Doncaster MP Caroline Flint in Twitter spat with shadow chancellor John McDonnell

Following an appearance on the Sunday Politics, Caroline Flint has become embroiled in a war of words on social media with Labour's shadow chancellor John McDonnell over claims the Don Valley MP misquoted him.
Caroline FlintCaroline Flint
Caroline Flint

Speaking on the BBC One show, Ms Flint said the Labour Party needed to strive for greater success in the wake of last week's local election results.

The Labour Party backbencher continued by saying it was not enough for Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, to say the party needed to 'hang on'

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She said: "‘We need to make a hell of a lot more progress. It’s not enough. We have to show we are a party that is competitively challenging for government. We have to reach out beyond."

Following Ms Flint's comments, Mr McDonnell took to Twitter to criticise Ms Flint for misquoting him.

"Caroline Flint, you quoted me saying re recent elections "we are looking to hang on."I never said this. Could you now publicly correct this," posted Mr McDonnell.

Ms Flint replied with the following riposte: "Hard to answer tweets which aren't sent to me! But hey call me @johnmcdonnellMP - Shadow Chief Whip has my number. It's good to talk"

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"Pienaar's Politics 24 April @johnmcdonnellMP said 'hold on to as much as we possibly can'. I said 'hang'. Big deal."

Some have suggested this interaction marks a low point in Labour Party relations, criticising senior figures such as Mr McDonnell for using social media to discipline members instead of going through official party channels.