Coogan - Tom Watson's team 'seemed to hate' Jeremy Corbyn

The Corbynite comic said his daughter Clare Coogan Cole, who works for the West Bromwich East MP, told him the deputy leader’s team wanted Mr Corbyn to ‘fall flat on his face’ in the election.

He said 21-year-old Ms Coogan repeatedly rowed with Mr Watson’s team over its lack of support for the Labour leader.

When Labour did better than expected on polling day, Mr Coogan said West Bromwich East MP Watson apologised to politics student Clare.

"Clare was campaigning for Tom Watson in the Midlands and she kept ringing me to complain," he said.

"She was upset because of the way people in the campaign were behaving. There were only two people who were pro-Corbyn in the whole campaign team.

"Others seemed to hate Jeremy, and they were saying scornful things like: “Oh! He’s on TV tonight – I hope he falls flat on his face."

Ms Coogan told her father she was getting really fed up with it and having arguments with them.

"She rang me up and said: “I’m really upset and I don’t want to do this anymore."

Mr Coogan, who visited Mr Watson at Labour's West Midlands headquarters in West Bromwich in the days before the election, said he advised her to ‘stick at it’ and ‘stay true to your principles’.

He added: ‘As the Election results came in, she saw her loyalty and determination had paid off.

"They were expecting loads of seats to be lost, and then the exit poll came in and the faces of the anti-Corbyn brigade were the epitome of mixed feelings.

"The best part of the whole campaign for her was that Tom Watson was just about to go off to do his speech at his constituency count.

"In front of all the other campaigners, he turned and saw that Clare was smiling. He stopped. He made everyone listen and said: “Clare, I just want to say, you were right and everyone else was wrong.”

Mr Watson was unavailable for comment.