Thorn in leader’s side MP for Enfield North is tireless challenger to Corbyn over Israel

Joan Ryan was one of dozens of Labour MPS who backed a “no confidence” vote in Jeremy Corbyn in 2016. She said his leadership was “beyond repair” and called for him to quit. She has become an outspoken critic of the Labour leader, writing to him often. Ms Ryan wrote to Mr Corbyn in August to demand an apology after images emerged which appeared to show him taking part in a ceremony in 2014 honouring the Black September terrorists behind the 1972 Munich massacre.

“The widows of some of those brutally murdered have expressed their disbelief and sadness that you appear to have participated in an event at the graves of their husbands’ killers,” she said.

She wrote to him in June to ask him to “urgently clarify remarks” he made on a visit to Jordan.mr Corbyn had tweeted there needed to be a “real two state settlement to the Israel-palestine conflict” which “makes the Palestinian right to return a reality”. Ms Ryan said the “right to return” was “highly contentious and cannot be reconciled with a two-state solution”.

She said: “I do not believe that it does anything to encourage the compromises and concessions a future negotiated settlement will involve for foreign politicians to appear to endorse the most extreme and illegitimate demands of either side.”