An unbelievable own goal from Labour

WHO really believes Rishi Sunak thinks perverts convicted of sexually abusing children should spared jail? Er, no be one. Not members of the shadow Cabinet, who have been sent out to try to defend the claim, made in a Labour party campaigning tweet last week

- PHILIP BOWERN

Surely not Sir Keir Starmer, who made a lame attempt to 'stand by every word' in an article in the Daily Mail on Monday.

Not even the Labour Party policy wonk, who devised the daft campaign which has gathered so much negative publicity for Labour, can truly have believed it. And certainly not the vast majority of voters who, if they have noticed it at all, will have been rolling their eyes at yet another deep dive into the gutter by "(expletive deleted) politicians"

So why do it? Why - having spent quite a bit of time over the past few years railing against gutter politics and personal attacks - has Labour decided to ditch the 'kinder politics' the party was promoting and instead go for the barely credible insults and play the man, not the ball? The answer, sadly, is focus groups.