WATCH: Jenny Chapman calls for withdrawal of data breach allegation

Chair of Keir Starmer’s leadership campaign Jenny Chapman has called for the withdrawal of the allegation of a data breach by members of his team.

Speaking to the BBC, she said that the general secretary of the Labour Party should intervene to withdraw the accusation.

Chapman said the campaign had been accused of a “criminal act” but said that there is “no evidence to support that allegation because it just simply didn’t happen”.

She told the BBC that the “allegation needs to be withdrawn because it’s unfair” and said it was not right that the names of the individuals accused have ended up in the public domain.

Her comments come after members of Starmer’s campaign team were reported to the Information Commissioner by the party for allegedly hacking into the membership database.

Over the weekend, a spokesperson for the campaign said: “We categorically reject these nonsensical allegations and are incredibly disappointed that they have been leaked to the media.”

Starmer has strongly denied claims that members of his team engaged in “data-scraping” and obtaining data from the Labour Party software, Dialogue.

Vice chair of the campaign David Lammy appeared on BBC Radio 4 today to tell listeners that there were “absolutely no substance” to the “scurrilous” allegations.

The leadership candidates are not supposed to be given access to the party’s membership data until after the window for local party and affiliated organisation nominations has closed, which will be on February 14th.