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Jeremy Corbyn has urged his warring colleagues to “turn our fire outwards” but swiftly faced criticism from some of Labour’s MPs when he declined to defend one of their number who has been facing a challenge from members of her local party.

The party leader was addressing Labour MPs in Westminster for the first time since the summer recess and tried to draw a line under its antisemitism row, saying: “The Labour party has always been a broad church and I’m determined it remains so.”

He told the meeting of the parliamentary Labour party: “We will always have some differences of opinion and we must protect the right of criticism and debate, but our first and overwhelming priority is to deliver for the people we represent and remove this Conservative government from office. We must focus on that priority and turn our fire outwards.”

But the meeting became fractious as Corbyn was asked if he would intervene and call on the Canterbury constituency Labour party (CLP) to scrap a vote of censure against Rosie Duffield, the MP unexpectedly elected on a landslide swing in the 2017 election.

Amid applause for the question from MPs, Corbyn praised Duffield and her work in the Kent constituency. But he did not say that he would intervene in the confidence vote scheduled for Wednesday, prompting some MPs at the meeting to heckle him, asking “what will you do for Rosie?”

Immediately after the meeting, a Labour spokesperson said of Corbyn that it was “not his place to get involved” in decisions taken by local parties. They said that the leader would respect whatever decision the party took.

That briefing was interrupted by the backbencher Siobhain McDonagh, who complained that Corbyn had not done enough. “I would just like to say that Rosie Duffield has been an MP for 18 months. She is a young woman who is facing a disciplinary meeting on Wednesday,” she said, adding: “The idea that the leader of our party has no responsibility for that is completely wrong.”

Late on Monday the secretary of Canterbury CLP, Naomi Smith, tweeted that the motion of censure against Duffield had been withdrawn.

Naomi Smith (@gnomee60) Earlier today you received a motion to censure Rosie Duffield MP. At the Canterbury Branch meeting tonight a motion to withdraw the censure was overwhelmingly passed by those present.

The proposer and seconder of the motion have agreed to withdraw the motion.



Naomi Smith

Last week, the Labour MPs Joan Ryan and Gavin Shuker were censured by their local parties. Such votes do not have any formal status, amounting to a rebuke by the local party, but they could pave the way for a formal deselection process to begin ahead of the next election.

After the Westminster meeting Angela Rayner, the party’s shadow education spokesperson, tweeted in support of Duffield. “Friend and colleague Rosie Duffield is a superb MP who happens to be an excellent constituency MP too!” she said. “Always so supportive in parliament to me and other colleagues. Sending all my love.”

Duffield said she was “overwhelmed by the support I’ve received today” and said that “this tiny group of members” who had proposed the motion “do not represent my wonderful CLP as a whole”.

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Labour’s top official, Jennie Formby, also addressed the meeting, reportedly reminding MPs that recording of party meetings was not allowed. The Iranian state-backed broadcaster Press TV obtained footage from inside a meeting of the Enfield North CLP, as members passed a vote of no confidence in their MP, Ryan.

Corbyn was also challenged over whether he would like to see mandatory re-selection of sitting MPs, with the PLP chair, John Cryer, reportedly warning that the process would be deeply divisive.

The prominent Corbyn critic Chuka Umunna, who is MP for Streatham, sparked fresh tensions at the weekend by delivering a speech urging the leadership to “call off the dogs”, after several of his colleagues had faced no-confidence votes.