The Labour leadership contest has descended into acrimony after a Yvette Cooper supporter suggested she should win because she has children.
Helen Goodman was accused of taking a swipe at Liz Kendall by writing an article saying she backed Ms Cooper because "as a working mum she understands the pressures on modern family life".
"Much more more important to me than being an MP and shadow minister is that I am a mum. I have two children and although they are both grown up (supposedly) once a mum always a mum," Ms Goodman wrote on the Huffington Post.
Ms Cooper then sent a link to the article to followers on Twitter, prompting Miss Kendall's campaign manager Toby Perkins to respond: "Is this what it's come to?"
Asked about the issue on BBC Two's The Daily Politics, he added: "I think the idea that you say because one of the candidates is a mother they're the one you should back suggests a paucity of intellectual argument which the Labour Party really should have moved beyond. So I was disappointed with the specific piece."
John Woodcock, another prominent MP supporting Miss Kendall, tweeted: "Looking forward to the day someone tells a man they are voting for him because he has a kid and the other guy does not. Will be equally sad then too."
Richard Olszewski, a former adviser to ex-home secretary John Reid, added on the micro-blogging site described Ms Goodman's comments as a 'shockingly crude Norman Tebbit-style innuendo.'
Others pointed to comments Ms Goodman, then a media spokesman for the Labour Party, made after former Tory Culture Secretary Maria Miller was involved in a row over comments she made about motherhood.
In June 2013, Ms Miller said she, alone at Cabinet, understood the need for internet parental controls because she was the only mother.
Ms Goodman reportedly described her comments as 'foolish,' adding: "The job of Secretary of State is to stand up to the industry, not to start talking about her personality and family situation."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article