The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has said it would be right if Labour MP Seema Malhotra apologised after the Speaker of the House of Commons ruled that her office had not been broken into following her resignation from the shadow cabinet.

John Bercow has told Malhotra that alleged unauthorised entry into her office did not amount to a possible breach of parliamentary rules.

The former shadow chief secretary to the Treasury immediately hit back, saying her office had been “entered into without [her] knowledge and without [her] permission” and that a number of questions remained unanswered about “who precisely entered [her] office and why”.

Malhotra had accused aides to McDonnell and the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, of a breach of security and parliamentary privilege earlier this month around the time of her resignation from the shadow cabinet and asked the Speaker to investigate.

In his reply to Malhotra, Bercow said he had reminded all those involved that “nobody should ever enter a member’s office or the office of their staff, locked or not, without their permission”.

But he said for there to be a breach of Commons privilege it would have to be demonstrated that Malhotra “had been improperly obstructed in the undertaking of [her] duties as a member of parliament, or that an attempt or threat had been made of such an obstruction”.

Malhotra had claimed evidence of three unauthorised attempts to enter her parliamentary offices, two of which were successful. In the letter, she named Corbyn’s gatekeeper and office manager, Karie Murphy, as one of the aides involved.

In her letter to Bercow, she wrote: “Suspicion was aroused when [McDonnell’s aide] accessed my office with her key on 13 July at 18.42 and was surprised to find my member of staff still in the office.



“[McDonnell’s aide] had no reason to be showing anyone around my office – this should not be accessible to anyone without my permission and I was not aware that [the aide] had access to my office.”

She said records of the digital keys used to access the office showed two further attempts had been made on 15 July, one of which had been successful.

Bercow said: “Having taken advice, I am satisfied that there is nothing in your letter or in the information subsequently elicited by the deputy serjeant at arms which would justify regarding these events as a possible breach.”

McDonnell said: “It’s only right and fair that Seema now apologises for the stress she has caused to my staff over the last few days. As I said on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, the Labour party needs to unite, and actions like this, which are only being used to try to undermine Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, must stop.”

Spokesmen for Corbyn and McDonnell claimed on Sunday that the row was a “small matter” stemming from a miscommunication and that access had been sought on the assumption that Malhotra had vacated the office on resigning her post.

McDonnell had said his office manager thought the office was no longer occupied and accused Corbyn’s critics of picking on members of staff.

The row comes amid growing tensions between supporters of Corbyn and his critics. The atmosphere has become so poisoned that meetings of local Labour branches have been suspended because of accusations of bullying and intimidation both ways, with one Labour MP accusing Corbyn of considering calling his father to “bully” him after he criticised the leader.

Last week, the Labour party general secretary, Iain McNicol, said there was too much intimidation and abuse taking place and “it needs to stop”.