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

An MP has made a complaint to police that supporters of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn tried to enter his office in St Helens .

Conor McGinn , Labour MP for St Helens North, accused the group, including a co-secretary of the pro-Corbyn Merseyside Momentum group, of ‘using deception’ to enter the building when the office was closed and refusing to leave.

Now footage has emerged of one party member, Michelle Sweeney, claiming to have been ‘locked out of democracy’ as she banged on the door of the Hardshaw Street office on July 7.

Her tirade against the MP and accusations of ‘underhand and sly’ tactics has now been retweeted more than 1,000 times on Twitter.

She called his allegations ‘completely mistruthful’ and claimed two councillors had told some members that a no-confidence vote in Corbyn’s leadership would be held at the MP’s Hardshaw Street office that night.

But a spokesman for the Labour MP said the activists were in the ‘wrong venue at the wrong time’ - with the vote taking place down the road at St Helens town hall.

He claimed staff at another organisation in the building told him the group gained entry by buzzing through to say they had an appointment with them before heading up to the MP’s office.

He said the constituency party operated separately from the MP, with its meetings never held in his office and the no-confidence vote not brought by Conor McGinn.

He added that ordinary members were not able to attend the vote, and said every delegate entitled to attend had been notified of the location.

He also pointed out Michelle Sweeney was not a member of the St Helens North party, but she said she wished to speak to the MP in his role as a party whip.

But she said: “Lots of people wanted to raise concerns about his distorted rhetoric, and didn’t support the vote of no-confidence in Corbyn. We are members of the community in St Helens; none of us had met before.

“What he’s said is completely mistruthful - we were there in the belief that’s where it was. Not one person came up and said anything until they came to close the building.”

Gavin Wadeson, Merseyside Momentum co-secretary, claimed he had also been led to believe the vote would take place at the office, and called the MP’s complaints ‘a lot of fuss over nothing’.

He said he thought he was entitled to be there as a delegate for the Co-operative party, but the MP’s office suggested the Co-operative regional office had not confirmed this.

The news comes after disputed claims of unauthorised access to an MP’s Westminster office by Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership team, and after a brick was thrown at Angela Eagle’s Wallasey office .

A police spokesman said: “Merseyside Police can confirm we have been made aware that people entered Century House, Hardshaw Street on Thursday, 7 July 2016 incorrectly believing a Labour Party meeting they were entitled to attend was to be held there.

“Following enquiries, it was established staff in the building asked the group to leave and they left.”