Emily Thornberry has said she will launch legal action against Caroline Flint – accusing her of "making up s***" about her in a television interview.

Ms Flint, who lost Don Valley by 3,630 votes on an almost 10% swing to the Tories, lashed out at the Shadow Foreign Secretary on Sunday for alleged comments during the campaign.

Ms Flint claimed Ms Thornberry would not have "any credibility" if she ran for leadership, telling Sky News: "She said to one of my colleagues, ‘I’m glad my constituents aren’t as stupid as yours’.

"I’m sorry, it’s not acceptable."

But Ms Thornberry vehemently denied the claim and said she would sue Ms Flint.

Speaking on Monday, Ms Thornberry said: "I've contacted her and I've said to her, please withdraw, I'll give you until the end of the day. And she hasn't. So I've had to go to solicitors.

"People can slag me off, as long as it's true, I can take it on the chin. But they can't make up s*** about me – and if they do, I have to take it to the courts."

• 
  Top MP accuses BBC of 'consciously playing a part' in Labour's election defeat

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  Labour mired in new civil war as Boris Johnson gets ready to gloat some more

Ms Flint, a Tony Blair loyalist and MP since 1997 who served on the front bench under him, Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband, has a long history of clashes with Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.

She was one of 19 Labour MPs who voted through the first stage of Boris Johnson's Brexit deal in October.

Her claims had echoes of an incident which forced Ms Thornberry to resign from Ed Miliband's shadow cabinet in 2014. The Islington South and Finsbury MP was accused of snobbery after tweeting a photo of a house in Strood, Kent, bedecked with England flags with the caption: "Image from Rochester".

Ms Flint today said she was "emotional" and "trying to stem my anger" as she accused Jeremy Corbyn of not taking enough personal responsibility for Labour's fall to 203 seats – its worst election defeat since 1935.

Wrexham, Labour since 1935, fell to the Tories as did Leigh after being in Labour's hands since 1922, former mining community Blyth Valley, Labour since 1950, and Tony Blair's old seat Sedgefield.

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