BBC denies orchestrating Stephen Doughty resignation after Labour complaint

We have had a long discussion about how we approach foreign policy issues.

Jarvis suggested in the interview that he regretted his decision not to contest the Labour leadership.

“If someone can demonstrate to me that it is essential for our defence to spend £41 billion on four submarines, I can be persuaded”, he said.

Mr Livingstone said: “Jeremy has made absolutely clear we are not leaving North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and if at some point in the future you had a threatening Russian government, and I don’t think Putin is at all, but if you did have that, I think North Atlantic Treaty Organisation would be a vital part of keeping western Europe safe. I need some space for them, my wife and our youngest child right now, and I wouldn’t have it as leader”.

With new shadow defence secretary Emily Thornberry – rather than the pro-Trident Maria Eagle – due to co-chair the review with Mr Livingstone, it is widely expected to endorse Mr Corbyn’s opposition to the £25 billion programme for four new submarines.

Jarvis’s remarks are the first admission by a senior party figure that they would feel uncomfortable standing as a Labour candidate under an anti-Trident banner.

Phillips, who said last week she might one day like to lead the Labour party, has become one of the party’s most outspoken backbenchers since entering parliament just eight months ago.

This week’s reshuffle had removed a “disaffected little group of old uber-Blairites” who had been engaged in a “wave of back-stabbing” created to undermine the leader, he said.

‘By the BBC’s own account, BBC journalists and presenters proposed and secured the resignation of a shadow minister on air in the immediate run-up to Prime Minister’s Questions, apparently to ensure maximum news and political impact. “This is simply not the case”. “It’s complete nonsense all this stuff”, he said on his LBC radio show, which he co-presents with the former Tory MP, David Mellor. “I was an effective mayor…”

Mr Livingstone dismissed the jibe from Mr Dugher, insisting: “What he’s really bitter about is when I said look Tony Blair was told by security services if you invade Iraq it will make us a target for terrorism”.

“A lot of these Labour MPs who voted for the war or were working for Blair and Brown can not come to terms with the fact this was a disaster”.