Corbyn faces ‘bully’ accusations from Labour MP

Mr Corbyn launched his campaign to hold on to the Labour leadership on Thursday, urging MPs to get behind the party.

The veteran socialist has clung on even though three-quarters of the party’s lawmakers say they have lost confidence in his leadership and Welsh MP Owen Smith has launched a challenge to oust him.

Mr McGinn said he had chose to go public after watching an interview with Mr Corbyn in which he repeated his mantra of supporting a “kinder, gentler politics”.

A Labour MP has accused Jeremy Corbyn of considering using his father to “bully” him following comments the MP made in an interview. “The call was not made, and it would not have been well received”.

He said Mr Jones knew “that isn’t true”.

“It is not good enough for Jeremy to say he has threats too”.

He suggested that Mr Corbyn considered calling his father, Pat McGinn, because he is a Sinn Fein councillor and thought they may “share a political affinity”. Conor McGinn once described his father, in an interview with Huffington Post, as “much more left wing than I am”.

He said: “It’s not kinder and gentler, is it, if you are the boss of an organisation and the workers are unhappy, to threaten to give them the sack”.

Labour has been locked in a bitter power struggle since the 23 June Vote to leave the European Union, with critics of Corbyn saying he did not work hard enough to persuade the party’s voters to back remaining in the bloc.

Mr Corbyn told Sky News that he was “very surprised and very disappointed” that Labour MPs should accuse him of bullying.

But the Labour leader, who denies the allegation, said, “I don’t do any abuse, I don’t do any bullying and I don’t allow it to be done”.

‘I wish some of my colleagues would concentrate on political issues, ‘ he told Sky News.

Ms Rimmer added: “I believe that Owen Smith is the best choice to bring the party together and lead us in the fight against, the Tory government that continues to punish area like ours”. We’ve done that spectacularly. “We have the largest membership we’ve ever had”. The party confirmed a whopping 183,000 people paid their £25 (US$33) supporters’ fee within the 48-hour window, allowing them to vote in the party’s leadership election.

Labour last week suspended the Wallasey constituency group, on the Wirral, following complaints from Ms Eagle of “bullying, intimidation, misogyny and homophobia”.

All but essential constituency and branch meetings across the country have been banned by Labour’s National Executive Committee for the duration of the leadership contest, but meetings, such as this one, organised informally by supporters of Jeremy Corbyn, are taking place across the country.

Mr Smith later tendered his resignation from the front bench following the talks, a move Mr Corbyn today branded “slightly odd”.

“If this Parliament runs to the full term, then the new boundaries will be the basis on which the elections take place and in that case there would be a full selection process in every constituency”, he said.