THE battle for the Labour Party leadership has exposed divisions within the party in Hampshire.

Southampton MP Alan Whitehead has written to party members explaining why he stood down from leader Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench team.

But members in the Itchen constituency have backed a motion to support Mr Corbyn in the wake of opposition from more than 170 of his MPs.

Former shadow business secretary Angela Eagle launched her, following mass resignations from his shadow cabinet and frontbench team in relation to criticism of his leadership.

As previously reported, Dr Whitehead stood down as shadow energy and climate change minister and called on Mr Corbyn to consider his position, before saying he would back Ms Eagle in a leadership contest.

He has since sent a letter to party members in Southampton explaining his decision, and saying that a leadership contest “could be the making or breaking of the Party that I have been a member of for 40 years”.

However some are unhappy that the letter was sent to members outside of his constituency, in Itchen.

At a recent meeting of the Itchen Constituency Labour Party (CLP), a motion supporting Mr Corbyn was backed by 22 members to 15 opposing.

The motion, moved by party member and Unite regional political officer Ian Woodland, called on the CLP to “re-affirm its support” for Mr Corbyn, and called on the leader’s opponents in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) to stop its “divisive and distracting” challenge and “focus instead on dealing with the aftermath of the EU Referendum result”.

Mr Woodland, who said that he spoke only in his capacity as a party member and not as a representative of the union, said MPs were guilty of a “childish and pedantic way of dealing with their disagreement with the leader”.

He said they were “going against members”, adding that members’ votes “needed to be respected”.

Cllr John Noon, chairman of the Itchen CLP, declined to comment, saying he “did not discuss internal matters within the Labour Party with the press”.

The Daily Echo was unable to contact Dr Whitehead.

In Winchester, local party chairman Richard James has apologised for pledging his branch’s support to Mr Corbyn without consulting members and before a vote was held.

In an email on June 30, Mr James wrote that the local party “stands behind” Mr Corbyn, saying blame directed at him “would seem by many to be excessive”.

But he backtracked in an email sent on Thursday, writing that his motivation was “to provide leadership and some anchorage, calling for solidarity and unity in a period that felt like a tempest”, before apologising for having sent out the message before consultation.