When a job advert states:

“You’ll be required to have expertise in the workings of the Labour Party. You’ll have a comprehensive knowledge of the Labour Party and a good awareness of constitutional affairs.”

The organisation hiring clearly wants a Labour Party person. Which objective news media organisation could possibly specify such a hire for a sensitive political analyst’s job?

I don’t care if Ed Miliband is backing Livingstone . I seriously suggest NO ONE votes for Livingstone in the Mayoral elections—
Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) April 19, 2012

Yesterday’s cack-handed plea by Labour’s campaign supremo Tom Watson for Labour supporters who can’t stand Ken to “hold your nose, vote for Ken” follows on from Labour peers Lord Sugar and Lord Winston expressing anti-Ken sentiments.

Labour have now roped in Oona King, who was once described by Ken as a Blairite “she-devil” to support Ken in a transparently false show of party unity. What Oona really thinks about Ken was revealed before he was selected as the official candidate. She said ‘I don’t think Ken Livingstone is the way to go. He may qualify for Britain’s Got Talent but only on UK Gold’. Not the most ringing endorsement…

Left-wing blogger @PSBookEditor becomes latest Labour figure to refuse to support Ken #NotKenAgain—
Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) April 26, 2012

Guido was intrigued to hear on the grapevine that Tom Watson’s tame attack-puppies at the left-wing union-sponsored website Political Scrapbook can’t stand Ken Livingstone either. He searched their website for evidence of support for Ken and found none – months of anti-Boris material, not one single article so far that is pro-Ken. Last night Guido challenged them on Twitter to back Ken with a bet. They refused to back Ken…

On the day the recession returned with GDP coming in at what Gordon Brown would describe as “negative growth” the Labour Party released their first fancy Obama-style infographic on Facebook.

Unfortunately it was what is known in the trade as a ‘SMOG’ – a Social Media Own Goal. The bar chart was all too positive…

Where is Iain McNicol? Certainly not in Victoria Street, Not with Ed Miliband and the rest of the Shadow Cabinet launching Labour’s local elections campaign in Birmingham.

According to a Guido co-conspirator inside Labour HQ Iain McNicol has, in true David Brent style the day after Labour’s worst by-election defeat in 30 years, got on a plane and went on a two-week skiing holiday in the US. The timing could not be worse.

Astonished Guido called the Labour Party press office, got no comment, so decided to tweet the man himself:

@IainMcNicol Am told you are on 2 week holiday. Is that correct? Press Office won't give straight answer.—
Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) April 02, 2012

The press office then called back and said he had indeed gone on holiday for a few days. They would not confirm if it was in fact for 14 days, skiing or in America, they stressed however that he was in telephone contact.

Staff are appalled that any member of staff, let alone the General Secretary, would go on holiday in April before a tough local election campaign. Particularly after not forseeing the disaster in Bradford…

The Bradford blame game is being pushed further down the line from HQ. One rumour put to Guido is that the Labour Regional Team did not let on that things were not looking so good, though apparently the canvas returns were “on the face of it, ok.” Toby Perkins, the MP who was leading the charge, has gone from hero to zero in the eyes of the leadership apparently.

As one insider put it “this is what happens when you let MPs who did well in their own constituency run campaigns”. Apparently Iain McNicol is looking rather pasty this morning…

UPDATE:

Snr Lab figs: 'dismayed' if anyone close to leader blames @tobyperkinsmp for byelection defeat. Perkins appt'd late as campaign head—
Nicholas Watt (@nicholaswatt) March 30, 2012

They should get upset then.

While the polls were still open in Bradford early yesterday evening, broadcasters were notified that Ed Miliband would be doing a walk about outside the City Hall at 07:45 this morning. Funnily enough it didnt happen. Fingers of blame from high up in the party are already being pointed at the General Secretary. Iain McNicol told the leader’s office to prepare for a comfortable victory and told staffers not to go to Bradford and instead focus on campaigning in London. Team Ed are furious with McNicol for predicting victory so confidently earlier in the week and thus destroying any chance to do expectation management briefing.

The normally loyal Labour bloggers are not happy and speaking to Labour staffers this morning, loyal to both Milibands, there seems to be an acceptance that Ed’s problems run deeper than most thought. A defeat after “this week’s circus” and while ten points ahead has sent a mighty shockwave right through the professional party.

Yesterday Labour sources laughed off reports of bookies refusing to take bets on Galloway, today they are looking at the most sensational by-election victory in a generation. George Galloway won a 10,140 majority with a 36.59% swing from Labour to Respect.

Galloway was as modest as ever

“By the grace of God, we have won the most sensational victory in British political history … Labour has been hit by a tidal wave in a seat they have held for many decades and dominated for 100 years. I have won a big victory in every part of the constituency, including in areas many people said I should not even compete.”

Galloway shamelessly appealed to Asian youth with a radical anti-imperialist stance, attacking Labour over Iraq and Afghanistan. It will give many a pause for thought, Ken Livingstone in London is running a similar electoral strategy, courting Muslim voters over Gaza and promising  at the Finsbury Park Mosque to make London a beacon for Islam. Labour’s traditional Jewish voters are deserting Livingstone who has cynically calculated that Muslim voters out number Jewish voters 4 to 1 in London. Most Londoners will not want to see the Bradford Spring translated into Ken running a an anti-imperialist London twinned with Gaza…

As predicted here, Baldamort is off to run for Mayor of Birmingham. A smart move…

UPDATE: Comrades greet the news:

Great news that Liam Byrne has quit the Shadow Cabinet. He was a major block to Labour ever offering a genuine alternative to the Tories—
Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) March 29, 2012

UPDATE II: Byrne’s people are said to be furious that this has leaked today. He won’t go until a referendum has gone through in Brum, but had told Ed his intention to run today. The Watson-backed Sion Simon campaign, which will be the Brownite alternative to Byrne, are being accused of dirty tricks in spoiling their rivals launch and briefing the news out on a busy day for minimal impact. This one is going to get nasty…

Despite improvement at the polls despair and upset continues at Victoria Street according to many of our Labour HQ sources. Though the General Secretary Iain McNicol conceded that there was an uplift in mood when David Miliband popped in:

Labour HQ buzzing @DMiliband joined the @ken4london telephone canvassing.—
Iain McNicol (@IainMcNicol) March 26, 2012

The Executive Board chaired by Charles Allen, the distrusted Goldman Sachs advisor, has been renamed the “Senior Management Board” to calm down Labour’s National Executive Committee. It met on Friday in a panic and was by all accounts a pointless affair.

On Fridays the staff used to get an email from Iain McNicol, in true David Brent fashion it usually said what a great job he was doing, how hard he was working and how well everything is going. It was referred to internally as the ‘cringe sheet’ by staff and usually arrived late afternoon.

Concerns have been raised about the counter-productivity of the “cringe sheet”. Iain was asked to get it signed off by Charles Allen before it goes out in future. It hasn’t gone out since.

Some of the  heat was taken out of the stand-off between the Labour high command and their unhappy HQ staff last week by a promise that all future jobs would be advertised internally. The row over the appointment of a new Labour Party Executive and a reorganisation of the party structure reached a peak with HQ staff calling in the unions to try find a solution. Guido has now got hold of a letter from the Joint Trade Union Committee (GMB and Unite), to the Labour’s General Secretary Iain McNicol outlining the complaints:

The new confused chain of command and  in particular the ex-Goldman Sachs adviser turned Labour Chief Exec Sir Charles Allen comes in for serious criticism, as does Ed’s leadership on this and his team’s handling of the whole process. Now the row looks set to boil over again. Despite a promise from Ed’s Chief of Staff Tim Livesey that all future jobs would be advertised, Guido can reveal this lunchtime that various senior positions have been filled without due process. Staffers claim that there were not even interviews for the following jobs:

• Mr Paul Harrington - Head of Field Operations
• Mr Joe Derrett- Head of Press for Ken Livingstone’s Campaign
• Ms Veronica King - Press and Campaigns Officer for Ken Livingstone
• Ms Anneliese Midgley - Head of Events and Visits for Ken Livingstone

Guido hears that at least one Labour staffer is preparing to take the Party to an industrial tribunal…