Keir Starmer’s crop of hand-picked candidates includes Andrew Lewin, who is standing in Welwyn Hatfield. Labour insiders are fuming about the selection – Lewin is the chief spin doctor for Clarion Housing Group, the UK’s largest social landlord, which has been the subject of huge criticism from the party. Branded one of the worst social landlords in Britain, Clarion has received 260 official fines or penalties since 2010. Awks…

Now it emerges that last September Clarion said it would dismiss and rehire staff who did not accept new pension terms. The Unison union pledged to fight the plans, saying: “If Clarion gets away with ‘firing and rehiring’ staff over legacy pensions then all other staff with different terms and conditions could face the same process. This is simply immoral.” Labour has pledged to ban fire and rehire, with Angela Rayner leading the charge. Guess who Lewin’s local campaign is backed by? Unison, of course – the union of which he is a longstanding member. You couldn’t make it up…

Clarion’s behaviour was also condemned by the Labour peer, Lord Prentis (the former Unison leader Dave Prentis) in the Lords in March. It must be one rule for Lewin and another for everybody else…