Corbyn's '˜Thick of It' spin doctors ridiculed by ex-Brown adviser

Jeremy Corbyn's spin doctors were yesterday ridiculed by one of Gordon Brown's special advisers who claimed they were destroying the Labour Party.

Peter Capaldi stars as foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It. Picture: BBC

The attack was made by Paul Sinclair, a former adviser to Mr Brown, Alistair Darling and ex Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont.

His remarks came at Holyrood’s Festival of Politics during an event inspired by the fictional spinning of Malcolm Tucker, the foul-mouthed protagonist of BBC sitcom The Thick of It.

Mr Sinclair was one of five former political spinners who took part in a discussion entitled: Malcolm Tucker: The Art of the Special Adviser.

Asked by a member of the audience if he rated Mr Corbyn’s team, Mr Sinclair kept his language clean but could not resist going on the attack.

In particular, he was scathing about Seamus Milne, Mr Corbyn’s spokesman, who has taken a sabbatical from the Guardian newspaper to work for the UK Labour leader.

Mr Sinclair said: “Jeremy Corbyn’s team are, I think, desperately self indulgent. I think Seamus Milne is a disaster living in a fantasy world. I fear they may be destroying the Labour Party and I think that’s bad for everybody in our entire democracy.

“It’s just self-indulgent, student – late middle-aged, sometimes elderly – student self-indulgence that is running Jeremy Corbyn’s party and I don’t think they speak for anybody.”

And he added: “Not just that, he has a special adviser in charge of his press seconded from The Guardian and the Corbyn press office put out a message saying they wouldn’t speak to The Guardian because it was anti-Labour.”

On the panel, Mr Sinclair was joined by Ramsay Jones, a former Tory spinner; James Mackenzie, an ex-Green Party spokesman; Alex Salmond’s former right hand man Kevin Pringle; and Sam Ghibaldan, once of the Lib Dems.

Last night Mr Corbyn’s press operation declined to comment.