JEREMY Corbyn’s campaign said they have reported a man they claim is a Labour activist to the police over an alleged assault on a member of their team.
A female member of the former Labour leader’s team, which is now running his campaign to be elected as an independent, said she was approached by a rival party activist outside the Tufnell Park Tavern in Islington, north London on Thursday.
She claimed to have been “punched” in the chest by a “50-something-year old” man “twice my size”.
The National has been told the man were filming a group of Corbyn canvassers. A source said: “He stayed there and intimidated us for over half a hour.
“I asked him to stop filming and blocked the view of his camera with my outstretched palm. I didn’t touch him. He then punched me in the chest, which is why someone called the police.”
The man is said to have arrived shortly before 11am and stuck the candidate around 11.15am. The source said the man refused to leave until just before midday.
Jewish News reporter Lee Harpin, who is a fierce critic of Corbyn, reported a counterclaim from the Labour campaign.
He said that a member of Corbyn’s team was “facing allegations of common assault and attempted mobile phone theft after allegedly approaching an elderly Labour activist”.
Harpin, who was named in the Prince Harry phone hacking case as the “dauphin of phone hacking,” claimed the Corbyn campaigner was “allegedly repeatedly harassing” the Labour activist at which point he “pushed her away after she attempted to take his phone”.
Corbyn is running for re-election in Islington North, the constituency he has represented since 1983, against the party he led between 2015 and 2020.
Labour leader Keir Starmer (above) suspended Corbyn from the parliamentary party for claiming reports of antisemitism under his leadership were overstated for political reasons.
He was booted from Labour, the party he had joined nearly 60 years ago, earlier this year when he announced he was running as an independent.
A Met Police spokesperson said: “Police were called at around 13:13hrs on Thursday, June 27 to a report of an assault on Tufnell Park Road, N7.
“Officers spoke to the victim who reported she had been handing out leaflets when she was approached by a member of the public and punched. Enquiries remain ongoing. No arrests have been made.”
