The Rochdale MP said the scale of the rebellion was “larger that you think because the whips allowed a number of people to pair and not to vote”.
He added: “You are probably looking at 30 in reality.”
Some Labour MPs are talking about mounting a leadership challenge to Mr Corbyn at next year’s party conference. One said: “A leadership contest next year is possible but not certain.
“If it was up to MPs he would be gone in a jiffy, but party members will have to see for themselves first that he is shaping up to be a disaster.”
Last night’s vote — which passed by 320 to 258 — was held on whether to back or reject a Charter for Budget Responsibility, drawn up by Chancellor George Osborne to set in law his policy of running budget surpluses in “normal” times. Labour said this would make austerity permanent.
The party’s embarrassment increase after the shadow city minister, Richard Burgon, appeared to admit he had not had any recent meetings with any City firms.
In an interview with Channel 4, he was asked: “What is the deficit going to be this year?”
Mr Burgon replied: “Well. I’m not an economic, erm. I’m not somebody who’s gonna put a figure in a crystal ball on what the deficit’s gonna be at the end of the year.” The figures are published in the government forecasts.
Asked when he last went into a City firm he said: “Well I was only appointed to this role a number of weeks ago. Parliament has been in recess…”
Asked if he had fixed any meetings with the City, he answered: “I’ve got a very busy diary as you can imagine.”
