What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Jeremy Corbyn pledged to 'reach out' to Labour MPs who oppose him today - as one of his key allies warned they could be deselected.

Shadow Defence Secretary Clive Lewis said local party members working to boot out sitting Labour MPs was a "democratic choice."

But he dismissed claims of the hard left mounting a hostile takeover of the party as "red under the bed scare stories."

He told the BBC's Andrew Marr: "I think we've had a robust debate in the party over the past year. Deselection hasn't come up as I understand it as an issue - if it does, as far as I'm concerned, that's a democratic choice for our members."

He added the party's MPs would be subject to "churn" as the boundary review reduces the number of constituencies by 50, and there would be "MPs that come up against one another."

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

Less than an hour later, Mr Corbyn denied there was a threat of deselections.

He told ITV's Robert Peston: "There will be selections, made by local constituency parties, I have a democratic mandate as leader, that democratic mandate doesn’t give me the power to instruct, impose people all over the country. There will be boundary changes in all probability therefore pretty well every constituency will be a new boundary."

Asked if that was a "veiled threat" against MPs who oppose him, he said: "it’s not any kind of threat. What it is is simply describing the process. There are going to be 600 new constituency Labour parties formed, as there will be for other parties, and they will go through a selection process. Where the sitting MP has a substantial geographical claim on the constituency, they’re automatically put forward, if there is a trigger ballot to have an open selection, that MP is obviously automatically on the shortlist because of their existing geographical claims to the constituency."

He added: "Listen, my own constituency is being split into three by the proposal of the Boundary Commission which is rather unkind."

He said if he remains in place as party leader after next week's Leadership election, he would reunite the party by "reaching out" to MPs who oppose him.

He said: "By reaching out as I have tried to do in the past and will do so again, reaching out, recognising the talents of people who actually broadly agree these days on an anti-austerity economic strategy, absolutely agree on the need to defeat the Tories’ education strategy, absolutely agree on the need to fund properly our National Health Service including our mental health services. There is an awful lot on which the party is actually in complete agreement."