Labour at war as second peer resigns party whip over differences with Corbyn and Mandelson slams 'unprofessional' choice of spin doctor 

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Lord Grabiner, pictured, became the second Labour peer to announce he had resigned the party whip over Mr Corbyn's leadership 

Lord Mandelson said the appointment of Labour's new spin doctor is an 'unprofessional' choice by Jeremy Corbyn - shortly before another peer resigned over differences with the party leader.

The criticism came as barrister Lord Grabiner became the second Labour peer to announce he had resigned the party whip over Mr Corbyn's leadership.

Guardian associate editor Seumas Milne is joining the new leader's sen

ior team 'on leave' from the newspaper, to the anger of some moderate MPs amid fears it will push the party further to the left. 

Lord Grabiner - who will now sit with the non-aligned crossbench peers - announced his resignation and told The Times: 'I can't square (staying) with my conscience'.

He added: 'I have nothing in common whatever with Mr Corbyn - and I don't believe we are ever going to win an election.'

He follows former health minister Lord Warner.

A spokesman for Labour in the Lords said: 'We welcome Tony's continued membership and support of the party.

'We know he has been increasingly busy and less able to attend the Lords to participate in House business, and we of course understand his decision to relinquish the Labour whip.'  

Meanwhile Lord Mandelson - a driving force behind reforms to the party in the 1980s and 1990s who was at the heart of New Labour's spin operation - told BBC's Week in Westminster he was unimpressed by Mr Corbyn's time at the helm since his surprise election.

'I don't think he's growing into the job at all, no,' the former cabinet minister said.

'I don't think he is showing any professionalism in his leadership of the Labour Party and you see from his appointment of his strategy and communications director Seumas Milne, whom I happen to know and like as it happens but (is) completely unsuited to such a job.

'He has little connection with mainstream politics or mainstream media in the country and yet he's in charge of communications for the Labour Party.

'That doesn't sound very professional to me.'

The arch-Blairite has faced calls for his expulsion from the party for 'openly inciting insurrection' against Mr Corbyn, but he has insisted he is 'not going anywhere'. 

Lord Mandelson (pictured left) criticised Jeremy Corbyn's (right) 'unprofessional' choice of spin doctor, shortly before a second peer resigned the party whip over differences with the Labour leader

Another former close adviser to Tony Blair - ex-Downing Street chief of staff Jonathan Powell - has warned against a 'Stalinist' stifling of dissent.

Asked for his view of the party under Mr Corbyn, he told BBC Radio 4's Today: 'It's slightly distressing to see it going off in a direction I'm not very sympathetic to.

'I think the main thing is whether the organisation remains free to lots of different views, the views of dissent that, of course, were tolerated in the past from the other side.

'If it does become a Stalinist operation, then we've got a problem.'