Angela Rayner faced fierce criticism on Sunday when she praised Tony Blair’s interview on The Andrew Marr Show and declared that “all shades of red are needed” within the Labour Party. By the afternoon, the Labour frontbencher had tweeted that the “trolling” reaction was “typical of the toxic political landscape we are in”, pointing out that Jeremy Corbyn would “never get into No10” if the party did not have room for her.

One of the best interviews I’ve seen from Tony Blair on #Marr all shades of red are needed in our @UKLabour party to take on this nasty Tory government who are wrecking our Country. — Angela Rayner (@AngelaRayner) March 3, 2019

Rayner has consistently spoken about how New Labour – and particularly the Sure Start initiative – improved her life as a young, working-class single mother. But some Labour members were surprised that the Shadow Education Secretary, as a Corbynite (though often thought of as a ‘soft’ one), would compliment the former Labour Prime Minister responsible for the Iraq war. Last night, she felt the need to say: “For the record I will never turn on Corbyn.”

Revealing that a self-proclaimed Corbyn supporter was recently arrested for threatening to rape and murder her on social media, the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne has now posted a longer reaction on her Facebook page that calls on Labour members to be “kinder to each other”.

Below is the full text.

The nasty tweets and social media comments I’ve had over the last 24hrs prove we have a problem with some on the left that cannot disagree respectfully. I would also like to thank the many members who have given me lots of support and positive messages.