A key ally of Jeremy Corbyn has suggested moderate Labour MPs who blame Russia for spy poisoning are "enemies" who should be deselected. Chris Williamson, the Labour MP for Derby North, said Labour MPs who had decided Moscow was “unequivocally” to blame were “baying for blood” and suggested they face de-selection. Mr Corbyn, the Labour leader, is under intense pressure over his repeated failure this week to condemn directly Russia for carrying out a nerve agent attack in the UK. Splits have emerged between Mr Corbyn and key members of his shadow cabinet who have unequivocably backed Theresa May’s handling of the Salisbury poisoning crisis. By last night 33 Labour MPs had signed a Commons motion “unequivocally accepts the Russian state's culpability for the poisoning of Yulia and Sergei Skripal in Salisbury using the illegal novichok nerve agent”. Some are now set to try to table a motion of no confidence in Seumas Milne, the Labour party’s communications chief who is blamed for Mr Corbyn’s moderate line on Russia, at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday evening. Labour MP Chris Williamson Mr Williamson was speaking to a meeting of the Momentum campaign group in Ealing, west London, on Thursday evening, according to a report on the Huffington Post website. He said: “I don’t know if anyone saw the debate in the House of Commons yesterday, my God, it was unbelievable. “I mean these characters, they are like baying for blood. Some of them would be quite happy were we to enter into a hot war. “Regrettably we have a few on our own benches who are like-minded, 18 of them have signed an Early Day Motion saying they unequivocally accept Russia are responsible for the attack.” Mr Williamson said the poisoning was an “appalling incident” which the UK “certainly can’t tolerate on British soil”. But added: “It’s far from certain, it seems to me, that it was ordered by the Kremlin.” Mr Williamson – who quit the Labour frontbench team in January after calling for council taxes to be doubled on expensive homes - issued a strong defence of Corbyn and threatened Labour MPs who didn’t support the leader with de-selection. He said: “It’s exactly the sort of response you want from a leader, rather than the knee-jerk response you are getting from the Tories and one or two on our own benches. “It would definitely be helpful, I think, for our own people on the green benches to actually fall in behind the leader’s very statesmanlike and measured response. “It only helps our political enemies. But frankly I see them as political enemies as well. “I have been advocating for a long time now for mandatory re-selection. “We mustn’t allow the tiny minority of irrelevant malcontents that sit on the green benches on the House of Commons to deter party members.” “To be honest with you I’d be quite happy if some of them b*****ed off. “The likes of John Woodcock and Ian Austin and people like that, God, it’s so depressing.” Mr Woodcock, the MP for Barrow and Furness, and Austin, the MP for Dudley North, are both critics of Corbyn’s leadership. Mr Woodcock said that his colleague “used to be such a sweet fellow”. Ian Austin MP, far right, with Harriet Harman Credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Mr Austin told The Daily Telegraph: “Last night, tonight and tomorrow night I have been out there knocking on doors to persuade people to vote Labour in the local elections. “I have spent this week campaigning against rough sleeping, against cuts which have hit council services and the police in Dudley. That is what I think people in Dudley think I should be concentrating on.” The Labour leader had used an article in The Guardian newspaper today to urge Mrs May not to “rush way ahead of the evidence”. On Thursday, shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith said Mr Corbyn's statement had made it more difficult to focus on how to respond to Russia. The father in law of Nick Bailey, the Salisbury policeman who suffered the effects of the nerve agent used in the poisoning criticised Mr Corbyn’s "mealy mouthed" response to the attack.
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