Jeremy Corbyn says Jonathan Ashworth has his ‘full support’ and that his comments were ‘reverse psychology banter’

Jeremy Corbyn has insisted Jonathan Ashworth has his “full support” and that comments he made in clandestine recording were “reverse psychology banter”.

Mr Corbyn said that he was “cool with Jon”, after the shadow health secretary – a key ally – quickly called him following the recording’s publication on the Guido Fawkes website.

“This is Guido Fawkes tapping into a private bit of banter between two old friends,” Mr Corbyn said in an interview after addressing supporters in the Royal Scot Pub in the marginal seat of Carlisle.

“I’ve had a chat with Jon Ashworth; he called me straight away.

“He’s out there campaigning for a Labour government, he’s out there defending our NHS, and Jon has my full support and I’m cool with Jon, we get along great.

“He said to me it was all about reverse psychology banter – as in football supporters and the other person was saying the opposite about their party – and it all got a bit out of hand.”

Mr Ashworth was caught on tape  saying the situation facing Labour was “abysmal” because voters “can’t stand Corbyn” and think the party has “blocked Brexit”.

He also claimed that the Civil Service machine would “pretty quickly move to safeguard security” if Mr Corbyn entered Number 10.

He also claimed party MPs “f***** it up” in 2016 in their attempt to remove the Labour leader by acting “too early”.

Mr Ashworth later conceded that the leak made him “look like a right plonker”, but said he made the remarks while “joking around” with Tory friend Greig Baker.

Asked about the issue, Mr Corbyn dismissed the comments as “irrelevant” and  criticised the website that published the secretly-recorded conversation for diverting the debate away from the NHS.

“It’s not the kind of stuff I would do, not the kind of way I would talk to anybody but Jon’s called me and made it very, very clear and Jon has been a fantastic shadow secretary for health. He’s exposed what this Government’s doing,” Mr Corbyn said.

“And I suspect Guido Fawkes is quite keen to take the debate away from the state of the NHS and onto this. This is irrelevant. This issue is children being treated on the floors of hospitals, it is four million people waiting for operations.”

The Labour leader said Mr Ashworth’s comments were just an example of his “rather odd sense of humour”.

Pressed on suggestions in the recording that he was a security risk, Mr Corbyn said: “Jon and I have known each other for a very long time and he was actually making some jokes, a rather odd sense of humour surrounding it, but that is him.

“If you know Jon Ashworth like I do, he makes jokes the whole time.”

Mr Corbyn also questioned why the “private conversation” was recorded and leaked.​

Tory Party chairman James Cleverly said the remarks were an “honest and truly devastating assessment” of Mr Corbyn’s leadership “by one of his most trusted election lieutenants”.

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