BURY South MP Ivan Lewis has explained how he was released from his role as Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, despite offering to stay on.

New Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has replaced him with Vernon Coaker.

Mr Lewis had served in the role since October 2013 and, due to the crisis at Stormont, said he would be happy to carry on in the short term.

He explained: "It's no secret that I have pretty fundamental differences with Jeremy Corbyn.

"However, given the fact that Northern Ireland is going through an unprecedented crisis, I felt the right thing to do was to stay in my job for the time being.

"I was heavily involved on a day-to-day basis with the issue and, as Labour oversaw the peace process, the party has a particular responsibility to Northern Ireland.

"The long conversation with Jeremy Corbyn on Sunday September 13 was very amicable, during which I had requested a meeting with him about anti-Semitism and he agreed to do that.

"He said he would consider what I'd said about staying in my role and come back to me later that night or in the coming days but, within five minutes of that conversation, I received a text message to say that he was appointing someone else. I was very surprised."

When asked about the fairness of that approach, Mr Lewis added: "That's a matter for him. It's for other people to judge what happened."