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A Liverpool Labour campaigner whose controversial comments about MP Luciana Berger sparked a national row has broken his silence.

Roy Bentham, who was recently elected onto the executive team of Ms Berger’s Wavertree Labour group had told her to “get on board” and asked her to apologise for not backing party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the past after members loyal to Mr Corbyn took nine out of 10 of the constituency party positions.

The comments - originally published in the ECHO - led to a huge debate on social media and appeared in scores of national news publications.

The Wavertree Labour team distanced themselves from the comments and until now Mr Bentham has remained silent on the issue.

But speaking on Radio City Talk this morning, Mr Bentham said he didn’t intend to single out the Wavertree MP and said some national newspapers tried to use his comments for their own ends.

He said: “It was unfortunate that some of the right wing press got hold of it (the comments) and caused some mischief - don’t think I will ever be on the front page of the Daily Mail again.

“I do stand by what I said, it was about Jeremy Corbyn’s politics.

“It was more of a rallying call to the other CLP (Constituency Labour Party) groups across the country, the people who got Jeremy this massive mandate.

“I wasn’t picking on her, I do think on some of the contentious issues people should be more accountable, I think this is a new type of politics - but it certainly wasn’t meant to single out anyone in particular.”

Echoing some of his original comments about Ms Berger’s previous actions, he told host Mick Coyle: “There are a lot of people around the country that didn’t want war in Syria and didn’t want a vote of no confidence in Jeremy and Luciana will be sitting across from the executive and we will be discussing these things.

“Hopefully I’ll have a good relationship with Luciana, the executive are there to help her now.”

Asked by the host if Ms Berger, who has increased her vote share in each of her three election wins in Wavertree, should be able to make her own decisions based on her mandate, Mr Bentham added: “There were vote increases right across the country.

“Its the Jeremy factor as much as any individual MP.

“Its a dual relationship - Jeremy and Luciana - I don’t think Luciana would claim all the credit for getting 80% of the vote.”

He added: “She is a good MP and we’ve got 10 people to help her in her role now.”

Following the original comments, Ms Berger and the new secretary of the Wavertree Constituency Labour Party, Angela Kehoe Jones, released a joint statement, which said: “The Labour Party In Liverpool Wavertree is a vibrant, democratic organisation with around 1,800 members. Quite rightly, the members elect officers of the party to oversee its work.

“We are united in wanting to secure a new General Election and the return of a Labour government under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn as soon as possible.”