Much squirming over semantics as Ed’s pledge to end the “epidemic” of zero-hours contracts becomes embarrassing following revelations that over a quarter of Labour MPs as well as their biggest funder, the Unite union, employ workers on essentially “zero hours” contracts.

Labour’s line that staff employed without guaranteed hours by 68 of their MPs were on “casual contracts” not “zero hours contracts” is looking increasingly ridiculous following the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority’s clarification that they while they don’t use the term “zero hours”, they interpret requests for the number of parliamentary staff working on “zero hours” as “the number of MP’s staff who are contracted on an hourly rate.” In other words casual contracts..

As if things couldn’t get any worse for Labour, Unite, who just last year were calling on those MPs to stop using in their words “zero-hours” contracts, have been rumbled by an Industrial Tribunal for employing a man on “a series of short-term contracts. Or as some might say a series of  “effectively zero-hour contracts.”

If it looks like a zero hours contract and sounds like a zero hours contract…