Stop the War coalition calls Tristram Hunt’s attacks ‘unfounded and unjustified’

But while he may be proud to be the group’s most high-profile supporter, Mr Corbyn kept a low profile as he arrived by the back door for the dinner, held in a Turkish restaurant in south London.

On Friday night Mr Corbyn defied calls from moderate Labour MPs to distance himself from Stop The War and attended the group’s Christmas fundraiser.

The movement, which describes itself as the successor to Mr Corbyn’s leadership campaign, has come under fire in recent weeks for its members’ alleged involvement in the harassment of his critics.

Mr Hunt told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday: “The Stop the War coalition picketed the Labour Party headquarters when we were trying to run a phone-bank for the Oldham by-election so they were preventing the election of a Labour Member of Parliament”.

In his speech at the dinner, he said: “The Stop the War Coalition has been one of the most important democratic campaigns of modern times”.

Caroline Lucas has quit her role as patron of the Stop The War Coalition, citing disagreements with some of the anti-war group’s “recent positions”.

“The problem we have here is a wider narrative that is being painted about Jeremy and the people that are now running the Labour party, and I worry that further association with organisations like this just plays into the hands of that narrative”. “Birmingham has suffered some awful terrorism over the years, but [the public] wanted to hear, just after Paris, that basically if a man walks down your street with a big gun and he’s going to kill you and he’s got a bomb strapped to him, we will shoot him in the head, immediately, 10 times”.

He added: “I think our party’s focus should be on taking the fight to the Tories and working out the ideas that are going to win us the next general election, not Jeremy Corbyn’s political engagements”.

“We’re still in the early stages really, but I imagine we will get together in the end to form a Momentum South West”, he said.

After widespread criticism of his decision to wave a copy of Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book during his response to George Osborne’s Autumn Statement, Mr McDonnell said he had promised Mr Corbyn that the stunt would be “my last joke”.

Louise Haigh, Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley, who has previously spoken out to defend the Labour leader against criticism by sections of the party, told 5Live’s Pienaar’s Politics that she “would not have anything to do with Stop the War”, adding: “I would have advised him not to [attend]”.

Stop the War’s Chris Nineham said the group’s leadership had “distanced themselves” from the blog posts on Paris and the global brigade comparison.