COPELAND MP Jamie Reed has launched a ferocious verbal attack on his party leader Jeremy Corbyn during yesterday's parliamentary debate on the Trident nuclear deterrent.

He described Mr Corbyn - a long-time anti-nuclear campaigner - as “reckless, juvenile, and narcissistic”.

Mr Reed, and Barrow MP John Woodcock joined dozens of Labour rebels who defied their leader by voting with the government to back renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system.

The Government won an easy majority for renewal of the £31b system, with 472 MPs voting in favour and 117 against.

In his comments, Mr Reed told Mr Corbyn that backing Trident was current Labour Party policy, thought a review of this policy is currently underway.

Rounding on his leader, the Copeland MP said: “I will support my party’s policy tonight.

“But for the first time ever, we have witnessed the leader of the Labour party stand at the Dispatch Box and argue against the policy of the party that he leads.

“That is unprecedented.

"Moreover, this reckless, juvenile, narcissistic irresponsibility makes me fearful for the future of the party that I love.

“The sheer stupidity of this approach should be dragged out into the light and seen for what it is, because renewal is not only Labour party policy but the settled will of the country, and every parliamentary decision relating to it will have been taken by 2020.“

Mr Woodcock also passionately supported renewal, accusing his party's front-bench of being unprincipled.

He said: “It shows contempt for the public and for party members.

“In what they say, Labour’s front benchers often show contempt for the truth.

“The situation would have been abhorrent even to Labour’s last great unilateralist, Michael Foot — a man who, for all his shortcomings as a leader, would never have allowed our party to stand directionless in the face of such an important question.”

Mr Corbyn told the house that he personally would never press the nuclear button, murdering millions of innocent people.

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said that renewing trident would send out a message that all countries should have nuclear weapons – something that she said would not make the world a safer place.