A TOP York lawyer and former chamber of commerce boss has apologised for a social media post in which he suggested a northern Labour MP should be 'dragged through the streets of Teesside and lynched' if he had wrongly raised concerns about a scheme in his constituency.

Andrew Lindsay, a senior corporate lawyer at Morton Legal on Tadcaster Road and former chair of the West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, made the comment on his LinkedIn account after Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald used parliamentary privilege to allege 'truly shocking, industrial-scale corruption' related to funding in Teesside.

Communities Secretary Michael Gove later ordered an independent probe into the allegations.

But Mr McDonald told the Commons he had been blamed in various quarters - without a 'shred of evidence' - for an apparent decision by Advanced Cables to build its new facility on the Tyne rather than the Tees.

He added: 'Senior corporate lawyer Andrew Lindsay posted on his LinkedIn account that if it turns out that the inquiry concludes there is nothing to be seen here and, in the meantime, some investment, and jobs are lost, local Labour MP Andy McDonald should be dragged through the streets of Teesside and lynched.

“This has deeply upset and alarmed my family and me."

Mr Lindsay told the PA news agency that he had deleted his post once he had been alerted to the fact that Mr McDonald had been upset by it.

York Press: Andrew LindsayAndrew Lindsay (Image: Stock)

"I subsequently wrote to him to confirm that the comments I made were not to be taken literally," he said. "Indeed, I do not condone any violence by anyone, on anyone.

“I also accept that the language I used was injudicious, which was why I apologised to Mr McDonald. Even though the words I used are not unique to me and might be somewhat familiar to certain others, I accepted, on reflection that we are living in times when we have to be increasingly careful about what we say.”

In an email to The Press, Mr Lindsay added: "I hail from Middlesbrough, which is a town that I have great affection for. It is also in a region (Teesside) which has been near the bottom of just about every league table for several decades in terms of lack of prosperity, inward investment, education opportunities and high unemployment.

"I have been delighted to see it now finally appears to be on the way up in terms of inward investment and I was concerned that comments made by the MP about ‘industrial scale corruption’ might put inward investors off. Nonetheless, I accepted that my comment (though not to be taken literally), was a mistake.

"I have certainly learned from this experience, and I would advise others, that if they intend to use an expression which might be construed by someone else in a very different way to the way in which it was intended, they might want to think carefully before using it, so as not to cause offence."

York Press: Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay HoyleSpeaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle (Image: PA)

Mr Lindsay's social media post was one of two incidents which prompted Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle to issue a stern warning that threats against MPs are 'totally unacceptable'.

The other incident involved a 'threatening response' received by Alicia Kearns, the Conservative chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, from the president of Serbia.

Sir Lindsay told the Commons: “People are entitled to make their views known inside and outside this House but threats to members are very real, and those who comment should consider the potential effects of their words before posting rather than afterwards.”