Conor McGinn claimed the Labour leader proposed phoning his father after an interview in which he said Mr Corbyn needed to “reach out beyond his comfort zone”.
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Jeremy Corbyn has driven more of a wedge between rival Labour factions by threatening re-selection, the party’s former acting leader has said.
Mr Corbyn also signalled his willingness to move on from the spat, saying he had an “ability to very conveniently forget some of the unpleasant things that have been said” to and about him over the past few weeks.
A spokesman for the Labour leader’s office said Corbyn denied any conversation had taken place about phoning McGinn’s father.
Launching his leadership campaign this week, Mr Corbyn said that Labour MPs would need to be reselected by constituency parties before they could stand again as Labour candidates in the 2020 election.
But leadership challenger Smith has insisted “something had gone badly wrong” in the party since Corbyn took power.
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Corbyn refuted the claims: “I wish some of my colleagues would concentrate on political issues”, the Labour leader said.
“I served loyally in the Shadow Cabinet alongside Kate, Heidi and Lisa, and witnessed first hand that they are some of the finest members of the new generation of leaders in the Labour party”.
Her Constituency Labour Party (CLP) has been suspended after allegations of “bullying, intimidation, misogyny and homophobia” directed at Eagle and her staff, though allegations of any abuse have been strongly denied by some Corbyn-supporting members.
“I think we have done that spectacularly well – we now have the largest membership we’ve ever had”.
More than 180,000 people paid £25 in 48 hours this week to become registered supporters and get a vote in the election. “Isn’t that good for democracy?”
“I believe Owen gives us the best chance of defeating a government that is in disarray and returning a Labour government that this country so desperately needs”.
He said: “The leader of the Labour Party was proposing to address an issue with one of his own MPs by ringing his dad”.
He added: “Jeremy felt that they would share a political affinity and was proposing to use that to ask my father to apply pressure on me”.
Earlier, Ms Eagle told the Liverpool Echo: “Because we have been getting so much abuse direct to the office and the advice surgeries are normally done in public (the police) have sent me an email advising me to cancel them”.
It is hard to imagine anyone more removed from the values of Jeremy Corbyn than David Miliband and unless councillor Green wants a return to the failed policies of the New Labour project, I suggest she reviews her analysis of the present situation.
“They threatened to disrupt my surgeries and events I was attending, requiring me to have a police presence at those last weekend”.
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“You can make any number of ritual condemnations as you like but you have got to be judged by your actions, not just words”.
