Guardian, 18 hours ago,

Jeremy Corbyn has been plunged into another row over bullying within the Labour party after more than 40 of his female MPs signed a letter calling for him to do more to combat "an extremely worrying trend of escalating abuse and hostility".

Earlier on Friday Corbyn was obliged to deny that he had sought to intimidate another of his MPs by threatening to telephone the man's father to seek his intervention in a row.

The open letter addressed to Corbyn, tweeted by the Dewsbury MP Paula Sherriff and signed by her and 43 colleagues, condemns the Labour leader for what they call an inadequate response to threats and demonstrations by groups who support him in his battle with a rebellious parliamentary party.

It expresses alarm that the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, and other shadow ministers have addressed rallies where demonstrations outside MPs' offices or bullying at constituency Labour party meetings have been "actively encouraged or quietly condoned".

The strongly worded letter says MPs have experienced rape threats, death threats and other incidents, amid a climate of worry following the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox in June. It adds that female and non-white MPs have been "disproportionately affected" by the abuse.