Jeremy Corbyn is attempting to ‘wreck’ Keir Starmer’s leadership, claims David Miliband

Jeremy Corbyn’s allies over the weekend claimed that ‘it’s not impossible that Jeremy Corbyn might now be in his third year as a Labour prime minister were it not for the unauthorised, unilateral action taken by a handful of senior party officials.’

The Guardian claims to have seen claims from Corbyn along with former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and seven other former shadow ministers and aides saying there is ‘overwhelming evidence’ of sabotage.

The submissions were made to an investigation that followed a leaked 860-page document from Corbyn’s team which points to have evidence of how his critics in the party ran a hostile campaign in 2017.

The officials claim it selectively quoted them to portray them in a negative light, and are suing the party for breach of data protection and libel.

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Keir Starmer had previously called for Labour to end its ‘factionalism’ after the report was leaked.

He said at the time: ‘Our party needs to unite and face the future and get back to our historic purpose, which is getting a Labour government in so that we can actually change lives for millions of people for the better.’

Now David Miliband has hit back at the claims, saying that his allies were in ‘denial’ over the fact they had led the party to its worst result for more than 80 years.

‘This is a pure wrecking tactic from Jeremy Corbyn and the Corbynite’s denial after four successive defeats is a route to more defeats,’ he told Times Radio.

He added: ‘We learnt that after 1992, we got out of denial and we won in ’97. Actually, we won three elections on the trot.

‘When people got to look at Labour in 2017, we couldn’t beat the worst Tory campaign in history… and then when people got the full measure of Jeremy Corbyn in 2019, he led us to the worst election defeat since the 1930s. So it’s a wrecking tactic, and I hope people understand it for what it is.’

Corbyn supporters have previously claimed he was just 2,227 votes from winning in 2017, but experts have dismissed the numbers suggesting it ignores the fact that only 50 switched votes could have also given Theresa May a majority.