A Labour MP who said she would “knife” Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership if he started to hurt the party’s electoral chances has clarified what she meant.
Jess Phillips, who represents Birmingham Yardley, had said she would be open in her criticism of the Labour leader and not resort to stabbing him in the back with plotting.
“The day it comes that you are hurting us more than you are helping us, I won’t knife you in the back – I’ll knife you in the front,” she said in a video interview for the Guardian.
After some people posting on social media and website comment sections interpreted the metaphor as a physical threat, Ms Phillips clarified her position.
“I used a well-used metaphor about stabbing someone in the back. In which I said I would NOT stab him in the back,” she wrote in an article for the Huffington Post website.
“Incidentally, what I was actually saying was that I will try to help him be electable. I will do whatever I can to do that, but I won't sit back and just allow an echo chamber to only praise him, nor will I ignore poll ratings and what I hear on the streets in my constituency. That helps no one.”
Ms Phillips accused people who had been upset by the comments of overplaying their reaction and said she had been a victim of “clickbait” headlines in thje reporting her comments.
“All those people who slag off the media for misrepresenting Jeremy were dutifully ready to clutch their pearls in mock horror when I fell prey to clickbait headlines,” she wrote.
The MP described her wording as an “own-goal” and said it was ironic that she had made such a presentational blunder while giving out presentational advice.
The criticism of Ms Phillips’ language comes as a ComRes poll for the Independent on Sunday found that the public are split on whether the media is treating Mr Corbyn unfairly.
