Listen: Lucy Powell tries to dodge questions on leaked Ukip document with ‘it’s irrelevant to you!’

How has Labour managed to make such a mess of its response to the leak of a document on dealing with Ukip that came out on Monday that it’s still having to talk about it on Friday? I’ve been baffled by the poor crisis comms this week – until I heard Lucy Powell, vice-chair of the party’s General Election campaign, trying to field questions on it today on the Daily Politics. Her tactics were to tell the interviewer that the origins of the report were ‘irrelevant’, an old but useless tactic of spinners that generally encourages the journalist to think the story even more relevant than they did when they started the interview.

Here's the transcript of the key exchange:

Andrew Neil: You’re vice chair of Labour’s general election campaign, so can you tell us: who signed off on the document about Ukip advising Labour candidates to try to avoid talking about immigration?

Lucy Powell: Well, we’re not avoiding talking about immigration.