Labour frontbenchers claim they want ‘nice Tories’

Angela Rayner may not be a fan of Tory ‘scum’ – but it seems the deputy Labour leader doesn’t speak for all her party. Tonight at the Labour to Win rally, frontbench colleagues of the ambitious Rayner amounted a desperate rearguard offence to assure floating voters that they weren’t all that hostile to awful Conservative voters.

First up was Peter Kyle, the shadow minister for schools. Mr S wondered whether his podium – in front of a crumbling southern pier – was the best spot to make the case for Labour winning Tory heartlands but the cheering rump of Blairite survivors seemed to miss the irony.

In a very public slap down to his deputy leader Kyle told the crowd:

There is only one path to power for the Labour party and that is taking moderate Tories and getting them to vote Labour.