LABOUR’S John McDonnell demanded an apology yesterday from Tory chairman Grant Shapps for urging his suspension over a misunderstood “call” to lynch Employment Minister Esther McVey.

The Conservative told opposition leader Ed Miliband that the party “must withdraw the whip from John McDonnell and must do it right now.”

Hayes and Harlington leftwinger Mr McDonnell was subjected to a vicious Daily Mail attack following a speech at a charity event where he reported one of Ms McVey’s constituents demanding: “Why aren’t we lynching the bastard,” over her part in welfare cuts.

Mr McDonnell initially shrugged off the article, declaring it a “badge of honour” to be attacked by the paper that supported the fascist Blackshirts in the 1930s.

But after the Tory chair’s letter went public he hit back, demanding that Mr Shapps “stop peddling untruths about me.”

Mr Shaps told Labour: “If you fail to take immediate action, the public will reach their own conclusions about your own leadership.”

But Mr McDonnell replied: “You claim in this letter that I ‘advocated the lynching of Welfare Minister Esther McVey’.”

And he retorted: “This is absolutely untrue.

“If you had cared to check your facts you will have known that I was reporting what had been said at a meeting in Ms McVey’s constituency by her own constituents, nothing more.

“If you fail to take immediate action, the public will reach their own conclusions about your motives.”