General election 2019: Labour-Plaid Cymru spat over Welsh language 'slur'

Chris Bryant deleted his own video, saying: "I don't like the tone of attacking other candidates"

Former Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood has accused a Labour candidate of a "slur" against the Welsh language.

In a Facebook video Chris Bryant said his Plaid opponent in the Rhondda seat, Branwen Cennard, was "obsessed with the language".

Mr Bryant later told BBC Wales he had deleted the video because he did not like its "tone".

Welsh Labour said it was "ambitious for Wales and our Welsh language", saying Mr Bryant "clearly regrets" the video.

• Corbyn a Marmite figure, says Welsh Labour leader

• Labour 'silent' on Wales funding, says Plaid Cymru

• Most candidates choose not to publish home address

• Who is standing for election in my area?

In a video for the campaign, Mr Bryant said: "Here in the Rhondda of course it's quite specifically about who do we want to be the MP for the Rhondda.

"Who will we have confidence in when they stand up in the chamber of the House of Commons and make that argument for the Rhondda?

"Is it going to be the Plaid candidate, who is obsessed with the language and with independence for Wales?"

In response, Plaid Cymru's Rhondda assembly member Ms Wood tweeted: "I thought we had left these slurs against the Welsh language behind in the 1980s."

She later added: "The video appears to have been deleted. Does that mean he accepts his remarks were way out of order?

"Will @fmwales [Welsh Labour leader Mark Drakeford] now ask him to issue an apology?"

Leanne Wood: "I thought we had left these slurs against the Welsh language behind in the 1980s"

Mr Bryant told the BBC: "I thought to myself last night [after putting the video on Facebook], I don't like the tone of attacking other candidates.

"I've never done it before so why would I start now?

"So I took it down."

Asked if he regretted his comment about the language, Mr Bryant said he had nothing more to add.

Shadow cabinet member Nia Griffith told BBC Radio Cymru that her Labour colleague's comments were "not at all acceptable".

A Welsh Labour spokesman said: "Chris clearly regrets the tone in the video and has taken it down.

"We're ambitious for Wales and our Welsh language, which is why we want the number of people able to enjoy speaking and using Welsh to reach a million by 2050."

The other candidates standing in Rhondda are Rodney Berman for the Liberal Democrats, Conservative Hannah Jarvis, Shaun Thomas for the Greens and the Brexit Party's John Watkins.