Jeremy Corbyn's New Press Secretary Attacked 'Out Of Date' Media Before Deleting Twitter Account

Jeremy Corbyn's new media handler blasted "predictable, shallow and out of date" attacks on the new Labour leader on Twitter, before deleting his account.

The Labour Party confirmed former union communications officer Kevin Slocombe has been installed as interim press spokesman for Mr Corbyn, who has come under fire for his handling of the media in his first five days in charge.

While his Twitter account appeared to have been deleted, Google had stored two recent tweets.

Mr Slocombe was head of communications of the postal and telecoms union CWU, and is the latest appointment in a beefed-up backroom operation. His views on the mainstream media, who have attacked him mercilessly, appear to square with those of his new boss.

In an exclusive interview with The Huffington Post in the immediate aftermath of his victory on Saturday, Mr Corbyn said that much of the media - and even MPs - were out of touch with most voters’ daily lives.

“I think the role of electronic and social media is absolutely massive. The way of doing politics is seen as very out of date,” he said.

“MPs are a bit cut off. But if I may say so, some of the editorial rooms in some of our broadsheet newspapers are even more cut off. They simply do not understand what’s going on out there. They just don’t get it.

“The majority of people don’t buy a newspaper, they read bits on line and self-inform online and so we have to reach out in a different way.

"And our campaign has been very much social media orientated. My personal Twitter account now has 104,000 followers, our Facebook is 124,000 likes.

“So those kind of numbers are enormous and of course the re-tweeting and re-sending makes it massive.”

Mr Corbyn praised The HuffPost UK, many of whose readers have joined his campaign, for its coverage of the leadership contest.

“I’d like to thank The Huffington Post for the responsible way in which you’ve reported this campaign," he said.

Mr Slocombe's appointment follows handing former Ken Livingstone aide Neale Coleman the role of Labour's new head of policy and rebuttal.

He links up with Simon Fletcher, formerly Mr Livingstone's chief of staff at City Hall and one of the masterminds behind Mr Corbyn's campaign.

Right-leaning newspapers have delighted in the Labour leader's troubled appointment of a Shadow Cabinet and not singing the national anthem at the Battle of Britain.