The shadow chancellor, speaking at an event alongside Corbyn, made the comments after one of the MPs, Ben Bradshaw, said he had made a formal complaint to party officials about the note.
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Forde also mentioned a YouGov survey about voting and sexual preferences which said Labour voters are more likely to enjoy spanking and sex outdoors.
“We’ve apologised – it was just inappropriate”, McDonnell said. It certainly wasn’t a list to attack anyone, it was just a factual report. Just hours before this explosive list was published, Corbyn had the Labour benches cheering and rallying behind him as he impressively unpicked Theresa May’s plans for new grammar schools. I was furious about it, to be frank, furious.
“I don’t think, for example, that you know how many seats we need to win an order to beat the Tories”.
“I’ve been accused of abuse”.
He stressed his desire to reconcile with unhappy Labour MPs.
“And as a practical start to this I am growing an olive branch, an olive tree in fact, on the balcony of my office”.
He said relationships had been rebuilt over the summer and nearly all MPs had “swung behind Jeremy” when he attacked Mrs May over grammar schools.
Mr Corbyn will say: “In the wake of the referendum vote to leave the European Union and a summer of political turmoil, our economy stands poised between two alternative futures”.
Deputy party leader Tom Watson had been picked out for calling the grassroots pro-Corbyn campaign Momentum a “rabble”.
Voting in the Labour leadership battle, which is also being contested by Owen Smith, ends next Wednesday.
Asked whether he meant to sue Corbyn, he replied: “Yes, and it would be the leader, not the party, because this has been issued apparently by someone in his campaign team”.
His campaign team withdrew the list, which was reportedly put out by a “junior member”, and has apologised to Mr Watson.
Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Tom Blenkinsop and Redcar’s Anna Turley were among figures name-checked over their alleged behaviour since Mr Corbyn took the party’s top job.
Mr Corbyn defended the list during a TV leadership debate last night, insisting their statements were already “on the public record”. Smith described it as a “deselection list” that activists would use to target MPs.
However, a Riverside Labour party and Momentum member today dismissed the allegations against the group as complete “absolute nonsense”. “That isn’t unifying. That is deeply divisive”, he said.
Corbyn responded by defending the accuracy of the release and urging Smith to focus on policies.
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Mr Corbyn said: “There was information put out there about statements that colleagues made on the record”. Whatever happens in the result in the Labour leadership election next week, we have all got to come together.
