Rotherham MP Sarah Champion “unresigns” and rejoins Corbyn team

A Labour MP who resigned from her frontbench role last month has been given her old job back after an apparent plea to Jeremy Corbyn to return.

Sarah Champion, the MP for Rotherham, has retracted her resignation as shadow minister for preventing child abuse and domestic violence.

Smith, the former shadow work and pensions secretary, said the party was on “its knees” and could split if Mr Corbyn remained at the helm. “We have got to stop them”, he said.

At the time, she said: ‘I can only do what I feel is right, even though it’s breaking my heart’.

In a series of messages on Twitter she said Mr Corbyn’s position was untenable and warned: “If we’re not united, we’re doomed”.

However, despite this, many reported belief that Corbyn retains strong support among party members, and just over one in four said they believed that their local members would also back the Pontypridd MP’s leadership bid.

However, McNicol has now gone further by threatening to remove votes from £25 backers or union members found to have conducted intimidating behaviour, while party members now risk being suspended while allegations of abuse are investigated.

Mr Smith sparked controversy over the weekend by saying Mr Corbyn’s policy ideas are “all hot air” because there is no real prospect of him leading the Labour Party into power.

The victor of the leadership contest will be announced on 24 September.

Malhotra’s claims do not match up with McDonnell’s, and her team strongly denies any sort of bullying or intimidation by them, pointing out that they have gone out of their way not to identify the member of staff in McDonnell’s office.

“Put plainly, there is simply too much of it taking place and it needs to stop”.

But Mr McDonnell said the office manager concerned had simply been checking whether Ms Malhotra had moved out of the office after quitting the front bench last month in protest at Mr Corbyn’s leadership.

The peer criticised Mr Corbyn for claiming credit for Government U-turns on tax credits, trade union reforms and housing without acknowledging colleagues.

BBC political correspondent Carol Walker said the incident was “another extraordinary twist in Labour’s increasingly bitter internal battle”. I don’t know what’s going on.

A poll of Labour councillors in the 250 most marginal parliamentary constituencies showed that the majority (60%) were backing Mr Smith for the leadership, with 28% preferring Mr Corbyn.

Almost four in 10 – 38% – thought the majority of their local members would vote for the leader, and 53% thought most registered supporters would do the same.

Jeremy has made it clear on a number of occasions he wants to reach out to the Parliamentary Labour Party.

He said MPs were good people who would respect the outcome of the leadership contest if Corbyn won.