Labour staff dance to Tony Blair tribute song in 'sign of disloyalty' to Jeremy Corbyn at Christmas party

It was described as one of the most awkward work Christmas parties

Jeremy Corbyn's shadow chancellor could have responded better to Osborne's U-turn (PA)

Staff at Labour's Christmas work party risked the wrath of their leader by dancing to Tony Blair’s theme song Things Can Only Get Better.

Jeremy Corbyn had left by the time the famous Blair tribute song came on at 11.15pm at the Conrad St James hotel in Westminster, pulling around 30 Labour party staff to the dance floor.

But no one from Mr Corbyn’s team joined the throng of staffers happily reminiscing about their former leader, who Mr Corbyn rebelled against on more occasions than David Cameron and who earlier this week attacked him for turning the Labour party into a "tragedy".

Earlier the leader had made his best efforts to bridge the gap between staff from the leader’s office and the other party workers, with one explaining how he “sat with each table awkwardly chatting for about 15 minutes each”.

He finished off by toasting the Labour Students table and left, according to one of those present at what was described as one of the most awkward work Christmas parties.

Addressing the room, Mr Corbyn started by saying: “There are a lot of things I could say but won’t,” according to The Times.

Labour’s General Secretary Iain McNicol had opened the evening by introducing Tom Watson as “our fantastic deputy leader,” but failed to mention Mr Corbyn, the newspaper reported.

It was an altogether different Christmas party from previous years, with a replacement Santa needed due to the absence of Ed Balls.

Shadow Cabinet minister Jon Ashworth stepped up to take on the role.

Mr Corbyn also managed to link another communist dictator to the Labour party in his speech at the party - quoting the Albanian Enver Hoxha by telling staff that "this year will be tougher than last year" and directly referring to him as a "tough ruler".

It followed his Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell widely mocked use of Chairman Mao's Little Red Book during his response to the Autumn Statement last month.