LABOUR leaders were in hot water yesterday over the sale of a controversial new mug bearing the slogan “controls on immigration.”

The £5 mug caused a stir when it went on sale on Saturday, with Labour activists and opposition parties scolding it on social media.

Critics said the ceramic celebration of Labour’s immigration policy, one of five included on its general election pledge card, showed that the party is pandering to Ukip.

Labour MP Diane Abbott slammed the “shameful” mug as an “embarrassment” for Labour on Twitter, adding “real problem is that immigration controls are one of our five pledges at all.”

And Campaign for Labour Party Democracy spokesman John Lansman blasted the strategy as a “mug’s game” for Labour.

“Whatever you think about immigration, the idea that you can sum up your policy on a pledge card in a soundbite of just three words — ‘Controls on immigration’ is absurd,” he wrote on the Left Futures blog.

“Doing so on a pledge card is pandering to Ukip.

“Doing so on a bit of cheap merchandising is tacky, stupid, gratuitously offensive, and has nothing to do with serious politics.”

Seizing on the strained relations, members of Labour’s left-wing rivals issued mock-ups of their own mugs.

A unofficial Green Party alternative with the slogan “standing up for migrants” was issued on a poster, saying: “I’m no mug, vote Green.”

The row was brewing after Labour leader Ed Miliband said during last week’s TV debate that immigration was too high under the last Labour government.

But a Labour spokesperson insisted it was a storm in a teacup, saying: “Labour has five election pledges. This is one of the election pledges.”

The infamous immigration mug is one of five designs based on Labour’s election pledges.

And it was quickly becoming a collector’s item yesterday as more than 200 snapped up the mug for their English tea.

Sales far outstripped those of mugs bearing Labour’s pledges on the NHS, economy and living standards.

“The politics of the anti-immigration mug may be terrible, but it is clearly going to be the bad taste Xmas present of choice for lefties this year,” Mr Lansman said.