This sorry tale of Corbyn and Malhotra’s office politics reveals the mistrust at the top of Labour

There are no winners from the row over access to Seema Malhotra’s office. The whole episode – from “unauthorised” entry to complaint, television appeal and then staff being cleared – has led to anger on both sides. To members it has probably prompted despair. Meanwhile the voting public looks upon Labour and is, once again, mystified.

The fascination of the press and broadcasters with this dispute is not difficult to understand. It perfectly suited their narrative of another in a series of proxy battles between the factions of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) currently vying for the leadership. But it seems to have been argued to a score draw after aides to the leadership were yesterday cleared of any improper behaviour.

So why have the argument in the first place? It is clear that MPs regard their Commons offices as their inner sanctum. These dens – often unvarnished and unglamorous – are the home for everything from policy and plotting to the daily work of representing their constituents. Malhotra was entitled to feel annoyed if she had evidence someone had entered without permission.

The story is complicated by the fact that Malhotra resigned from the shadow Cabinet not last week, but last month, and seems to have held on to the base traditionally handed to the shadow Chief Secretary, just down the corridor from the offices of the leader, shadow Chancellor and their staff. She cannot move until she has a new office lined up for herself, her staff and their files. It seems a mystery as to why Malhotra was still in situ more than four weeks after quitting but the wheels of parliamentary officialdom can grind slowly and she may have been waiting to be given a new home.

You can see, however, that it makes for an awkward scene. The top two figures in Opposition and their staff normally inhabit a floor of Norman Shaw South, confusingly the old home for New Scotland Yard. David Cameron and George Osborne were based there in the run-up to the 2010 election, as well as Eds Miliband and Balls for many years before the 2015 election. I trod the building’s thick, colourful carpet many a time in my years working, in various roles for the shadow Treasury team, and was always curious as to what pantomime villain Osborne had been up to when I was at meetings in his former office.

McDonnell and Corbyn are now ensconced in this grand but slightly tired Victorian office block. Some of their staff had electronic keys which allowed them access to the whole suite of rooms, including that of Malhotra. Clearly there were a few occasions when someone from the leadership went into the shadow Chief’s office – but, after that, the trail is confused. Cock-up or conspiracy? We will never know but John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, told Malhotra that one aide to the leadership “believed your office to be empty, as the boxes which had been outside in anticipation of your relocation had gone”.

What has been missing from much of this brief, unhappy debate is the prosaic reality of steadying the ship after a series of resignations. Corbyn promoted Rebecca Long-Bailey as Malhotra’s successor and that meant his staff had to begin the work of re-allocating space in the Norman Shaw building. It is at this point that office moves become a three-, or make that five-, way negotiation between the person who has resigned, their replacement, the leader’s office, the accommodation whip and the Commons facilities staff. Office politics does not even begin to capture the complexities of it.

In the end, the row ended in a score draw. Malhotra made known her anger. McDonnell issued a dramatic, straight-to-camera plea for both sides to “stop this now” but yesterday demanded his former deputy apologise for the “stress” he said had been caused to his staff. Bercow cleared the aides of breaking parliamentary privilege and Malhotra said her stance had been “vindicated”.

There are no winners in this row other than, perhaps, the Tories now running the country. Osborne moved on from Norman Shaw to 11 Downing Street but even he is now long gone from one of the top two addresses in the country. The modesty of his new office was described by one colleague with a four-letter word. Let’s hope that is the final chapter in this tragi-comic tale of the office space race.