Raging Labour MPs accuse John McDonnell of ‘witch-hunt’ after after he branded plotters as ‘f*****g useless’
Angela Eagle tells sneering Shadow Chancellor to stop 'inciting supporters' against moderates
FURIOUS Labour MPs accused John McDonnell of leading a violent witch-hunt against them after he branded coup plotters “f***ing useless”.
Leadership hopeful Angela Eagle told the sneering Shadow Chancellor to stop “inciting his supporters” against moderate MPs and staff as bitter infighting engulfed the party.
In a further sign of the splits tearing Labour apart, a member of the party’s ruling National Executive Committee broke down in tears on live radio as she accused Jeremy Corbyn of encouraging bullying and threats.
After the leader opposed a secret ballot to decide his future, emotional Johanna (CORR) Baxter said: “He endorsed bullying, threats and intimidation by the fact of that vote.”
Separately party grandee Dame Margaret Hodge revealed she had reported two anti-Semitic emails to the police as she accused Mr Corbyn and his backers of “dirty politics”.
And the civil war has got so bad that local Labour party branches have been banned from holding meetings while a bruising leadership campaign takes place – to protect members from clashes.
The extraordinary decision was taken as a fierce battle for the future of the party is being waged between hard-left Corbyn supporters and moderates who fear he is leading Labour to oblivion.
Anti-Corbyn MPs have complained that the leader’s leftie mob have harassed and threatened staff.
Ms Eagle was forced to call in police after a brick was thrown through her constituency office window on Monday.
She was angered further as Mr McDonnell led hard-left supporters in a chorus of foul-mouthed abuse at a rally to celebrate Mr Corbyn winning the right to fight leadership challenges against him.
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The Shadow Chancellor said MPs had been “plotting and conniving”, adding: “The only good thing about it, as plotters they’re f****** useless.”
At the same event PCS Union boss Mark Serwotka said “f**k you” to Tony Blair and branded Lord Kinnock a “disgrace”, while CWU chief Dave Ward labelled plotters “bloody Tories”.
Mr McDonnell tried to claim his remarks were a “joke”, but as Ms Eagle launched a clean campaign pledge she told The Sun: “I think his words speak for themselves.
“He went out to the demonstration that was done after the PLP and incited his supporters to demonstrate outside MPs’ offices. That immediately happened.
“It’s unfair on staff and it needs to end.”
She added: “There is no place whatsoever for the kind of bullying and intimidation we have seen recently. I hope all candidates and their supporters will sign up.”
Moderate MP Jamie Reed accused Mr McDonnell of a “truly psychotic approach towards parliamentary politics”, while colleague Gavin Shuker said: “It’s exactly what we have come to expect from John McDonnell.
“He can’t explain a whole history of comments like this as a joke and I think that’s what he’ll seek to do throughout the leadership contest.”
And former Shadow Health Secretary Heidi Alexander, who quit last month, tweeted: “God, this is awful. John, I resigned because the whole operation was f*#$ing useless not because of a plot.”
A clearly distressed Ms Baxter told the BBC’s World at One: “The difficulty was that a number of us, and a number of my colleagues in that room, had been subject to bullying and intimidation prior to the meeting taking place.
“One of my colleagues has just recently had a stalker sectioned, she was in tears. She begged the leader for a secret ballot to protect her, and also other colleagues, who had received intimidating and bullying behaviour.
“And the thing that really upset me about that meeting was that the Labour Party leader voted against the proposal to have a secret ballot to protect colleagues.
“I know that Jeremy has consistently spoken against bullying behaviour, and I applaud him for that, and I respect that, but when it came to the vote to protect colleagues taking an extremely difficult decision that would determine the future of our party, he voted against the single thing that he could have done to protect those colleagues.”
Mr Corbyn’s spokesman defended the leader’s actions in opposing a secret ballot at the NEC, saying:
“Holding secret voting on the NEC is virtually unprecedented. It’s a very unusual situation, and I think the idea was that those people should be accountable for the decisions they take.”
And he added: “There is a culture around politics at the moment of abuse and Jeremy has opposed this very strongly.”
Ms Baxter was bombarded with abuse on social media after raising her concerns on the radio.
One Twitter user called Jon Thurston said she was “displaying lamentable lack of vertebrae” and accused her of “self-pity”, while Claire Khaw wrote: “Who is that boo-hooing Labour Scotswoman boo-hooing.”
And a user called Tychy said Ms Baxter “does not sound like an adult who is in politics fighting for power”.
Ms Baxter shared a selection of the messages, writing: “I speak out against bullying and get this.”