Corbyn ally dismisses his criticism as just ‘banter’

MP admits leak made him ‘look like an idiot’ as Tories are labelled insensitive

A shadow cabinet minister has apologised to party members after being caught on tape giving a damning assessment of Jeremy Corbyn.

Jonathan Ashworth said the situation facing Labour was “abysmal” because voters “can’t stand Corbyn” and think the party has “blocked Brexit”.

However, he later sought to dismiss his remarks as “banter”.

It came as Boris Johnson was accused by the father of London Bridge victim Jack Merritt of seeing last month’s terrorist attack as an “opportunity” to score political points instead of viewing it as a tragedy.

Dave Merritt told Sky he thought it was “crass and insensitive” that his son’s photograph was used alongside headlines about changing sentencing and an article written by the prime minister.

In a tumultuous day for both campaigns, the shadow health secretary was forced to defend an audio recording – leaked to the Guido Fawkes website – of a conversation in which he lambasted Mr Corbyn. The shadow health secretary, seen as a key ally of the Labour leader, also claimed the Civil Service machine would “pretty quickly move to safeguard security” if Mr Corbyn entered Number 10.

Mr Ashworth later conceded the leak made him “look like a right plonker”, but said he made the remarks while “joking around” with Tory friend Greig Baker.

“We’re having banter with each other – we’re joking around,” he told the BBC’S Victoria Derbyshire show.

“I don’t mean it because I’m joking around with my mate because he’s a Tory. If you leak it to Guido Fawkes of course it makes me look like a right plonker, but it’s not what I mean when I’m winding up a friend – I’m trying to sort of pull his leg a bit.”

He apologised to Labour Party members and suggested he was trying to “psych” his friend out “like football managers do”.

“Obviously, with the benefit of hindsight, I’ve been too clever by half and I look like an idiot as a result of doing it,” he told BBC Two’s Politics Live.

Mr Corbyn, speaking on a campaign visit in Carlisle, said Mr Ashworth has his “full support” – adding that he was “cool with Jon”.

The Labour leader claimed Mr Ashworth’s comments were just an example of his “rather odd sense of humour”.

It followed criticism over Mr Johnson’s apparent lack of empathy for four-year-old Jack Williment-barr at Leeds General Infirmary, who was left sleeping on a hospital floor because there was no bed available.

A photograph widely circulated on social media showed the boy lying on a pile of coats to keep warm while he waited for a bed for treatment for suspected pneumonia.

Questioned by ITV News, Mr Johnson initially refused to look at the photo on a reporter’s phone – before taking the handset and putting it in his pocket.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock was dispatched to the hospital in an attempt to defuse the growing media firestorm.

Picture: Getty. Boris Johnson was criticised for lack of sensitivity over a picture of a boy in hospital.