PR Week’s weekly ‘Hit or Miss’ award have given Chuka Umunna a great big “MISS” badge for his handling of the recent London is “full of trash” and Wikipedia editing stories:

“…to put out a quote including ‘no recollection’ for this particular situation is a PR crime. Phrases such as ‘I can’t say for certain’ almost scream out ‘yes it was me, I did it’, although, of course I, like anyone else, can’t actually say for certain that he did. It provides ammunition for the opposition, who have been gifted a PR opportunity, all of which adds up to a far more entertaining story. But people wouldn’t be shocked if many politicians’ teams are doing the same thing. As for the Obama remarks: saying one thing in public and doing another in private (and then hiding behind anonymous posts) will not help his long-term credibility and trust factor with the public. The misjudged comment in response to the situation simply added a lot of fuel to the fire.”

Guido could not agree more.

Tory MPs seem to be enjoying the Shadow Business Secretary’s discomfort. Nigel Adams weighs in again:

“Chuka Umunna should be upfront and tell the public exactly who is doing what with his online activity. If these latest revelations are true, many will question his judgement. Perhaps Chuka should spend less time bigging up his leadership credentials and trawling the internet and more time coming up with some ideas for Labour’s business policies which are currently non existent.”

Nadhim Zahawi tweeted Guido to add: “if true Chuka should just admit it. He is mad to attempt to hide it. It’s the cover-up that always hurts the most.” Keith Simpson told the Standard earlier: “…the trouble with changing one’s own profile page on Wikipedia is that it’s rather like an internet face-lift; you can always see the stretch marks.” Chuka’s credibility is certainly being stretched…