The Co Armagh born MP who claims Jeremy Corbyn threatened to phone his former Sinn Féin councillor father has said the Labour leader’s call “would not have been well received”.
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“We hope that others will rejoin the shadow cabinet and get on with the job of opposing the Government”.
At the time she wrote on Twitter saying: “I can only do what I feel is right, even though it’s breaking my heart”.
In a series of critical tweets, she slammed the embattled leader for ignoring an overwhelming vote of no confidence, said Labour MPs “won’t unite behind him” and under him the Party “can’t be an effective opposition”.
However, despite this, many reported belief that Corbyn retains strong support among party members, and just over one in four said they believed that their local members would also back the Pontypridd MP’s leadership bid.
Commenting on the party’s latest row, Mr Smith told BBC Radio London: ” Obviously people shouldn’t be going into MPs’ offices, obviously that’s abuse of parliamentary privilege.
In her statement, Ms Malhotra said: “I have discovered that members of staff working for John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn have gained unauthorised entry into my office in parliament”.
The group of female MPs – including former shadow ministers Heidi Alexander, Paula Sherriff and Kerry McCarthy – say intimidation has been carried out in Mr Corbyn’s name.
“We can’t deny the facts that this wasn’t something we saw in the Labour party before Jeremy Corbyn became leader”, Smith said.
However, McNicol has now gone further by threatening to remove votes from £25 backers or union members found to have conducted intimidating behaviour, while party members now risk being suspended while allegations of abuse are investigated.
“But I don’t know enough about the details”.
“What we should do is do some mediated negotiations between the Parliamentary Labour Party, the NEC (national executive committee) and others so we use the leadership contest to discuss the issues but also we use it to help heal some of the wounds and bring it together”, he said.
In comparison, only 28% thought Labour members would vote for Mr Smith and a mere 10% thought registered supporters would do so.
He praised the new members who had been inspired to join the party as a result of Mr Corbyn’s leadership.
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Jeremy has made it clear on a number of occasions he wants to reach out to the Parliamentary Labour Party.
