Anthony Albanese has come out strongly in defence of Bill Shorten after an article accused him of omitting facts about his mother’s life for political gain.

Several NewsCorp papers published the article in response to Mr Shorten telling a story on Q&A about his mum being unable to follow her dream of becoming a lawyer.

He said she instead had to take a teaching scholarship, as she was from a working-class family and had to look after her younger siblings.

The article claimed he left out the fact she had eventually become a lawyer decades later.

Bill Shorten fought back tears in an emotional press conference where he called the article “a pretty bloody lazy editorial”.

My mum. #auspol #qanda pic.twitter.com/VXi04aLoYS

— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) May 7, 2019

Shadow Minister for Infrastructure Anthony Albanese tells Chris Smith it was clearly “a political intervention attempting to hurt him through his mother”.

“Bill has spoken about his mum becoming a lawyer many times. It’s not something that’s a secret.

“A pretty simple principle applies here: back off. Having a go at someone through their mum, and that’s what the Telegraph have done today.

“It would be very upsetting and traumatic for Bill.”

Click PLAY below to hear the full interview