Blairite MPs clashed with GMB leaders at a private meeting in Westminster this week over the union's decision to cut its Labour Party funding.

Former Scottish secretary Helen Liddell accused the general secretary, Kevin Curran, of trying to intimidate and blackmail and said he must derive his knowledge of the Labour government solely from reading the Mail.

"He seemed to be totally ignorant of what the government has achieved and seemed to think we are the government from hell," she said.

But in an article in the Guardian today, Curran hits back and warns that total disaffiliation from Labour remains a real option.

"There is a real possibility of Labour losing the election and the party falling apart unless there is that change in direction," he writes.