Labour MPs have accused their leader Jeremy Corbyn of 'trolling' them in a bid to explain away his own dire poll ratings.
In a sign of the continuing tensions within the party, they allege that Mr Corbyn is going out of his way to antagonise his own MPs.
Polls show Labour trailing far behind Theresa May's Conservatives, leading to claims from the Corbyn camp that voters have been turned off by divisions within the party.
A number of Labour MP have now decided not to react to what they claim is provocation coming from the leader's office.
"The policy now is 'don't rise to it'", one Labour MP said.
Another said: "Many MPs now think that he is trolling us. He keeps trying to pick fights. If he can keep saying that the problem is Labour MPs not supporting him then he thinks he can explain away the terrible poll numbers."
She pointed to Mr Corbyn's decision last week to hire a key aide from Sinn Fein, an appointment which horrified many Labour MPs.
Jayne Fisher, a former manager of Sinn Fein's London office, has been made "stakeholder engagement manager".
Earlier this month a poll carried out by YouGov showed that Labour had hit a seven-year low, sinking to 25 per cent - 17 points behind the Conservatives.
Within days, a key ally of Mr Corbyn, shadow home secretary Diane Abbott predicted that Labour would close the poll gap with the Tories within 12 months.
She also hit out at disunity within the party, which held its second leadership election in a year over the summer.
Ms Abbott said she was “confident we can close the gap in the coming 12 months. We've had a pretty difficult 12 months, partly Jeremy's enemies in the party, partly commentators, but we have the right policies and we have the right leader."
On the same weekend, however, Labour's former mayor of London Ken Livingstone said that Mr Corbyn's allies would “all be worried" if there was not an improvement in the polls.
Mr Livingstone said: "If in a year's time it was still as bad as this, we'd all be worried. I don't think it will be because Jeremy and his team are going to focus on the economy and that's what wins every election."
Labour's woes have also seen it perform badly in two recent Westminster by-elections.
The party slipped to fourth behind Ukip and the Liberal Democrats in Sleaford and North Hykeham, while in Richmond the vote collapsed to below the number of local Labour party members.
Mindful of the poor poll ratings, Labour is planning a makeover of its leader in the New Year.
He will appear more frequently on radio and television, where he will be pitched as the anti-Establishment people's champion.
Labour hope to present him as Britain’s answer to Bernie Sanders, the American Democrat politician beaten by Hillary Clinton to become the party’s candidate for the presidency.
The party's election co-ordinator, Jon Trickett, has also said that Labour is placing itself on a war footing in preparation for a possible general election next year.
"Theresa May has said there will not be a snap election; that doesn't mean there won't be an early election," he has said.
"It's our job to be ready. We're ramping up the organisation now. "
A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said that he did not comment on staffing matters.
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