Last night Labour in the European Parliament released a statement boasting about their role in confirming Ursula von der Leyen as the most powerful appointee in the EU. The new Commission President was approved by just nine votes, meaning that Labour’s ten MEPs could have stopped her. Her voting record in the German Parliament reveals she both voted against acknowledging climate emergency and against lifting the advertising ban on abortion services. Didn’t stop Labour giving the UK a hostile euro-federalist who’s made clear she wants the EU to have greater tax-raising powers, more protectionism and its own army…

Now Labour MEPs are sneakily trying to insinuate that they didn’t actually vote for her after all – the line they’ve gone for is “it was a secret ballot!” before mysteriously going quiet when challenged on which way they actually voted in said secret ballot. Either their press office is lying or there’s some serious dissembling going on from the MEPs. Learning the art of ‘constructive ambiguity’ from Comrade Corbyn himself…