointed out: "Jeremy has not wanted to be a team player in the past ... he voted against the party 500 times."

Earlier, Mr Corbyn was asked if he admires Tony Blair.

Mr Corbyn said that while Mr Blair had some notable achievements such as passing the minimum wage law, "his history will be Iraq".

But leadership rival Andy Burnham said it was important to respect his electoral success: "To direct all this anger at man who won three General Elections and say he doesn't have a right to speak out ... is ridiculous.

"This party could go into a period of infighting coming out of this leadership election.

"If Labour does that, we will let down millions of people out there."

Mr Corbyn also spoke out strongly against the EU, saying he was "concerned about the way the European Union is increasingly operating like a free market across Europe, tearing up the social chapter and damaging workers' interests across Europe".

But outsider Liz Kendall interrupted, saying: "How can we tackle these things unless we play a leading role in Europe? We've been round this block before."

One question came from a local councillor who wanted to know how the candidates would deal with the current refugee crisis.

Mr Corbyn said the UK must "hold out the hand of humanity", adding that taking 4,000 people was "not enough".

Ms Kendall said Prime Minister David Cameron has appeared "both heartless and powerless on the refugee crisis".

Ms Cooper said the government must do more and claimed her party had helped to change government policy in a matter of days, while Mr Burnham said "compassion and leadership" must be shown.

One member of the audience asked whether the candidates would be "willing to compromise your political principles in order to get elected?"

Mr Burnham gave an emphatic "no", saying he had always stuck by his principles.

Ms Kendall said she believes in what she says, adding that the public don't trust Labour on welfare, for example.

She is pushing for the party to take a tougher stance on the issue.

Mr Corbyn, disagreed with her position, saying: "We fought election on a manifesto with cuts, job losses, accepting the language of austerity.

"The party has to challenge politics of austerity."

The candidates were asked whether they would support decriminalising the medicinal use of cannabis.

Ms Cooper said it should be evaluated in the same way as any other drug: "We have a process for deciding which medicines are safe.

"We should just apply that same process to cannabis. It should go through the same processes as any other drug."

Mr Corbyn said drug policy in general should be looked at, not just the medicinal use of cannabis.

The debate concluded with candidates being given the chance to quiz each other.

Mr Corbyn asked Ms Kendall if she would work with him if he was leader, she said "yes", but drew the line at joining his shadow cabinet.