Owen Jones on Saturday morning:

Until last week, I doubted we could win the poisoned welfare state debate. Changed my mind. With courage, honesty and determination we can—
Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) April 06, 2013

24 hours later and the Labour leadership was signalling a sea change in their welfare policy, falling in line with public opinion. There have been rumblings about a new stance on the left towards welfare, but this weekend heralded a concerted effort to change the narrative. Hence the number of Labour MPs queuing up to praise Simon Danczuk’s Telegraph piece this morning. Danczuk had some choice words for the party’s out of favour media darling:

“Seeing people that are capable of working languish for years on benefits is not something the Left should be proud of. It’s something we should be fighting. Otherwise why call ourselves the Labour Party? Anyone who has lived with or spent time with people capable of working that have been parked on benefits for a decade or more will know the tragedy I’m talking about. We should all experience the feeling of satisfaction after a hard day’s work, the pride at getting a promotion, the sense of achievement from making a difference in the workplace. But for those trapped in welfare dependency these experiences will never happen. This is a criminal loss of human potential and something everyone interested in progressive politics should rail against.

But where are the jobs? That’s the continual refrain I hear these days from the likes of Owen Jones, as though we should accept that parking people on welfare for years on end is the done thing. This seems to be the only defence mounted by Jones et al to welfare reform. But what defence did he have when there were jobs available under the last Government? No doubt he would have resisted reform then as of now. The left has to accept there are some people on the dole that don’t want to work, and we need to have a plan to get them into work. Where families haven’t worked for years on end this is not just a tragedy for the adults in the household, it’s a tragedy for the children as well. What kind of message does it send out to them when they’ve never known any adult with a job?”

With 67% saying the welfare system needs to be overhauled and 79% backing Osborne’s £26,000 benefit cap, this is common sense realpolitik from Labour. Better to u-turn now than closer to the election…

A name to remember for the run-up to a big 2015 dogfight: the Tories have selected Andrea Jenkyns to take on Ed Balls in Morley and Outwood. The seat was almost the scene of the biggest upset of 2010. Expect Jenkyns’ working class striver credentials to be pushed from now until election day, Jenkyns is a local, comp-educated candidate who runs her own business. Conveniently she says fixing the broken welfare system is her main priority. Balls has a majority of 1,101…

Balls has admitted going too far too fast, spoiling a certain Sunday story in a blogpost this lunchtime:

“Like many local people, I was caught out by the never-ending roadworks on the M62. Pulling on to the motorway at Morley I realised too late that the speed restrictions were still in place. I was caught and bang to rights – doing 56 in a 50 mile restriction zone. Going too far, too fast, you might say.

I paid my fine and chose to attend a speed awareness course. I currently have no points on my licence and would like to keep it that way. Which is why, this week, I ended up in the Holiday Inn with 39 others.

The course was very professional and actually really worthwhile.”

The second time he has been done for a driving offence. At least he didn’t get Yvette to take the points…

Londoners have hit back at Streatham snob Chuka “Harrison” Umunna in today’s Standard. Alissia Ricci, 34, insists:

“I think he is wrong. The West End is amazing. I love the restaurants, the bars, the nightclubs. He should go out more and see a few more places.”

Andrea Juganaru, 24, is less than impressed:

“The West End is a very good place to go out. I like everything about it — the clubs, the people and the music. The MP should stick to politics.”

Claire Hankey, 31, asks:

“Doesn’t he realise the money these places bring into the capital? If you are in the know, you know where to go that’s cool.”

In other words, get out more…

If you’re a right-winger talking about Mick Philpott then you are “politicising” a tragedy, but according to Austin Mitchell it is fine for lefties to throw around unfounded slurs:

Memo to Osborne. Mick Philpott was a Tory voter.—
Austin Mitchell (@AVMitchell2010) April 05, 2013

Guido looks forward to the hand-wringing how-dare-you lefties condemning Labour’s new line…

Apologising via a spokesperson says it all about two-faced jetrosexual Chuka ‘Harrison’ Umunna. If this were a Tory the response would be outrage, “trash” is arguably more offensive than “pleb” as a class-based insult. Philip Davies sees a touch of the Prime Mentalist about Labour’s Obama-lite poster boy:

“My view is that Chuka perfectly demonstrates how Labour have abandoned their working class roots and have been hijacked by an affluent politically correct elite who not only wouldn’t recognise a member of the working class if they ever met one but actually despise them. This is out of the same stable as Gordon Brown and bigotgate.”

Nadhim Zahawi agrees:

“Chuka, like many Labour MPs before him, loves the glitzy wealthy lifestyle, only in secret! If you’ve worked for it and earned it why would you need to hide it? Or is it because it doesn’t go down well with his anti-enterprise lefty Leader?”

Nigel Adams hits the nail on the head:

“It looks like Chuka has more faces than Armani suits.”

His next public appearance will be one to look out for…

UPDATE: Owen Jones twists the knife:

@PatrickStrud Where did he say that? Unbelievable—
Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) April 05, 2013

Regular Guido readers will be familiar with the theory that Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna is a two faced hypocrite. When the cameras are gone, the former City lawyer is very different from the polished Obama-lite, leader-in-waiting, man-of-the-people image that he tries to cultivate. Well today that image is going to take a mighty dent as Chuka’s 1% past comes crashing down around him. You bet he wishes he was in his Ibiza pad today…

The Labour MP for Streatham used to be a member of the exclusive, invitation only social networking group ASMALLWORLD, nicknamed ‘Myspace for Millionaires’. While cruising for a safe Labour seat between 2006 and ’08 Umunna secretly used his middle name “Harrison” to organise his jet-set life, flitting between Miami and London nightspots with other members like Tiger Woods, Paris Hilton and Quentin Tarantino. Well we always knew he was a champagne socialist, but it gets worse…

In a rant on the site, under his fake name, lamenting how bad London is, the London MP described London as being “full of trash”. Just last year, under his real name, the London MP told the Standard that he could not “envisage myself moving anywhere else.” If he thinks his constituents are trash, he might want to re-think that one…

UPDATE: Jetrosexual Chuka has said sorry via a spokesperson:

“Though his user account on the site still exists, he has not posted a thread on the site for many years, since long before he was elected as a Member of Parliament. In terms of the post from 2006, these were comments made on a private social network well over half a decade ago. Though light-hearted in tone and context, and made long before he became an MP, Chuka accepts the choice of words used were not appropriate and apologises if any offence may have been caused.”

François Hollande is at an all-time low after the Socialist government’s “Monsieur Propre” (Mr Clean), Jérôme Cahuzac, admitted to having a “bank account abroad” for the past two decades. The former budget minister with responsibility for cracking down on tax dodgers admitted to holding €600,000 in an illegal offshore bank account at UBS Switzerland. Hollande is now facing questions about exactly what he knew and when. Scandals are arguably the least of Hollande’s worries. His flagship 75% top rate of tax has been ruled unconstitutional, wealth creators and film stars alike are fleeing his tax tyranny. This week his new supertax on companies has been shunned by business leaders, and even the left-wing press are abandoning him. As unemployment hits a 16-year high, Hollande’s approval rating is at a record low for any leader so early into his mandate. France is suffering from the disastrous consequences of electing the socialist president.

Where is Ed Miliband in all this? Last summer Ed was welcomed onto the steps of the Elysee Palace by his new best friend, declaring:

“What President Hollande is seeking to do in France and what he is seeking to do in leading the debate in Europe is find that different way forward. We are in agreement in seeking that new way that needs to be found and I think can be found.”

As is plain for all to see, Hollande’s “different way forward” is dragging his country to her knees. Even Ed knows this, notice how he doesn’t seem to talk about his old pal François so much any more? France should serve as a warning to us all of what would happen under Monsieur Millibande…

Nottingham’s Labour council have found an especially underhand way of getting council tenants out of paying the bedroom tax: encouraging tenants to redefine two-bedroom flats as having one-bedroom. If Labour are standing by their line that the spare room subsidy is a tax, then surely using a loophole in the rules to get out of paying it is tax avoidance? Either they admit they are lying to voters, or they admit they are advocating tax avoidance. What’s it going to be?

It always amuses Guido when Balls and Brown refer to the Prime Mentalist’s old spin doctor as “Mr McBride”. As Guido revealed in his Sun column yesterday, Balls has been quick to dash speculation that he might bring McPoison back into the fray.

The Shadow Chancellor’s spokesmen tells Guido Balls and McBride have only “bumped into each other twice” since Easter 2009, once at an Arsenal match and then at a Labour fundraising dinner. He insists “they’ve never discussed him coming back to work for the Labour Party”. McBride’s tales from Number 10 will certainly spice up Labour conference this September…