Senior Labour figures have added their voices to the criticism of party supporters who booed and hissed BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg as she questioned Jeremy Corbyn yesterday.

Tom Watson described their behaviour as “rude” while Tom Baldwin, who was a top media advisor to Ed Miliband, said Labour needed to engage with facts rather than “online conspiracy and comfort zone”.

Both men spoke out after a small number of people booed Kuenssberg when she asked a question of Corbyn following his speech at the Institution of Engineering and Technology yesterday. The Labour leader hushed the crowd to allow the BBC political editor to speak.

Last night Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, criticised the boos, writing on Twitter: “I feel embarrassed that @ bbclaurak was hissed in the course of doing her job today. It was rude and inappropriate.”

And today Tom Baldwin, former director of strategy and communication’s for Ed Miliband, used a LabourList article to warn of the dangers of anyone viewing the world from an “insular internet bubble”.

“I have some sympathy for Jeremy Corbyn when he rails against a “shallow, facile and ill-informed” media . But he is wrong when he claims the BBC is obsessed with trying to damage his leadership.

“The correct response to people who booed and hissed Laura Kuenssberg yesterday is condemnation – not a smiling flap of the arm.

“And the online mob demanding her sacking risks [last month] doing more damage to the reputation of the British Left than the most malign journalist.”