With just 45 hours to go until the polls opened, Sood slammed the leader of his own party. As every media outlet in the country picked up the story, Peter Mandelson picked up the phone – and gave Manish an ear-bashing.

The phonecall ended on bad terms, and one of them hung up. Mandelson then toured the TV channels, making some questionable slurs on Sood’s character.

We all thought that was the end of the matter.

However word reaches me that Lord Mandelson, in his rage, forgot to withhold his mobile telephone number when he made the call.

Suddenly, the hyperactive councillor had a personal hotline to the Labour Party’s chief strategist. And, predictably, he’s been using it.

Lord Mandelson will presumably dial 141 before calling off-message candidates in future.