A Labour MP who criticised Jeremy Corbyn for “not paying respects properly” during a Remembrance Sunday wreath-laying ceremony has tweeted during the two-minute silence on Armistice Day.
Simon Danczuk, a persistent critic of the Labour leader, tweeted at exactly 11am on 11 November about going for a run in the hills around his constituency of Rochdale.
The Labour MP said he had meant to send the tweet earlier, however.
“To be clear, I tweeted this well before the two-minute silence! No idea why it was delayed,” he added in a follow-up message.
Mr Danczuk’s original tweet had an attached picture, which may explain why it took longer to send than he had expected.
Only days earlier The Sun newspaper had reported Mr Danczuk criticising his party leader’s wreath-laying at the cenotaph.
“By not paying respects properly, Jeremy is distracting attention away from our strong Labour campaigns against this Tory Government’s harsh policies, like tax credit and policing cuts,” he said.
The MP was weighing in on a media row about whether Mr Corbyn’s bow was sufficiently deep to indicate respect and remembrance for the dead.
Some Twitter users criticised Mr Danczuk for the tweet.
Rob Shuttleworth, of Sheffield, said: "If Jeremy had tweeted during the two minute silence you would have written an outraged article in the Mail." Another, Stuart Gregory told the MP to "stay classy".
Last month the Independent on Sunday reported that the MP might use himself as a “stalking horse” to begin a leadership challenge against Mr Corbyn if the Labour leader did not perform well in elections scheduled for next May.
During the Labour leadership contest Mr Danczuk told LBC Radio that MPs would work to oust Mr Corbyn “from day one” and “as soon as the result comes out”.
The MP also hit the headlines yesterday when the Evening Standard newspaper reported that he had pulled out of a parliamentary trip to China after learning he would have to fly economy class.
