Labour to splurge £445,000 on campaign staff as local elections loom

Labour will spend almost £445,000 ($539,945) in a recruitment drive of campaign staff ahead of the local and mayoral elections in May, figures compiled by IBTimes UK on Tuesday (10 January) show.

The roles, including nine £34,683-per year regional organisers and a £46,813 head of elections, have been posted on a popular Westminster jobs board, W4MP.

The regional organisers, including a Scottish organiser, will be handed a fixed-term contract up to 31 May 2020, while two election strategy managers and campaigns head will be given a 12-month-long contract, according to the advertisements.

The hiring spree comes to light as Jeremy Corbyn's team relaunch the Labour leader with a blitz of TV and radio studios this morning, ahead of a major speech on Brexit in the afternoon.

The left-winger is expected to say that Labour is "not wedded" to the EU's free movement rules amid a row over the party's immigration policy.

"Labour is not wedded to freedom of movement for EU citizens as a point of principle," he will say.

"But nor can we afford to lose full access to the European markets on which so many British businesses and jobs depend. Changes to the way migration rules operate from the EU will be part of the negotiations.

"Labour supports fair rules and reasonably managed migration as part of the post-Brexit relationship with the EU."

Corbyn, who backed a Remain vote at the EU referendum, will also controversially claim that "Britain can be better off after Brexit" during the speech in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

The left-winger will hope to gain traction ahead of the elections after the latest national opinion poll from YouGov, of more than 1,700 people between 3 and 4 January put Labour 13 points behind the Conservatives (39% versus 26%).

A Labour spokesperson told IBTimes UK: "We don't comment on staffing matters."