LONDON - The crowing announcement that Britain's Labour Party had hired Barack Obama's campaign guru and former adviser David Axelrod to help propel it back to power distilled why it might need the strategist’s help.
The release on Labour’s website misspelled Axelrod’s name in the headline: "David Alexrod joins the team."
This is not a mistake anyone would want to make, but it is especially embarrassing as the center-left party's Ed Miliband has been parodied in popular satirical magazine “Private Eye” as a bumbling and feckless Mr. Bean-like character.
“The strategist who masterminded Barack Obama’s back-to-back presidential victories in 2008 and 2012 has agreed to work with Labour to get Ed Miliband elected as Prime Minister in 2015,” declared the statement, which remained uncorrected for hours.
After helping craft the image that later swept Obama to power in 2008, Axelrod then worked with the White House's communications team.
“In his work for President Obama, David helped shape a campaign that reflected his vision, focused on building an economy that works for all hardworking people and not just a privileged few," Miliband said of his new hire.
While Labour is leading in some polls, Miliband has been criticized for not taking a strong enough stand on an array of issues, including the ruling Conservative-led coalition’s sweeping economic reforms.
Axelrod will earn a six-figure sum as "senior strategic adviser" to Miliband as Labour aims to unseat Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015, according to reports in the British media.
A Labour Party spokeswoman declined to comment on either the appointment or the mistake.
A representative of the Conservative Party chuckled when the error was pointed out to him, but also declined to comment.
Sarah Burke of NBC News contributed to this report.
