LEN McCLUSKEY branded Tom Watson a “disgrace” on Saturday for attacking Labour’s general secretary Jennie Formby in the national press.

Speaking at the Durham Miners’ Gala, the Unite general secretary lashed out the Labour deputy leader for his public attacks on Ms Formby over the party’s handling of anti-semitism allegations.

To loud cheers, he said: “The attacks on Jennie would be wrong in normal circumstances, but when they are in the circumstances where she is battling cancer, they are unacceptable.

“I have a message to Tom and his friends in the media — you should be fucking well ashamed of yourself.”

Later on, Mr McCluskey tweeted: “I’ve said it today at the Durham Miners’ Gala, so I’ll repeat it here.

“Attacking a woman going through chemotherapy — Tom Watson you are a fucking disgrace.”

After calling Tory frontbenchers a “reactionary ragbag brigade who are entirely unrepresentative of the country,” Mr McCluskey described the inequality in County Durham caused by austerity.

However, he also urged the crowd to “reject” calls for a culture war that would see Labour representing “the big cities against the rest,” saying: “I believe in class struggle, not culture war.”

He added that the problems in the north of England “were caused when we were in the European Union, and will not be solved by leaving or remaining.

“[They] will be solved by the choice of government in this country.”

Meanwhile, two former Labour officials interviewed for last Wednesday’s Panorama programme on the anti-semitism row threatened to sue the party for defamation over its response to the documentary.