A "very left wing" union leader has the Labour Party in a "stranglehold", a Labour candidate has told a judge.

Anna Turley, who was MP for Redcar, North Yorkshire, said Unite general secretary Len McCluskey had been helping shape Labour Party politics to "coincide" with his "hard-left" agenda.

Ms Turley told Mr Justice Nicklin how it had never "sat well" that Unite, which she said had well over a million members, and Mr McCluskey wielded "so much power" in the Labour Party.

She said she liked Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn personally but had "political" differences with him.

Ms Turley, 40, who hopes to regain her Redcar seat in the forthcoming General Election, criticised Mr McCluskey when giving evidence at a High Court trial in London after taking legal action against Unite.

She has sued Unite over a March 2017 article published on an internet blog after she made an application for union membership.

Ms Turley, 40, says the article on the Skwawkbox blog, which contained a press statement from Unite, libelled her by conveying the meaning that she had acted dishonestly in submitting an application to join the union.

She has also sued Stephen Walker, a journalist who writes, edits and publishes Skwawkbox, and says Unite misused her private information.

Union bosses and Mr Walker are fighting the case and say MsTurley has been dishonest and is not fit to be an MP.

"Unite has always been very pro-Corbyn, donating many millions of pounds to fund the Labour Party and Mr Corbyn's leadership," Ms Turley told the judge in a written witness statement.

"Mr McCluskey is very left-wing and in the 1980s supported the Militant Tendency in Liverpool.

"I do not share his politics.

"It has never sat well with me that Unite and Mr McCluskey have wielded so much power in the Labour Party..."

She added: "I have felt for a long time that Mr McCluskey has had the Labour Party in a stranglehold and has been helping to shape the politics within the party to coincide with his hard-left political agenda.

"I have been particularly unhappy about his confrontational approach, particularly in relation to Labour MPs who do not support Mr Corbyn or his politics."

Ms Turley said she had known Mr Corbyn before he became Labour leader.

"I have always liked him personally," she said.

"My differences are political and about his leadership of the party."

Three years ago Ms Turley hit the headlines after calling Mr McCluskey an "arsehole" on Twitter.

She told Mr Justice Nicklin on Tuesday that she had used a "crass" word.

"I think it fell down by the standards I set myself," she said.

"I think the word was crass."

She added: "I was upset ... I was angry."