Turkey coup: Labour MP Jon Trickett apologises for joke about attempted power grab

The party's election coordinator appeared to liken Turkey's coup to attempts to oust Jeremy Corbyn

Demonstrators take to the streets as tanks roll through Ankara (Reuters)

A Labour MP has apologised for a joke likening the attempted overthrow of Jeremy Corbyn to the bloody attempted coup in Turkey.

Jon Trickett, Labour’s election coordinator, had tweeted: “Coup organised by a small group against an elected leader fails because of lack of rank and file support.”

The tweet was sent on Saturday morning as the circumstances of the attempted military coup in Turkey against the Erdogan government became clear and the death toll mounted.

Mr Trickett attracted criticism for the tweet from other Labour MPs. Michael Dugher, a Labour MP who resigned from Mr Corbyn’s frontbench, said:

“As death toll rises to 90, I'm sure Jon Trickett will reflect and realise this comparison is not clever and not funny.”

Mr Trickett deleted the tweet and apologised shortly after, adding: “Okay okay. Tweet deleted and withdrawn. Shouldn't tweet when feeling I'll. I apologise sincerely”.

Turkey's acting military chief Umit Dundar said this morning that 104 people involved in an attempted military coup had been killed and 1,563 arrested in a night of explosions and gunfire in Ankara, Istanbul and other cities.