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How have we managed to turn one the worst ever weeks for David Cameron’s Tory government into another humiliation for the Labour party?

The Government’s own Work and Pensions Secretary said the budget was “deeply unfair” as he spectacularly resigned 48 hours after it was unveiled.

With unusually fortuitous parliamentary scheduling, the convention of reporting to MPs after a European council meant the prime minister had to face the leader of the opposition on the floor of the House of Commons the day after his former minister had roasted him in an incendiary television interview.

Then the last prime minister’s questions before the Easter recess made Cameron a sitting duck for interrogation about the most disastrous budget in living memory.

And yet parliament breaks up for Easter after the humiliating spectacle of the Tory leader holding court at the despatch box, taunting the Labour benches opposite as his MPs roared with laughter.

(Image: PA)

Many Jeremy supporters are still valiantly trying to blame the mainstream media for having the temerity to take attention away from the budget fiasco by revealing, or even perhaps inventing, what was supposed to be a secret list in which Jeremy Corbyn’s advisers ranked MPs according to what they thought was their level of support for their boss.

Others mutter that the fault must lie with MPs like me in the ‘hostile’ column for somehow getting hold of Jeremy’s list and leaking it ourselves. Or for complaining about their treatment at the hands of people around Labour’s leader, people who let down their boss by outwardly preaching the virtues of unity and a new, kinder politics but secretly deploy tactics straight from the bad old days of Blair-Brown briefing and ‘doing people in’ that Jeremy was supposed to end.

Or certainly, in my case, for being unable to tell the difference between Twitter’s direct message button and the one that sends out public tweets. Sorry about that.

We can go on chasing shadows and denouncing enemies within if we choose. But if we do, the result will be many more days of allowing this pernicious Tory government to wreak havoc on the country without properly being held to account.

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It is understandable that people say we should show loyalty to Labour’s leader. Jeremy is a nice man who is doing his best. But it is time to remember that our loyalty actually lies to the people who desperately need a Labour government and an effective Labour party to stand up for them.

Those people are being appallingly served by a leadership team who cannot even get its act together properly to stand up for disabled people when they are screwed over by the Tories.

It was a total open goal at Wednesday's PMQs. Jeremy’s team ensured that he was not even able to run to the ball before tripping over and passing out. It is that burning frustration of seeing these vicious ministers get away with it that is driving many of my colleagues to despair.

But ultimately, despair does not help the people who need a strong Labour party to stand up for them and ultimately kick the Tories out. Only action to make things better will do that.

The foolish decision to label MPs who just want the best for their party and the people they represent with offensive names was deeply counter-productive. The machinations it revealed and the fiasco it produced in the House of Commons has probably propelled many more people into the ‘Hostile’ camp.

For the sake of people being bled dry by a government that thinks it has a divine right to rule, we simply cannot go on like this.