Labour’s tax attack in Hartlepool backfires

Pity the poor people of Hartlepool. Next week’s parliamentary by election has seen an army of activists pouring in to the Red Wall seat, with Labour desperate to cling on to a seat that last went blue in the days of Supermac. CCHQ have been playing down chances of a Tory gain but one Labour insider has told Steerpike their party’s internal polling is ‘dire’ – a situation not helped by ‘MILF-gate‘ or a farrago over St George’s cross flags.

Now though Labour are embroiled in another taxing row after deputy leader Angela Rayner launched an attack on the Conservative Hartlepool candidate, Jill Mortimer. Following reports that Mortimer spent a decade living away from the constituency, including time in the Cayman Islands, Rayner took it upon herself to fire off a two page letter to Tory chairwoman Amanda Milling asking why ‘Mortimer spent time living in a tax haven where her former husband worked as a banker’.