Morning LabourList: Silly season in spring

Sign up to LabourList’s morning email for everything Labour, every weekday morning.

Somehow, inexplicably, the “Commie Corbyn” Czech spy story is still a thing.

Last night, Tory MP Ben Bradley (whose name is popping up far too often at the moment) was forced to delete a Tweet stating Jeremy Corbyn “sold British secrets to Communist spies” after the leader threatened legal action. Tom Watson has written a piece for the Independent today calling out the Czech spy story as “propaganda, not journalism”.

The problem with the right-wing line of attack is still that Jeremy Corbyn is generally seen to be a friendly old man, as the New Statesman‘s Stephen Bush likes to point out. The claims that he is instead a nasty old man simply won’t stick with voters whose image of him is basically Bernard Cribbins in a woolly cardie… which makes this story a pointless waste of time, as well as very silly.

The Tories were more successful in characterising Ed Miliband as a threat because voters’ first impression of him was “the one who stabbed his own brother in the back”. (Antisemitism also played a part.) But Corbyn’s biggest weakness is that age-old Labour weakness – the concern that the party is caring but irresponsible, generous but soft. We all know compassion is undervalued (woman’s work) and people forget it takes guts to be gentle and kind.

As far as I’m aware, there is no imminent general election – so why are the Tories in negative campaign mode? They are rattled. But I think it may also be because everyone in Westminster is bored. Of course there’s an awful lot parliamentarians could be getting on with – paying attention to the meltdown in Northern Ireland, perhaps, or having something useful to say about Brexit. Unfortunately Tory MPs would rather attack Corbyn on Twitter. This is the perfect time for them to put away childish things and stop behaving as if they are in the middle of a long summer recess.

@siennamarla

Sign up to LabourList’s morning email for everything Labour, every weekday morning.