As Labour conference kicked off on Sunday on Brighton pier, it was a case of the ghosts of Labour’s past at the annual New Statesman party. The magazine’s editor Jason Cowley told attendees who had their journeys affected by train works not to worry as ‘Corbyn has a plan for the railways’, before reflecting on what had happened to the party in the space of a year. ‘At our party last year in Manchester Ed Miliband was standing beside me and I introduced him as our next Prime Minister,’ he told partygoers at Brighton’s Al Fresco restaurant.
While Miliband stayed away this time, the party’s new leader was also notably absent. With Lucy Powell locked deep in conversation with her MiliBrand co-conspirator Eddie Izzard, it fell on former shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna to rally the troops with a speech. Alas Umunna — who declined a job in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet — wasted no time in taking a swipe at his successor Angela Eagle. ‘Unfortunately
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