Labour MP: Corbyn Tried To 'Bully Me'

Jeremy Corbyn has told Sky News he is not a bully following allegations from senior Labour MPs Connor McGinn and Angela Eagle.

Labour whip Mr McGinn alleged the party leader had considered calling his father in an attempt to "apply pressure" on him following public criticism of Mr Corbyn.

But the Labour leader, who denies the allegation, said: "I don't do any abuse, I don't do any bullying, I don't allow it to be done."

The St Helens North MP accused the party leader of hypocrisy for talking about a "kinder, gentler politics" when "he had proposed using my family against me".

It began when Mr McGinn, who was made a whip when Mr Corbyn was elected leader last September, gave an interview to The House magazine in May.

In a statement sent to PoliticsHome, he says: "I outlined my views on a range of issues, including the need for Labour to re-engage with our working class base.

"I mentioned Jeremy in this interview only once, when I respectfully suggested that he had a challenge to reach out beyond his comfort zone and his own constituency to traditional Labour voters across the country."

He continues: "It transpired that Jeremy, in deliberations about how to respond to my interview, had said that he intended to ring my father to discuss it with him and ask him to speak to me about it.

"The leader of the Labour Party was proposing to address an issue with one of his own MPs by ringing his dad.

"Jeremy does not know my father so I can only presume that, because of the much-publicised fact that my father was a Sinn Fein councillor, Jeremy felt that they would share a political affinity and was proposing to use that to ask my father to apply pressure on me.

"Thankfully, others dissuaded Jeremy from taking this course of action.

"The call was not made, and it would not have been well received."

Mr McGinn said he had decided to go public after watching a TV interview with Mr Corbyn.

"I am afraid I could no longer tolerate the hypocrisy of him talking about a kinder, gentler politics when I knew for a fact that he had proposed using my family against me in an attempt to bully me into submission because he didn't like something I said."

Mr Corbyn's office said the allegation was "untrue".

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Corbyn said: "I wish some of my colleagues would concentrate on political issues.

"I regret the language that has been used by all of them.

"I am very surprised and actually very disappointed they should say that.

"Politics has to be about bringing people in. We've done that spectacularly. We are now the largest we've ever had.

"That's good, that means more and more people being involved in politics, that's good, it is not a threat.

"It is a good thing that people come together and want to debate and be active in politics in our society, isn't that good for democracy?"

Meanwhile, former leadership rival Ms Eagle has accused the Labour leader of "stirring" things after she was advised by police not to hold public advice sessions in her Wallasey constituency.

Ms Eagle said a "permissive" environment had been allowed to develop in which MPs opposed to Mr Corbyn faced abuse.

She told the Daily Telegraph: "I think he has contributed to this.

"It's all very well to condemn it, but there's a permissive environment.

"You can make any number of ritual condemnations as you like but you have got to be judged by your actions, not just words."

Former acting leader Harriet Harman, meanwhile, has accused Mr Corbyn of creating further division by threatening re-selection.

During his leadership campaign launch on Thursday, Mr Corbyn confirmed that all Labour MPs would face re-selection when new parliamentary boundaries - reducing the number of seats from 650 to 600 - come into force in 2018.

The move would pave the way for his supporters in the party's grassroots to push out critics by replacing them as Labour candidates.

Ms Harman told BBC Radio 4: "It's not clear whether what Jeremy Corbyn was saying was that there's going to be new measures in relation to preventing current MPs standing again as Labour MPs at the next election or whether he was describing the current system, but either way it's more of driving a wedge between different parts of the party, setting the members against MPs, setting MPs against members.

"One of the responsibilities of leadership is actually to bring people together, not to set people against each other.

"I think it is very unfortunate and another example of why really we need a new leadership rather than Jeremy Corbyn."