A FORMER Barrow MP has said he turned to drinking and eating 'too much' as he despaired at Jeremy Corbyn taking over the leadership of the Labour party.

John Woodcock, the former Labour MP who now sits in the House of Lords as Lord Walney, was a vocal critic of Mr Corbyn, who became party leader in 2015.

Lord Walney has now revealed just how much it upset him that Mr Corbyn was elected as leader.

Appearing on The Stepping Out of Line Podcast, he said: "The day of the result was deeply, deeply painful.

"You just didn't want any part of it.

"You want to do your job as the representative of your community, the rest of it I hated.

"I ate and drank way too much and was able to enrol in the Royal College of Defence Studies for a year.

"I just sort of despaired of Labour party politics."

Lord Walney was first elected as Barrow's MP in 2010 and was re-elected in 2015.

But he described his great surprise at winning again in 2017's snap general election, coming out on top by only 200 votes.

He told the podcast he was 'gobsmacked' by the result.

"I didn't think it would be possible to win as the Labour candidate," he said.

"[Jeremy Corbyn had] spent the last 40 years of his life opposing Trident nuclear weapons and would inevitably, no matter what ridiculous suggestions of alternative work for Barrow's shipyard and new uses for submarines, shut down the industry in my town."  

Mr Corbyn's Labour party later promised to renew the Trident nuclear deterrent and backed the Dreadnought submarine programme.

Lord Walney resigned from Labour in 2018, hitting out at 'manipulation' of an internal investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and continued as an independent MP.

Ahead of the 2019 election he chose not to stand again as he announced he was expecting a baby with his partner Isabel Hardman.

He urged people to vote Conservative to stop Jeremy Corbyn 'getting his hands on the levers of national security and defence'.