... as Shami blames party’s by-election defeat on weather

SHAMI Chakrabarti faced ridicule last night after she blamed everything from the weather to the BBC for Labour’s by-election loss.

The shadow attorney general even said poor public transport in Copeland could be partly responsible for the defeat in the Cumbrian seat Labour had held for 80 years.

But she was mocked for implying Labour voters would need to rely on it as they don’t have cars.

Attempting to defend Jeremy Corbyn on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Baroness Chakrabarti said that even the programme’s decision to run an interview with Lord Mandelson in the run-up to last week’s vote could have dented Labour’s chance in a seat that supported Brexit.

‘you’re allowed to have whoever you like,’ she told Mr Marr. ‘But it wasn’t, if I may say so, the fairest balance a few days before a by-election in two Labour Brexit seats.’

Baroness Chakrabarti, who was handed a peerage by Mr Corbyn last year, also blamed Storm Doris, disunity in the party, Copeland’s ‘remoteness’, and ‘neglect’ of the seat by Labour. ex-Copeland MP Jamie Reed, whose resignation sparked the by- election, said the former human rights lawyer was ‘the epitome of what Labour voters just rejected’.

He wrote on social media: ‘Shami and co have no idea how much the Labour vote dislikes them, even when faced with the evidence.’

Labour MP and former shadow culture secretary Michael Dugher wrote: ‘Pearls of wisdom from the never-having-stood-for-election, joined-ten-minutes-ago wing of the Labour Party: Labour voters “don’t have cars”.’

In her interview, Baroness Chakrabarti, former head of civil rights group Liberty, said: ‘I think Copeland is probably one of those constituencies that was neglected by my own party over some years.’

She added: ‘There was a low turnout in Copeland and, having been to Copeland recently, I know that it’s a very rural constituency. Public transport is not great.’