PUTTING the bubbles, if not the principles, back into champagne socialism, the Labour Party has taken to the bottle to cope with its mounting debts.

In a marketing ploy that may appal ale-swigging leftwingers, Labour is offering its members the opportunity to get into party mood and boost party funds by splashing out on claret, chablis and champagne.

The drinks are advertised on Labour’s website beside more traditional items about unions and winter fuel payments.

The party, facing its worst cash crisis with debts of £5 million from the general election and a £5.5 million mortgage on its new headquarters, will be hoping that 2003 is a vintage year for its wine sales.

Billed as a “great drinks offer” on Labour’s website, co-opdrinks2u, run in association with the Co-op, promises to “donate a percentage of the money you spend to Labour”.

The drinks promotion is advertised next to an item on antisocial behaviour.

The traditional party of beer and sandwiches is promoting a case of wines “perfect for impressing guests at a dinner party” which includes three bottles each of the Co-op’s own Les Pionniers champagne, Matua Valley sauvignon blanc and Co-op Three Worlds pinotage shiraz zinfandel, plus three half-bottles of Brown Brothers orange muscat and flora dessert wine.

It would set you back £88.38 but, alas, does not impress Jane MacQuitty, The Times wine correspondent.

Miss MacQuitty commented: “Well done the Co-op for reviving its links with Labour, but these tie-ups are seldom a good deal. They may start with good intentions, but almost invariably end with low-quality wines passed off with just one or two good ones. Les Pionniers is a dreadful champagne and was one of the worst in my pre-Christmas tasting. Any red wine with one third pinotage is going to be pretty disgusting and Matua Valley is not the best of the mid-price New Zealand sauvignons.”

Labour’s history with wine has not been happy. The party could not keep its pre-eminent claret lover, Roy Jenkins, and No 10 was criticised last year for serving the Queen the classically beefy 1962 Château Latour claret with roast turbot, a pairing condemned by connoisseurs as sacrilege.

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