LABOUR politicians should “lay off” Jeremy Corbyn or “risk alienating swathes of supporters,” deputy leadership candidate Angela Eagle warned yesterday.

Ms Eagle used a blog on the grassroots website LabourList to defend the leftwinger from the onslaught he has faced from political has-beens.

She has been one of few senior figures to unequivocally state that she would serve in a shadow cabinet under Mr Corbyn’s leadership.

“The talk of coups, remarks about not serving in shadow cabinets and former prime ministers telling people to get ‘heart transplants’ have no place here,” she wrote.

“[Many] of of the questions Jeremy Corbyn has raised … are pertinent for the Labour Party’s future. The failure of ‘austerity-lite’ as a policy offer to the UK people in 2015, the need to reformulate the party’s political economic approach.”