A LABOUR MP has rejected requests to apologise for repeating comments about employment minister Esther McVey being lynched.
John McDonnell claimed a "choreographed exercise" between the Daily Mail and Conservative central office led to the remarks emerging on the same day as a major speech by Labour leader Ed Miliband.
He said this had occurred in an attempt to detract from Mr Miliband's speech.
The Daily Mail reported that Mr McDonnell made the comments during a comedy night attended by left-wing activists and fellow Labour politicians, which had been organised by the Stop the War Coalition on Remembrance Sunday.
The Hayes and Harlington MP reportedly said: "I was in Liverpool where Alec McFadden, one of our (union) organisers, launched the Sack Esther McVey Day on her birthday.
"I spoke at a packed public meeting ... there was a whole group in the audience that completely kicked off quite critical of the whole concept, because they were arguing 'Why are we sacking her. Why aren't we lynching the b****?"'
Conservative Margot James (Stourbridge) asked: "Is it in order for a Labour MP to have joked about appalling death threats and would it not be in order for that colleague to apologise?"
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