Shadow leader of the House of Commons Chris Bryant has called former Labour party leader Ed Miliband a “tosspot” ‒ in a clear demonstration of how divided the Labour party has become following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.
The party officially backed the campaign to remain in Europe, but lost its traditional northern voter strongholds as Sunderland, Rochdale and Oldham voted comfortably for Leave.
Frontbencher Chris Bryant turned on the former Labour Party leader, whose overhaul of the party's rule book was widely seen to have paved the way for Jeremy Corbyn's election as leader.
"I might go and punch him because he's a tosspot and he left the party in the state it's in," he said.
Mr Corbyn, a long-time Eurosceptic, defended his conduct in the campaign amid criticisms that he offered no more than lukewarm support for Remain, blaming Government austerity cuts for alienating voters.
"A lot of the message that has come back from this is that many communities are fed up with cuts, they are fed up with economic dislocation and feel very angry at the way they have been betrayed and marginalised by successive governments in very poor areas of the country," Mr Corbyn told BBC News.
"The point I was making was there were good things that had come from Europe in working conditions and environmental protections but there were other issues that had not been addressed properly."
Following the result, there have been numerous calls for Jeremy Corbyn to resign.
“Corbyn has to go,” one Labour MP told The Telegraph. “The referendum proved he is worse than even his worse critics said he would be.
"Even people who supported him have seen he is not up to it. He can't motivate Labour voters, let alone persuade anyone else.
"He can't handle a campaign or even manage to get a message across in an interview. But it is not just that he is incompetent and not up to the job: he has no ideas beyond the vacuous slogans he repeats.
"He hasn't set out a single serious policy since he became leader and the views he does have - like on immigration and free movement - are diametrically opposed to the public's.”
Press Association contributed to this report.
