WELL-known figures from the Labour party have sent 'unsolicited' text messages to Lib Dem leader and south Cumbria MP, Tim Farron, he has claimed.

Mr Farron believes the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader provides an opportunity to revive his party by wooing centre-left moderates.

Hinting at the prospect of defections, he said he has received unsolicited text messages from well-known Labour figures "distressed" about the direction Mr Corbyn was taking them. 

Writing in the Guardian, Mr Farron said Mr Corbyn's victory "potentially changes everything" for the Lib Dems' fortunes. 

"Over the past few days I have received a number of messages and calls from friends within the Labour party distressed by the direction that their party is taking. 

"To the right, I have talked to a new Conservative MP taken aback by the attitudes that they have encountered within their own party." 

The result, he said, was "the opening up of a massive space in the centre ground of British politics, for sensible, moderate progressives who are opposed to what the Conservatives are doing, but cannot bring themselves to support a party of the hard left".

The Lib Dem leader heads to the conference in Bournemouth aiming to rally his grassroots after the mauling the party suffered in the general election, when it lost all but eight seats prompting Nick Clegg's resignation as leader. 

Speaking to the Guardian about the claims, John Woodcock, the Labour MP for Barrow and Furness, said: “Every Labour MP I know thinks the Liberal Democrats have lost all credibility for good and also despises Tim Farron. I think he is the last person my colleagues would confide in if they were distressed about the direction of the Labour party.”

Speaking to the Evening Mail, he later reflected: "I was perhaps more publicly blunt with Tim than I ought to have been. With a few exceptions he and I have generally worked well together.

"But I am fed up with the way George Osborne and now the Lib Dems have been stoking up a false sense that Labour MPs might consider leaving their party. 

"Tim Farron and anyone else can stir all they like; my fellow MPs could no more abandon Labour and the great causes for which we stand, than we could disown our family."

A Lib Dem spokesman said: "These are strange and highly inaccurate comments from John Woodcock. 

"Tim has always been one of those rare MPs who seeks to work alongside people from all parties, and who chooses not to make personal attacks on people. 

"He won't be holding John Woodcocks remarks against him. Life is too short."