Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has apologised “unreservedly” for calling Conservatives “scum” during her party’s conference in Brighton last month.

In a lengthy statement posted to her social media accounts, Ms Rayner said she would not use the same language again having “reflected” in recent weeks.

The Ashton-under-Lyne MP has been away from Westminster over the last two weeks following the death of a loved one.

And she said she had used the time away from the “cut and thrust” of parliament to consider “our political debate and the threats and abuse that now seem to feature all too often”.

It came hours after court sentenced a man for sending a threatening email to Ms Rayner.

When first quizzed about her comments, made during an evening event at Labour’s Brighton conference in September, Ms Rayner had initially refused to apologise.

But, in the statement she shared on Thursday evening, the Labour frontbencher said: “While I have been away from the cut and thrust of parliament I have reflected on our political debate and the threats and abuse that now seem to feature all too often.

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“I have also reflected on what I said at an event at Labour Party conference. I was angry about where our country is headed and policies that have made life harder for so many people I represent.

“But I would like to unreservedly apologise for the language I used, and I would not use it again.

“I will continue to speak my mind, stand up for Labour values and hold the government to account. But in the future I will be more careful about how I do that and in the language that I choose.

“All of us in positions of leadership have a responsibility for our language and rhetoric, whether towards political opponents or anyone else in society, especially those already most vulnerable.”

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