The last few weeks have been difficult for the Labour Party. First, the party leadership was forced into a massive U-turn on its plan to put £28billion towards green investment after months of leaks. Instead, the party will put £23.7billion towards green investment over five years.
The weeks of speculation, preceding an almighty climbdown, opened the doors for the Tories to warn of "complete chaos" under Labour.
And just a week later, the party is in the throes of a fresh crisis after its candidate in the Rochdale by-election was accused of making antisemitic remarks at a meeting of Labour activists.
Azhar Ali was accused of suggesting that Israel deliberately relaxed its security in October, ahead of the Hamas attacks, following warnings of an imminent threat.
The last few weeks have been difficult for the Labour Party.
PA
Meanwhile, Graham Jones, the former Labour MP for Hyndburn who lost his seat in 2019 and is seeking to stand again, was suspended after he allegedly said that UK citizens who volunteer to fight for the Israeli Defence Forces "should be locked up" and that it was "illegal" for them to fight for Israel at the same meeting.
Not only is the party now lacking a by-election candidate, Starmer is being accused of failing to purge the party of antisemitism.
Embarrassingly, leaflets promoting Ali as their candidate landed on doorsteps this morning, while ballot papers will still list him as a labour candidate as it's too late to reprint them.
The spate of byelections coming up this month should have allowed Labour to score an easy set of political points, chipping away at the Tories' numbers. Even taking one seat from the Toreis at any of the three upcoming byelections would mean the Government has taken more by-election defeats in a single parliament than any government since the 1960s.
They were set up perfectly for a few weeks of yet more positive PR, but they've fumbled it before its even began.
In the words of Martin Forde - the lawyer who penned a damning report into antisemitism under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership - it looks "shambolic".
Meanwhile, former Labour leader, Neil Kinnock, said the handling of the current crisis suggests the leadership lacks political "savvy".
Although a month or so of turbulence pales in comparison to what many would argue the nation has seen under the Conservative Party, Labour should be concerned that the turbulence will spook some tentative Labour voters who have recently come around to the idea of abandoning the Tories.
And while one poll isn't the be-all and end-all, it does look like this is being felt in Labour's latest approval ratings.
Fresh polling from Savanta published today shows that the party's approval ratings have dropped significantly, putting them just 12 points ahead of the Conservatives after a seven point drop. Labour is on a 41 per cent vote share. The last time they were at this level was September 2022.
Chris Hopkins, Political Research Director at Savanta said: "This significant drop in Labour's lead may well be in response to a torrid couple of weeks for Keir Starmer's party, and part of a wider trend."
While he advised people against reading too much into one poll, he issued a cautionary message to the Labour leadership that "doubts could well be creeping back in".
Hopkins said it "serves as useful a reminder as any that Labour's lead - while consistently high for many months - is not infallible. Voters have not quite made up their mind about Keir Starmer's Labour Party, and doubts could well be creeping back in."
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Concerningly for Starmer, the latest round of polling was conducted between February 9 and 11 - well before the antisemitism allegations were splashed across the front pages. The dent we see here is more likely a result of the party's fumbling of the green pledges U-turn.
When it comes to Labour's approval ratings, it seems the worst may be yet to come.
The Labour Party's approach to the upcoming election so far has been to stay quiet and watch the Tories tear themselves apart. But now that Labour is back in the firing line, the party needs to banish any complacency and start fighting a proper battle - or they could see their poll lead slip through their fingers at the time they need it the most.
