Are Labour’s attack ads that successful?

Over at Labour HQ, there’s a mood of triumphalism about the party’s string of attack adverts. Newspapers are full of gloating quotes about the success of its strategy, as sophisticated as, er, accusing Rishi Sunak of being indifferent to paedophilia. Glee is in the air at Friars House, with the Tories expected to lose up to 1,000 council seats. But are Labour’s attack adverts really as successful as some within the party would like to make out? Perusing his copy of the Times over breakfast this morning, Mr S was struck by a line in that august paper of record:

Labour is set to pause the release of any more attack ads but may use the same format again in the future…The party will return to more conventional campaigning today with the launch of a five-point plan to improve the fortunes of struggling high streets.

Is that a way of conceding that gutter politics wasn’t to everyone’s liking? With reports of a split between Yvette Cooper and Steve Reed, the flailing failures of Lucy Powell and Emily Thornberry and the outraged fulminations of left-wing commentators, perhaps being too clever by half comes at a price.