The Tory candidate is Edward Timpson, scion of the multi-millionaire family and therefore, according to Labour, a toff.

The party sent activists dressed in top hat and tails to sabotage an appearance with David Cameron.

Timpson's response was to point out that his parents fostered dozens of disadvantaged children, and he has thus seen life from all sides
The toff charge marks a new low in Labour Party campaigning. It's what an American might call a cheap shot – a low and lazy attack that diminishes the shooter more than its target.

But we can expect to hear more 'toff' insults hurled at the Tories. Many of their top rank are from privileged backgrounds; both David Cameron and Boris Johnson were, as students, members of the notorious Bullingdon Club which got up to all manner of offensive, drunken japes.
I don't know about you, but if I entered public life, I'd prefer not to be judged by how much money my parents earned and where I went to school. And I'd hope to draw a veil over any boozed-up high-jinks I got up to as an undergraduate.

But Labour sees this stuff as fair game – which is more worrying for Labour than for the Tories.

If the toff insult carries any weight, it is by implication: A toff, goes the prejudice, is likely to harbour an ingrained snobbery and a callous disregard for society's unfortunates. Give a toff power, and we'll see fat cats get fatter while the rest of us go hang.

Does that description match the modern Tory party? I think we should be told. Prove us wrong in our prejudices, David Cameron. Show us your policies, show us how you'll pay for them; only then we can decide who's really fit to run the country.

This is the line Labour should be taking. Ask Alistair Campbell. On Newsnight last week, when considering the 'toff' campaign against Timpson, Campbell did a throw-away version of his trademark sneer, and argued that Labour should fight the Tories on policy grounds, where he believes they still have a chance.

Crewe has had a Labour MP for 25 years. Surely the line should have been that much had been achieved there, and the Tory candidate must not be given the chance to wreck it.

For all I know, this was indeed argued on doorsteps throughout the constituency, but the top hats and tails act has caught the nation's attention, and the message it sends to the country at large is one of desperation as well as hypocrisy.

More depressing still, if politicians have sunk to this level, why shouldn't the rest of us?

As a class-based insult that trips off the tongues of those who should know better, 'toff' is no better than 'chav'. Both are gaining an unearned acceptability.

Those of us who once hoped we were moving towards a genuine meritocracy where our class origins weren't held against us will be dismayed by this resurgence of two-way snobbery.

Labour should ditch this obsession with class. And the rest of us should judge our politicians not on where they came from, but on where they're planning to take us.

awolstenholme@ywng.co.uk