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Ken Loach was 'absolutely wrong' to say MPs who attended an anti-Semitism demo should be kicked out, a shadow cabinet minister has said.

Barry Gardiner condemned the comments by the film director at a local Labour party event in Bristol last week.

According to the Bristol Post, Jeremy Corbyn supporting Mr Loach said: "Unless we get Labour MPs who believe in that manifesto last year we won't get in power.

“If they've been going to the demonstration against him [ Jeremy Corbyn ] outside Westminster... those are the ones we need to kick out.”

Mr Gardiner said his own parliamentary aide, the Labour MP Anna McMorrin, went to the demo because she has two Jewish children.

(Image: REX/Shutterstock) (Image: BBC)

He told the BBC's Question Time: "She was there protesting against anti-Semitism.

"Jeremy has sent a personal letter to her constituency saying she absolutely had the right to be there because anti-Semitism is a scourge on our society."

He added: "Ken Loach was absolutely wrong and Jeremy has said as much.

"Jeremy has said exactly that in the letter he sent from his office to Anna to support her for being there to protect her children."

(Image: BBC)

Mr Gardiner said more needed to be done to combat anti-Semitism in Labour but that Jeremy Corbyn had been a lifelong campaigner against racism.

But Tory minister Jo Johnson, appearing on the same programme, slammed Jeremy Corbyn.

He said Labour MPs were being "hounded by Momentum activists" and added: "It’s a travesty, the lack of leadership he’s showing."

Elsewhere on the show Mr Gardiner apologised for describing the Good Friday Agreement as a "shibboleth" - a Hebrew word for something that is no longer important.

And he tried to explain his description of Labour's own "six tests" on Brexit as "bollocks".

He said: "Look, the government said it will negotiate a free trade agreement that delivers the exact same benefits that we have as members of the EU.

"I don’t believe they can and that is what I rather colourfully expressed as... beyond credibility!

"Labour’s test is absolutely right. It’s to hold the government to account for their promise."