Mr Corbyn's leadership rival Owen Smith has compared Mr Corbyn's suggestion that all Labour MPs could face reselection, if boundary changes are in place before 2020, to working practices at Sports Direct.

As a Commons committee, external accuses the retailer of not treating its workers like humans, Mr Smith drew the comparison with his own boss.

Asked about Mr Corbyn's comments in an interview with Sky News, Mr Smith said: "It's not kinder and gentler, is it, if you're the boss of an organisation and the workers are unhappy to threaten to give them the sack? It's the sort of thing you might expect to see at Sports Direct but it's not what you should be expecting in the Labour Party".

He also criticised "a worrying change in the culture of some people in the party" since Mr Corbyn became leader, saying Angela Eagle - who had also challenged for the Labour leadership had been subject to "absolutely disgraceful abuse" and that he and others had received death threats. 

Something had "gone badly wrong under his watch," he said.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said he "regrets" language used by Angela Eagle - who had challenged him for the leadership - when she claimed he had allowed a "permissive environment" in which she was subject to threats.

Ms Eagle told the Telegraph, external Mr Corbyn had been "stirring" and should be held to account. 

But the Labour leader said he had made it "absolutely clear" that abusive language had "absolutely no place in our political discourse".

Image source, AFP

While Jeremy Corbyn's Labour critics argue that he can't win a general election, his team say they are building an "election winning operation, based on digitally empowered grassroots networks and distributed organising, on a scale and depth unseen in British politics".

A leadership campaign event in Salford, Greater Manchester on Saturday, which they say will be attended by nearly 2,000 supporters, will coincide with simultaneous events in London, Bristol, Nottingham, Birmingham, Liverpool, Hull, Glasgow and Cambridge, they say.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn's bid to be re-elected as leader - in the face of a challenge from Owen Smith - said: 

Image source, Getty Images

In Brexit news, Wales' First Minister Carwyn Jones is to meet counterparts from Scotland and Northern Ireland for a special summit to discuss the fallout from the EU referendum.

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny and government representatives from Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man will also be at the British-Irish Council meets in Cardiff on Friday.

Among things on the table for discussion are replacements for EU funding and when exactly the UK would leave the union.

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Jeremy Corbyn's team have denied claims in a bizarre story from Politics Home, external in which Labour MP for St Helens North Conor McGinn says he had been told that Jeremy Corbyn considered phoning his father as a way of putting pressure on him.

Mr McGinn said the incident followed an interview he did with The House Magazine, in which he says he "respectfully suggested that he [Mr Corbyn] had a challenge to reach out beyond his comfort zone" to traditional Labour voters.

He said the Whips Office later informed him that, in considering how to respond to the interview, Mr Corbyn "had said that he intended to ring my father to discuss it with him and ask him to speak to me about it".

He added:

Mr McGinn goes on to say that it was seeing Mr Corbyn's Newsnight interview last night, in which he talked about a "kinder gentler politics" that prompted him to go public about it.

 A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: "What Conor McGinn is saying is untrue."

Labour's Harriet Harman has been on the Today programme - as chair of the joint committee on human rights, she's been asked about its report suggesting the government reconsider its strategy on extremism.

But inevitably, she's also been asked to comment on her party's leadership, as Jeremy Corbyn fights off a challenge from Owen Smith.

Yesterday Mr Corbyn said, if the next general election takes place on revised constituency boundaries: "There would be a full selection process in every constituency but the sitting MP... would have an opportunity to put their name forward."

That has been seen by some as a threat of deselection to his MPs, the majority of whom do not back him - Mr Corbyn's team say he was simply setting out existing rules.

But Ms Harman said: "Either way, it's more of driving a wedge between different parts of the party, setting the members against MPs, setting MPs against members.

She added:

Chancellor Philip Hammond has suggested the government might "reset fiscal policy" if needed, following the UK's decision to leave the EU.

In China for talks with financial and political leaders, he said there were "huge opportunities for collaboration" between the two countries, particularly on China's growing financial services sector.

"We see the opportunity to coin a phrase - to create a genuine win-win partnership between the established and mature financial services markets of London and the dynamic growing financial services sector in China," the chancellor said.

BBC economics editor Kamal Ahmed said the chancellor had effectively "dropped a small grenade" and signalled he is considering a radical approach to boost the UK economy, if needed.

Mr Hammond said: 

Image source, EPA

Jeremy Corbyn has told the BBC he "deeply regrets" Angela Eagle's comments in the Telegraph.

Asked about Ms Eagle's criticism of a "permissive environment" in which she has cancelled constituency surgeries over safety fears, he told BBC Radio 5 live:  "I deeply regret the language that Angela is using there. 

"As soon as I heard about the brick that was thrown through part of the building where her office is I called her and called her office immediately, expressed my regret for what had happened and absolutely condemned it."

He said he did "absolutely not" feel responsible for what had happened.

Image source, PA

Angela Eagle, who had challenged Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership before standing aside for Owen Smith, has criticised Mr Corbyn after she cancelled her constituency surgeries over safety fears.

She told the Telegraph, external she had feared for her staff after a brick was thrown through the window of the building her office is based in, and  a death threat.

The Labour MP for Wallasey told the newspaper: "I think he [Mr Corbyn] has contributed to this. It's all very well to condemn it, but there's a permissive environment. You can make any number of ritual condemnations as you like but you have got to be judged by your actions, not just words."

She added:

Good morning from a damp Westminster. Welcome back to our live text commentary. In the news so far this morning:

The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee have accused Sports Direct of not treating its workers like humans.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has urged allies fighting the so-called Islamic State group to do more to gather evidence of war crimes.  

And the Joint Committee on Human Rights says the government should reconsider its strategy on fighting extremism.

Chancellor Philip Hammond is in Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders. Our economics editor Kamal Ahmed has written about whether he might change the UK's fiscal direction, following the Brexit vote.

The main political stories of the day:

• Jeremy Corbyn has urged Labour MPs to "get behind the party" as he launched his campaign to be re-elected leader
• Mr Corbyn's Labour leadership rival, Owen Smith, accused him of "threatening to sack" MPs, following his comments about candidate selections
• French President Francois Hollande says the UK's EU exit should begin soon - but accepts the UK needs time to prepare
• Jeremy Corbyn ally Diane Abbott has accused Labour MPs of deliberately undermining the party leader by refusing to cheer him at Prime Minister's Questions
• And newly-released files show that Margaret Thatcher's senior aides used photos of a baby Prince William to try to distract attention from a 1983 anti-nuclear march - and the former PM considered suing BBC Radio 4's Today programme for libel