Hyndburn MP Graham Jones has refused to apologise for calling an activist’s anti-war plea ‘a load of b*****ks’.
Mr Jones was branded ‘disgusting’ for his blunt e-mail to voter Dr Samuel Grove during Wednesday’s Syria debate - which saw him join 65 other Labour MPs voting for war.
Dr Grove, who wrote to MPs claiming they could have hundreds of deaths on their hands, was told by Mr Jones: “What a load of b*****ks.
“Please take the issue seriously and whilst you are at it, learn some respect (if that’s possible?’).
The e-mail from the Hyndburn MP’s official Parliament account prompted fury among anti-war activists when it was leaked on Twitter.
But Mr Jones said he was not backing down and said Dr Grove’s language was ‘down in the sewers’.
He also said the message was part of a campaign of abuse which Jeremy Corbyn is ‘legitimising and encouraging’ by ‘doing nothing about’.
Mr Jones said: “He’s not a constituent. He’s from nowhere near me.
“This particular guy was accusing me of killing children and saying I’m going to press the ‘kill button’. It’s just deplorable. It’s down in the sewers.
“It needed a working-class response. I’m a working-class person. I’m always polite to people but in this case I thought it needed a succinct response.
“I said what anyone would say if they were told that in the pub.”
The MP for Hyndburn since 2010, added: “I’ve had messages full of abuse - ‘blood on hands’, ‘red scum’, ‘f*** off Tory scum’, ‘warmonger’, ‘Blairite’ - and by the way I’m not a Blairite.
“Jeremy Corbyn knows this is happening and he’s doing nothing about it. That speaks volumes.
“He’s saying he’s tackling it but it’s going on and on.
“A lot of it’s coming from his supporters and the subtext is they’re entitled to abuse me because I’m not blindly following Jeremy Corbyn.
“Some of the stuff that’s coming out from the top of the Labour party is legitimising and encouraging this.
“That has to be said. You can’t avoid the truth.”
The row came as MPs demanded more action from Jeremy Corbyn to crack down on online abuse.
More than 60 Labour MPs voted with the government to begin air strikes in Syria following a ten hour debate in the House of Commons.
