Sign up to FREE email alerts from Liverpool Echo - Weekly Politics Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Wirral MP Angela Eagle insists her support within the Wallasey Constituency Labour Party remains strong despite efforts to deselect her.

The MP also says she is “not going to be silenced” by people trying to force her out of the seat she has held since 1992.

Since the Brexit vote to leave the European Union Ms Eagle has seen parts of her constituency party – local Labour members in Wallasey – turn against her with threats of a bid to deselect her on one side and accusations of threatening behaviour on the other, leading to the suspension last week of the local party pending an investigation.

The fall out began – or became public – after the Brexit vote when the Wallasey CLP urged Ms Eagle to back Jeremy Corbyn but she and many other MPs decided they wanted a new leader.

Ms Eagle announced she would contest Mr Corbyn’s leadership but subesequently withdrew in favour of Owen Smith.

Ms Eagle said: “There are a lot of members in Wallasey who are still behind me, they just don’t shout as loud.”

Over recent weeks the MP has seen a barrage of attacks on social media, a window broken in the building which houses her constituency office and a man arrested and later bailed in Scotland over alleged threats to kill her .

She said: “I think the operation that’s been going on there has been very slick. They are putting it about that I broke the window in my constituency office myself – I mean, excuse me.

“Anyway, don’t mistake the loudest voices for the majority is what I’d say.”

The party membership in Wallasey has grown to more than 1,200 following the Brexit vote as new supporters signed up, and Ms Eagle said: “Some of them are fine and absolutely welcome, and some were thrown out in the 1990s and have come back again.

“You don’t have to be a genius if you look what happened in the 1980s to know what’s going on now.

“But I’m not going to be intimidated by people who are doing that, that have been in the party for less than a year telling me I’m a Tory and a traitor – I’ve been a member of the party for 40 years, I’ve given my life to the Labour party because I think it’s the way we can transform the life chances and opportunities for working class people, like my mum and dad who didn’t get the chances I got because we had Labour Governments.

“That’s my whole political credo – and I’m not going to be silenced by people who have not been in the party a year telling me to leave.”

Angela Eagle had pledged last year during the leadership election which was eventually won by Jeremy Corbyn that she “would work with whoever was elected” but admitted frustration had been building up.

She said been “trying” to work with Jeremy Corbyn over the last nine months, but said: ”There has been no attempt from the leader’s office to reach out to anyone but their own little coterie of people.

“Just to give you an example, as the shadow business secretary I had a scheduled meeting with [shadow chancellor] John McDonnell – the other economic department that I was shadowing – a meeting scheduled every week. Over the nine month period all but one of them was cancelled.

“There was just no attempt to work together in any way.”

Ms Eagle has thrown her support behind Owen Smith in the bid by Labour MPs to topple the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The MP had been the first to step forward to challenge Mr Corbyn following a vote of no confidence in his leadership, but withdrew from the Labour Party leadership race last week after she acknowledged Mr Smith had garnered more support for his candidacy.

She said they were quite close in the number of nominations – “within 10” – but she didn’t think she would get enough to win so made the decision “in the best interests of the party” to withdraw so there would only be one person challenging Mr Corbyn.

However, she refused to speculate on the consequences for Labour if Owen Smith does not win and said: “To make it absolutely clear, I’m supporting Owen [Smith] wholeheartedly.”