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."