This should have been a relatively good week for Labour, for a change. Jeremy Corbyn had just had his most effective performance at prime minister’s questions, putting Theresa May deservedly on the ropes for her nonsense plan to bring back grammar schools. Labour backbenchers had been doing what we do very effectively every week at Westminster – holding the Tories to account over a whole range of issues, from the crisis in the NHS and the approval of Hinkley Point to the government’s cluelessness over Brexit.

So you can imagine my surprise and consternation when I received a call from a journalist seeking my reaction to being named in a published list of Labour MPs who were being accused by Corbyn of “abusing” him and his supporters. The list included our deputy leader, Tom Watson, for allegedly describing Momentum as a “rabble” and Tristram Hunt for saying Labour was “in the shit”. One might quibble with his use of language, but with dire polls, the worst ratings for a Labour leader ever and our worst local election results for 31 years, some might consider Hunt’s analysis an understatement, given Labour’s current predicament.

In any event it does not constitute “abuse” of Corbyn or any of his supporters. Most of us named on Corbyn’s abusers’ list were not given a reason for being there. Nor were we given the courtesy of a call by his office before being named. This, in spite of it being obvious to anyone that all the MPs named would subsequently receive the usual torrent of online abuse and worse.

John McDonnell 'furious' over Labour list of Corbyn detractors Read more

This sorry episode crystallises for me, and I suspect for many of my colleagues and loyal party members, what is so dispiriting about the current leadership: a destructive combination of incompetence, deceit and menace. First, Corbyn’s office disowned the list, blaming a junior staff member for leaking it. (First rule of leadership: don’t blame the people you appoint.) Then Corbyn himself defended his list during the Sky leadership debate, at the same time – and without any sense of irony – as trying to portray himself as the “unity candidate” in our current leadership race.

On Thursday we were told Tom Watson had received an apology. Then we were told he hadn’t. Certainly none of the rest of us has. The latest twist at the time of writing is that John McDonnell is reported to be “furious”, saying the list should never have been sent out and wants to meet all the MPs named individually to apologise. We’ll see. We’ve heard this sort of thing from McDonnell before, only for him to go out to the next Momentum rally and call his fellow Labour MPs “fucking useless” and encourage Momentum supporters to demonstrate outside our offices. What has it got to do with McDonnell, anyway? He isn’t our leader, in whose name the list was published… is he?

I’m still waiting for a reply from Corbyn to my letter asking for an explanation and for him to substantiate the serious allegation made against me and others of abuse. The only possible explanation in my case is that Corbyn believes describing people who throw bricks through people’s windows and force meetings to be abandoned as “thugs” constitutes “abuse”, rather than an accurate description of people who use violence and intimidation for political ends.

This country desperately needs an effective and competent Labour opposition. These ghastly Tories with their grammar school mania, gerrymandering and Brexit chaos are so beatable. But Labour can’t and won’t do this with the current leadership. This “abusers’ list” fiasco is just the latest example, I’m afraid, of how Jeremy Corbyn is not a leader, and how he is not able or even interested in unifying our party.