MP: I’m ready for battle

for de-selection, Mr Sheerman added: “It’s not just me, it’s half the serving Labour MPs in West Yorkshire.

“If they want a fight they’ve got one.”

Mr Sheerman has not been a staunch supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, once saying he might stand as a ‘stalking horse’ in a leadership battle to oust him.

In 2016 he backed a motion of noconfidence in Mr Corbyn and threw his weight behind Owen Smith’s challenge for the party leadership.

Mr Williamson, who was reelected in last year’s General Election, has said his roadshow stops off wherever it has been invited and brushed off criticism that it was targeting MPs hostile to Mr Corbyn’s leadership.

He said: “If MPs are sincere about representing our movement and our country then they obviously have nothing to worry about.

“Yes some MPs have thrown their toys out of the pram, but this elitist behaviour has to stop.”

Ahead of his re-election last May, Mr Sheerman, 78, who has served as an MP since 1979, vowed to serve his full term and said he wanted to go on until his 80s.

He said it was no secret in Westminster that he was aiming to be the ‘Father of the House’ of Commons – the longest serving MP.

The current Father of the House is prominent Tory Ken Clarke who has been an MP since 1970.