A constituency Labour Party have rubbished claims by a County Durham MP who claimed they wanted him to defect to the party.
Richard Holden claimed the North West Durham Constituency Labour Party (CLP) had briefed The Times that he was planning to swap the Conservatives for Labour.
It comes after Bury South MP Christian Wakeford sensationally ditched the Tories right before PMQs in the wake of the partygate scandal.
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Mr Holden's neighbouring MP Dehenna Davison also denied claims she was planning to leave the party.
In a Tweet, Mr Holden wrote: "The dear comrades at @NWDurhamLabour want me to join and have been briefing @thetimes to this end."
He also shared a picture of his response to an unknown contact who asked him to confirm the rumours of his defection were inaccurate.
Mr Holden wrote: "It's flattering that North West Durham Labour Party know that the only person who could win with a Labour rosette on is me.
"Sadly for them, I'll keep winning for North West Durham constituents on Shotley Bridge Hospital, better transport links, more police, and building back better from the coronavirus pandemic under the Conservative Party banner, which I've been a member of for over two decades."
However, North West Durham CLP's chairman, Pat Glass, rubbished the story.
She said: "Richard Holden should get on with his job, which is working for the people of North West Durham and not himself.
"I would remind him that he is yet to generate £1 of levelling up funding for this constituency that was not well underway long before he was elected MP."
A recent 'poll of polls' by Britain Elects, aggregating all opinion polls, showed that Tory support has fallen by 9% since the 2019 election while Labour's has gone up 7% in the wake of partygate.
Those figures would see 24 Labour MPs returned in the North East and just five Tories, with the North West Durham seat among those to return to Labour's hands.
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