Wes Streeting apologises for calling Corbyn

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has apologised to Jeremy Corbyn for calling the ex-Labour leader “senile”.

Mr Streeting said he made the comment “in jest” during a statement on the COP27 climate summit in Parliament.

In a tweet, he accepted the remark was “in poor taste” and said he had “dropped Jeremy a note directly to apologise for any offence caused”.

Mr Corbyn said he had been “subjected to an appalling and defamatory mental health slur” but noted the apology.

The Islington North MP – who now sits as an independent after being suspended as a member of the the Parliamentary Labour Party – said calling somebody senile was “not funny” and “very serious for people suffering from dementia”.

“The right thing for somebody in his position to do would be to issue a public apology to all those who may have been hurt by his comments,” said Mr Corbyn.

Mr Streeting, 39, made the comment as Mr Corbyn, 73, attempted to raise a point of order in the House of Commons, after being criticised by Rishi Sunak during Prime Minister’s Questions.

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle denied Mr Corbyn’s request and then asked MPs why he was raising a point of order.

In response, Mr Streeting can be heard saying: “It’s Jeremy Corbyn…. He’s going senile.”

Later on in the COP27 debate, Mr Corbyn said he was “grateful for my continued rent-free tenancy in the prime minister’s head but if he could just let me know when he intends to speak about me that’d be helpful”.

He raised the same point in Parliament last week, when Mr Sunak attacked the current Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer over his support for Mr Corbyn ahead of the last general election.

Mr Corbyn was suspended as a Labour MP by Sir Keir in 2020 over his reaction to a highly critical report on anti-Semitism within the party.

His supporters have urged Sir Keir to reinstate him so that he can stand as a Labour candidate at the next general election.

But some on the right of the party, including Mr Streeting, have said he should not be allowed to return to the Labour benches.

Mr Streeting has been a persistent critic of Mr Corbyn, once warning that continuing with his policies would have threatened Labour’s existence.

There has been a strong reaction to Mr Streeting’s comment on Twitter, with supporters of Mr Corbyn accusing the shadow health secretary of insulting the former Labour leader.

Andrew Fisher, Labour’s director of policy under Mr Corbyn, said Mr Streeting had used “old age as a slur”, calling his use of the word “grim”.

Samuel Sweek, a Labour councillor in Cambridgeshire, said Mr Streeting “owes Jeremy Corbyn and millions of others an apology for this offensive remark”.

Reports /TrainViral/