JOHN McDONNELL urged beleaguered Blairite MP Luciana Berger today to clarify that she will not “jump ship” to another party after a vote of no confidence was tabled against her.

The local Labour Party branch in Ms Berger’s constituency, Liverpool Wavertree, had organised an extraordinary general meeting next weekend to discuss two no confidence motions – but this is now off as the motions have been withdrawn.

Right-wing Labour MPs such as Yvette Cooper and Lucy Powell have publicly shown support for Ms Berger, with several alleging that anti-semitism has motivated opposition to Ms Berger in her local constituency. And Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson appealed to general secretary Jennie Formby to suspend the local party, claiming that its attempt to hold Ms Berger to account for her threats to desert Labour was a form of bullying.

The shadow chancellor told Sky News that local Labour members in Liverpool seem more concerned with her constant attacks on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

This week, on ITV’s Peston, Ms Berger refused to rule out leaving Labour for a widely anticipated new party supposedly to be led by Chris Leslie and Chuka Umunna.

Speaking on Sky News, Mr McDonnell said: “If people are saying ‘look, we are expressing a vote of no confidence because Luciana has stood up and exposed anti-semitism in our party,’ that would be completely wrong and, of course, we would say that is not right.

“But it looks as though there’s other issues.

“It seems on social media, from what I’ve seen, what’s happened is Luciana has been associated in the media with a breakaway party.

“Some local party members, the media, have asked her to deny that. She hasn’t been clear in that.

“My advice really, on all of this, is for Luciana to just put this issue to bed — say very clearly ‘no, I’m not supporting another party, I’m not jumping ship’.”

Mr McDonnell also urged local party members to “sit down” with Ms Berger and “overcome the present difficulties.”

Ms Berger, who has represented Wavertree since 2010, has been a vocal critic of Mr Corbyn’s handling of Brexit and has also attacked the leader for allegedly tolerating anti-semitism in the party. She was among the “white posse” of MPs who marched on a hearing of the National Constitutional Committee of the party last April demanding – successfully – that black anti-racist activist Marc Wadsworth be expelled for having accused a Labour MP of working with the Daily Telegraph.