John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has made an impassioned plea for Labour supporters to stop “trying to destroy our party just to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn” after it was claimed a member of his staff broke into a rival MP’s office.
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Mr McDonnell’s comments came shortly after former shadow minister Seema Malhotra revealed that she had lodged a formal complaint with house speaker John Bercow, after staff working for Mr Corbyn and Mr McDonnell entered her House of Commons office without permission.
Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show, he said: “My office manager.who has a key to all our rooms, went along, saw boxes outside her (Ms Malhotra’s) office, thought she’d moved, knocked on the door, never heard anything, went in”.
A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said the accusation that Ms Murphy had intimidated anyone was “untrue”.
It comes amid mounting speculation that new Prime Minister Theresa May could trigger a snap general election if Mr Corbyn wins this summer’s Labour leadership contest.
Seema Malhotra has written to the speaker to complain of a “breach of parliamentary privilege” along with “aggressive and intimidating” behaviour from Mr Corbyn’s office manager Karie Murphy.
The shadow chancellor then looked directly into the camera to make an appeal to Labour MPs.
Momentum announced it had cancelled the contract, suggesting it may have been misled by suppliers about the labour practices at the factory.
“On the Trade Union Bill we worked very closely with Angela Eagle and other colleagues in the House of Commons; on the Housing Bill with John Healey, while Owen Smith and Seema Malhotra worked very closely with us on tax credits”.
He said: “She accessed the office in question to confirm when it would be vacated”.
“Whoever is elected leader has myself and Steve Bassam [Labour’s chief whip in the Lords] in their Shadow Cabinet so I haven’t previously taken a position but I’ll be supporting Owen”, she said.
He was good at giving people their say, but I wanted to see more engagement in the debate. “There is a small group out there willing to destroy our party just to get rid of Jeremy”.
“The implications of this are extremely serious”.
Asked what the reaction to a victory by Mr Corbyn may be, he said: “I certainly think it would be an autonomous Welsh Labour party and I think it could be a separate Welsh Labour party”.
“This is a breach of parliamentary privilege and is a violation of the privacy, security and confidentiality of a member of parliament’s office”, she said in a statement to the “Observer” today. That’s just so distressing, it’s unacceptable.
Ms Malhotra, former shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “The reason why we’re so concerned is because this was done without our knowledge, without our permission”.
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“Yesterday my office contacted her and said: “Obviously this has been an error”.
