Jeremy Corbyn's team have sent a soundbite-heavy script to Labour shadow cabinet members, instructing them to tell the media that the party has given up "the old way of doing politics" in favour of new "honest, straight-talking politics".
One party adviser said the briefings, intended to instil message discipline, were "exactly the same" media management strategy that existed under previous leader Ed Miliband.
Although Corbyn insisted he would allow debate within the party, the Labour leader's office has begun issuing the scripts to leading members of the parliamentary party.
Sunday's briefing note, passed to BuzzFeed News, shows shadow cabinet members are being asked to tell to journalists that the "real story" of the conference is that Labour is a "united party". Media coverage of the event had been expected to be dominated by disputes over Corbyn's policy direction among Labour MPs.
In a section entitled "Sunday script update", shadow cabinet members are also told how to describe the mood at the party's annual conference in Brighton.
"The real story of this conference is that Labour is a growing and united party," the document suggests shadow cabinet members tell the media. "Labour members have provided a massive mandate for unity, the largest direct mandate of any Labour leader in history. And that is the mood everywhere you go in Conference. We will use the huge mandate of the new leader to focus Labour's energy on opposing the failing policies of the government."
Recent recruits to Corbyn's private office are credited with the return to such traditional methods of political media management, in an attempt to reduce the number of damaging headlines about the Labour leader.
