All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Some Labour supporters, it’s fair to say, do not like hearing hard truths. So when a journalist at Jeremy Corbyn’s first speech of the general election campaign asked about the party’s dismal support in the polls – and whether Corbyn merely spoke for an ‘Islington elite’ – there was only going to be one outcome.
With a new poll out today giving the Conservatives a 24 point lead over Labour, the June election already looks like a done deal to many. But today Jeremy Corbyn tried to put his party’s woes to one side as he launched Labour’s campaign with his first speech of the election. As hacks were heckled for asking about
The dividing lines in this election could not be clearer from the outset. It is the Conservatives, the party of privilege and the richest, versus the Labour Party, the party that is standing up for working people to improve the lives of all. It is the establishment versus the people and it is our historic
Two days into the election campaign, and the polls are already jaw-dropping. The latest You Gov has the Tories on 48 percent, 24 points ahead of Labour—and that’s before the Tory attack machine has gone to work on Jeremy Corbyn. Now, there is a chance that the Tory lead is being exaggerated by the methodological changes
It’s day two of the snap election campaign and already tensions are running high. In particular, Sky News‘s Adam Boulton is having a rather testing week. After the news presenter speculated on Tuesday that Theresa May’s surprise announcement could relate to an illness, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff sent ‘Bunter’ a text telling him she
What does it mean to be rich? That’s the question already getting the Labour party into a tangle as it struggles to get its act together ahead of the snap general election. Yesterday, John McDonnell said a Labour government would send a higher tax bill the way of all workers earning over £70,000. The shadow
The General Election campaign is officially underway – and the newspapers have wasted no time in compiling their wish lists. Here are the policies the papers want to see put into practise: Theresa May’s plan for Brexit – leaving the single market and being ‘free from EU courts’ – gets the wholehearted backing from the Sun. But
Since I suggested last July that Theresa May, newly anointed as leader of the Conservative and Unionist party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, should call an election to both establish her own legitimacy and allow the country an argument over the kind of Brexit it preferred, it would
Who’d be a Labour MP? Despite the best efforts of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Corbyn is going nowhere and, if the polls are to be believed, he’s leading Labour to electoral oblivion. A general election landslide is on the cards for the Tories, with some estimates suggesting the Government could boost its majority by more
I used to like aphorisms. Maybe a little too much. In the good old days, I sought them out on Google – their infinite wisdom reassuring validation for whatever romantic or existential mess I’d gotten myself into. Today, they hold the appeal of a ripe Époisses. Rendered hackneyed and empty by social media. Occasionally, amid
At the time of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997, Prince William and Prince Harry were in Balmoral. Somebody who claimed to know told me shortly afterwards that what the boys had most wanted to do, in reaction to the terrible news, was to go out and shoot a stag. They were
Mortgage Freedom Day. It has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? Just imagine: no mortgage. I wonder what that feels like. According to Halifax, yesterday was UK Mortgage Freedom Day, the point in the calendar when new borrowers will have earned enough to pay off the annual cost of their mortgage. So not quite the
The opposition parties about whom Theresa May complained in her speech launching the snap election are grinding into action. Their size and resources seem to be inversely proportionate to how prepared they are: the Lib Dems say they have already selected around 400 candidates to contest seats, while Labour hasn’t selected any candidates in seats
Just seven weeks till Jezza-geddon. The Labour leader seemed to anticipate his political extinction with a dead-sheep performance at PMQs. Poor Corbo. He’s never shaken off the air of Speakers’ Corner. He belongs outdoors, with a step-ladder and a bull-horn, ranting away at tourists and pigeons. Today he was faced with a carefully drilled Tory
Yvette Cooper was the surprise star of PMQs today after she made the Prime Minister squirm with a stinging question about Theresa May’s election U-turn: ‘The Prime Minister yesterday said she was calling a general election because Parliament was blocking Brexit. But three quarters of MPs and two thirds of the Lords voted for Article
The snap election is on. MPs have voted by 522 votes to 13 to back the government motion calling for an early general election on June 8. With a comfortable majority of 509, the votes far exceed the two-thirds majority required to overturn the Fixed Terms Parliaments Act. Of the 13 MPs who voted against the motion,
I worked on the first TV debate of the Scottish referendum. I was involved in countless more. I was to be found on the production team for televised clashes during the 2015 general election and the 2016 vote for Holyrood. So I speak with some experience when I say TV debates are a terrible idea.
George Osborne’s decision to stand down as an MP is a sign of how impregnable Theresa May’s position is perceived to be. Osborne is the most politically formidable of the Tory sceptics of May’s Brexit plan, and his decision to quit the Commons suggests that he doesn’t think she’ll come unstuck in the next parliament.
After Theresa May performed an election U-turn on Monday and called for a snap election, today’s PMQs saw competing parties draw out their battle lines for the weeks ahead. The SNP’s Angus Robertson criticised May for dodging the TV debates and she in turn told the SNP to get on with the day job. Nigel Evans jumped on
Happy now, everyone? David Baddiel? David Walliams? Our friend Owen Jones, the Guardian’s conscience keeper? And, not least Tory MP Nigel Evans. After being subjected to an inquisition on telly – courtesy of Channel 4’s Cathy Newman – about whether he does or does not regard homosexuality as sin, then a co-ordinated dissing online, and finally
George Osborne has just delivered his first Evening Standard scoop. The London free-sheet reports that the MP for Tatton is quitting as an MP — but will carry on ‘fighting for that Britain’ he ‘loves’ as the editor of the Evening Standard. In a letter to Conservatives in his constituency, Osborne said he would continue to
One of the consequences of the early election is that Britain will find itself without a functioning parliament for six weeks at a time when arguably it has never needed one more. I am sure that many MPs will feel entitled to a holiday after yet another election campaign – or at least those who
In the early hours of 9 June 2017, Jeremy Corbyn conceded defeat. For the luckless political journalists forced to cover the Labour campaign this was a rare moment. The leader of the opposition had avoided the press and public. Now, as Labour was going down to its worst defeat since 1935, Corbyn was at last
There’s little enthusiasm just about anywhere for this summer’s snap general election, and no more so than in Northern Ireland where voters’ growing apathy is mixed with a feeling of dread. Saying that politics in Northern Ireland is rarely straightforward or smooth is something of an understatement. But the timing of this summer’s election could not be
The news on Tuesday that French security services have prevented another attack by Islamic extremists should come as no surprise given the proximity of the election. Nor should the fact that according to police sources the intended target was François Fillon. When police raided the apartments in Marseille of the two suspects, they reportedly discovered
Nick Robinson: You have often presented yourself – you did when you ran for the leadership and to be Prime Minister – as the daughter of a vicar, committed to public service. ‘I just get on with the job in front of me,’ you said. So do you now regret giving your word and so
United Airlines will be cursing the day someone had the bright idea of building cameras into mobile phones. Video clips showing a semi-conscious 69-year-old man being dragged from an overbooked plane after he refused to disembark went viral last week, sending the airline’s reputation into a tailspin. For those who’ve been on a really long
‘There are times, perhaps once every thirty years, when there is a sea-change in politics,’ reflected James Callaghan in 1979, conscious he was about to be turfed out of Number 10. He didn’t know the half of it. While Margaret Thatcher’s election did herald the end of the post-war consensus, it kept the Conservative/Labour ‘mould’
With Labour firmly on the back foot over Theresa May’s call for a snap election, many MPs tonight used a meeting of the PLP to raise concerns over their prospects in an early election. So, surely the Corbynites are doing everything they can to help their comrades cling on? Well, perhaps not. Tonight Paul Mason — the
‘But you promised!’ Anyone who spends much time with children (whether in an Andrea Leadsom-esque capacity as a mother or otherwise) will recognise that phrase. They’re the words of someone disappointed that the grown ups, who are supposed to be sensible, haven’t followed through. Today Theresa May broke her own promise about there being no
Whatever happens in the forthcoming general election, no day of social media can ever compete with the dizzying heights of May 2015. I think I laughed more on the day of the result than I had in the previous decade; sure, it was the twisted and cruel laughter of someone whose dreams are slowly fading,
Theresa May’s surprise announcement today has caught hacks and MPs alike off guard. While Labour MPs fret over the prospect of a snap election, is there also reason for a newly independent MP to sweat? Step forward Douglas Carswell. After quitting Ukip last month to stand as an independent, Carswell upset many Kippers by refusing to hold a
A Brexit election, then. Theresa May will win and claim that victory is all the mandate she needs for whatever comes from the negotiations in Brussels. The working assumption must be that includes leaving the Single Market and the Customs Union, and, of course, an end to free movement when we leave. And we are
It isn’t clear what changed Theresa May’s mind on calling an early general election, something which, as recently as 20 March, she was adamant would not happen. But could the trigger have been nothing to do with Brexit at all? An interesting date is 16 March, when Phillip Hammond reversed the proposed increase in National