Andrea Leadsom has called a recording of John McDonnell repeating abuse about a Tory cabinet minister “truly evil” as Jeremy Corbyn came under fresh pressure to condemn the comments.
The Commons Leader criticised the Labour leader directly on Twitter after the BBC broadcast a recording of the comments about Esther McVey from 2014.
Mr Corbyn and senior Labour MPs suggested they did not condone the language repeated by the shadow chancellor, but that they disagreed with Ms McVey’s role in welfare reform.
It came as the Tories announced that all its candidates would sign a new pledge to behave responsibly and treat people with respect online.
A recording of Mr McDonnell, obtained by BBC Sunday Politics, shows him quoting others who called for the “lynching” of Ms McVey, who was at the time the minister for disabled people.
Ms Leadsom wrote on Twitter: “This is truly evil. Utterly disgusting.
“The laughter about launching a campaign against @EstherMcVey1 on her birthday, and then the guffaws about killing her. Seriously?
“Is this @jeremycorbyn ‘s kinder, gentler politics? This has to stop.”
Mr Corbyn was challenged over separate comments by Mr McDonnell, who also called new Work and Pensions Secretary Ms McVey “a stain on humanity” when he was a backbench MP.
“I would rather stick to where I disagree with somebody on their policies,” Mr Corbyn told ITV’s Peston On Sunday.
“I fundamentally disagree with Esther McVey and her approach towards inequality and the poor and the worst off within our society and I will stick to that.”
Brandon Lewis, the new Tory Party chairman, told BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show that Tory candidates who breached the pledge about online behaviour would be suspended, as he called on Labour to “make the same statement”.
Mr Corbyn said treating people with respect was “a basic” in the Labour Party and he did not engage in personal abuse.
“Given Jeremy Corbyn again refused to condemn the inappropriate comments from his shadow chancellor, it is no surprise he has refused to sign up to this respect pledge for future elections,” said Mr Lewis.
“This shows more than ever that the rot is at the top of the Labour Party.
“Abuse has no place in our democracy and we will condemn it wherever it arises, Jeremy Corbyn needs to do the same.”
Mr Lewis has also urged his party to beef-up its digital presence to take the fight to Labour.
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 here