Rayner cancels Glastonbury weekend after Labour ban

Festivals are out when David Maddox visits the party’s HQ

- David Maddox

Labour has told its staff that nobody can take time off this weekend to go to Glastonbury, even with the party holding a huge lead in the polls.

An insider confirmed “there’s a three-line whip” on everyone not to go to Glastonbury this year with the final week of campaigning about to begin. Even Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has been forced to abandon her plans to go to the music festival where the headliners this week are Coldplay, Shania Twain, SZA and Dua Lipa.

The festival, which once echoed to “Oh Jeremy Corbyn”, has become another symbol of “No Jeremy Corbyn” from a party that has expelled its former leader in a ruthless charge to regain power. Instead, staff who have been working day and night in Labour’s swanky offices in Southwark, just south of the Thames, will be redeployed to “key marginals” in the next 48 hours.

“Now the manifesto is done there is less for people to do here and we need boots on the ground in target seats,” The Independent was told on a visit to the headquarters.