Labour party

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Labour’s succession battle is well underway

John McDonnell was insisting this morning that Labour was going to win a majority, but just in case, insiders are suggesting that the Shadow Chancellor is planning to take over as interim leader if Jeremy Corbyn resigns after a general election defeat. McDonnell has long championed Rebecca Long-Bailey as a future leader, and there is speculation that he could install her as his shadow chancellor in order to boost her credentials. This explains why those around Corbyn were so keen to try to abolish Tom Watson as deputy leader in September. They tried to force a rule change at the party’s ruling National Executive Committee meeting which would scrap the

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Labour, Question Time and the cult of youth

When’s the Question Time for over-60s, then? Or maybe even over-75s? After all, elderly people face specific social problems: pension issues, care, loneliness. And yet they aren’t getting their very own QT, unlike under-30s, who are. Tonight the BBC is hosting a special youth version of its flagship political show and in the process it is sending out a pretty disturbing message: young people’s views matter more than old people’s. Presented by Emma Barnett and featuring politicians from across the spectrum, tonight’s QT for millennials promises to be an irritating affair. It’s not that I have anything against young people — I was young myself, once. It’s more that self-consciously

Steerpike Steerpike

‘You’re destroying confidence’: John McDonnell taken to task by John Caudwell

Labour’s election strategy has been to go on the attack against Britain’s billionaires. Today one of them responded. Phones4U founder John Caudwell quizzed shadow chancellor John McDonnell on Labour’s economic policy today and it’s safe to say he wasn’t impressed. Caudwell warned McDonnell that his party’s plans could lead to an exodus of wealthy taxpayers from Britain. Here’s what he told McDonnell: Caudwell: ‘…Some of the Labour rhetoric I accept. But the central ethos, when I hear phrases like nobody deserves to be a billionaire, it frightens the living daylights out of me. You know John, the thing is, if the Labour rhetoric was ‘We admire billionaires and we’d like

Saturday

Stephen Daisley

Boris should threaten to back Corbyn’s ridiculous Brexit plan

The decline of the Liberal Democrats continues to give Labour a boost and rattle Tory nerves. Middle class Remainers who dislike Jeremy Corbyn are nonetheless deciding that he is their last best chance to thwart Brexit. Electing an anti-Semitic government so you don’t need to show a passport at Paris Charles de Gaulle is quite the ethical choice but there you go. It’s also a pretty big gamble. We know that Corbyn is a Brexiteer who believes freedom of movement drives down workers’ wages because he has told us as much. Voting for him to stop a hard Brexit isn’t so much holding your nose as poking your own eye, but

Friday

James Kirkup

Corbynomics won’t help the poor

Here’s a curiosity of the 2019 general election: given that both the big parties agree that austerity is over and Britain wants a more generous state, why is no one doing much to help the poor? And why is no one talking about that failure? These questions start with Labour. Jeremy Corbyn’s fans see him as a radical crusader for economic justice, an almost ascetic figure utterly devoted to the disadvantaged. In the mad ‘story’ about Corbyn and the Queen’s speech this week, the Labour leader had a perfectly good tale to tell: he spends part of his Christmas Day in a shelter for the homeless. According to the Social

Thursday

The Spectator

This is the most important election in modern history – so vote, and vote Tory

Next week, voters will decide the future of the government, of Brexit, and perhaps of the Union. Jeremy Corbyn has been admirably clear on what he offers: a radical experiment in far-left economics, going after the wealthy to fund the biggest expansion of government ever attempted in this country. Boris Johnson proposes to complete Brexit and restore much-needed stability to government. But given that about half of voters still oppose Brexit, the race is close. Corbyn offers a new referendum on Brexit. It is easy to snigger at his declaration that he would be neutral during this campaign. But his pledge to be an ‘honest broker’ conceals the deceit that

Maurice Mcleod

What the Tories don’t understand about Corbyn voters

Until recently, the Tories seemed pretty confident about next week’s election. Despite spending three and a half years blundering over Brexit, they were still comfortably ahead of Labour in the polls. In Jeremy Corbyn, they had an opposition leader denounced as a terrorist sympathiser, an unreconstructed communist, a rabid anti-Semite and — in general — an enemy of Britain. You might regard Corbyn this way yourself. If so, then it’s worth asking: if he really is so bad, why has support for Labour been steadily increasing since the election was called? Is the nation going mad — or might there be more to it? I’ve supported and campaigned for Corbyn’s type

Wednesday

Steven Fielding

We are witnessing the death throes of Corbynism

Jeremy Corbyn has given up on winning this election and is currently struggling to ensure that on 12 December Boris Johnson will be denied a Commons majority.  Last week Labour’s campaign strategy switched from trying to win seats to trying not to lose them, reflecting just how badly things are going. With polling day just around the corner, the party has been reduced to sending its chair Ian Lavery to visit once rock-sold northern seats to try and win back former miners to Labour. It should not have been this way. Indeed, according to John McDonnell, Corbyn was just a week away from becoming Prime Minister in 2017. If only

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour tries to quietly edit its manifesto

During this year’s general election campaign, Labour has attempted to repeat their 2017 strategy of costing each commitment made in their manifesto. Given the sums involved, it seems only fair expect the party to lay out – in detail – what they are planning to spend and how they are planning to pay for it. But perhaps this time, their so-called ‘grey book’ wasn’t quite detailed enough. The party has been caught attempting to amend the costings document after its publication two weeks ago. In the original document, the shadow treasury team appear to have confused ‘profit’ with ‘turnover’. Such a mistake will do nothing to allay the fears those

Tuesday

Steerpike

Watch: Did Labour’s NHS trade leak come from Russia?

One of Labour’s key messages throughout this election has been the future of the NHS. The party has used confidential US-UK trade documents to drive home their message that Boris Johnson wants to sell off parts of the health service to American businesses. But last night, social media experts told Reuters that the leak of these sensitive documents had the hallmarks of foreign interference. Jeremy Corbyn has used the leaked paperwork as a campaigning prop on multiple occasions, including on the ITV leader’s debate last month. Having looked through the documents, Mr S has his own views on the veracity of Labour’s claims… Earlier this morning, Labour frontbencher Laura Pidcock was invited on to

Monday

Ross Clark

If Labour want cheaper fares then getting rid of train staff is a good place to start

Another day, another uncosted bribe from Labour. This time, Corbyn is promising to slash a third off rail fares and allow children to travel for free. What wonderful, munificent people we have putting themselves forward to lead us. And of course, it won’t cost the taxpayer an extra penny because, as Labour’s transport spokesman, Andy McDonald, said this morning, it is all coming from a ‘repurposed’ pot of money – money raised through vehicle excise duty, which had been earmarked for road-building. Except, of course, road-building is capital expenditure and subsidising rail fares is current spending. For all its guff about investing in Britain’s future, what Labour is proposing is

Thursday

Charles Moore

All belief systems must accept the danger of ridicule and contempt

In the ‘whataboutery’ which now dominates British politics, no mention of Labour anti-Semitism is complete without a counter-accusation of Tory Islamophobia. It swiftly followed the Chief Rabbi’s condemnation of Labour anti-Semitism on Tuesday. There may well be people in the Conservative party who have an irrational hatred of Muslims, but the term ‘Islamophobia’ should be absolutely resisted. Unlike anti-Semitism, this is a concocted concept. A strand of Muslim thought sees all criticism of the prophet Mohammed and his faith as blasphemy and labours worldwide to ban it. Such Muslims are driven mad by the way Jews can cry ‘racism’ when they are attacked, whereas they cannot. But in fact this

Melissa Kite

Real life – 28 November 2019

She was a trade union activist, she told me. She wanted a second referendum. Well, they all do. I’m starting to think that none of them got out of bed on 23 June 2016. The pink tinge to her hair alarmed me from the start. I have often said that there is a certain type of left-winger who doesn’t care for foil highlights who fears me up more than the rest. I can’t explain it quite. They just scare me. I encountered this young woman out of context, as it were, as she came and went from the fields where I keep my horses. She rents from the same farmer.

Wednesday

Stephen Daisley

The shame of Labour’s liberal supporters

There are many reasons why I am suspicious of the Conservatives’ current lead in the polls. The Tories may have peaked too soon. Labour voters flirting with the Liberal Democrats could return the more they see of Jo Swinson. Many Conservative target seats, while Brexity, have voted Labour since there was a Labour Party to vote for. Landlines still dominate over mobile phones in the sampling methodologies of some pollsters, under-reflecting younger and poorer voters. Labour supporters and Remainers are more likely to turn out than Tories and Brexiteers and a million more voters have joined the roll than did prior to the last election, which just reeks of young

Tuesday

Gus Carter

Labour’s ‘race & faith manifesto’ launch fails to go to plan

Labour launched its ‘Race & Faith Manifesto’ earlier today amid a storm of criticism over the party’s anti-Semitism problem. The latest person to condemn Jeremy Corbyn is the chief rabbi, who questioned whether the Labour leader is fit to become prime minister. During today’s event in north London, Corbyn hit back, insisting that under his government ‘no community will be at risk because of their identity’. The party had hoped the mini-manifesto launch would focus attention on policy ideas such as a wholesale review of the Prevent strategy or the scrapping of random stop and searches. But it didn’t go to plan. Outside the venue in Tottenham, activists had parked

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn flounders on anti-Semitism, Brexit, tax and spending

Jeremy Corbyn’s interview with Andrew Neil was one of the most uncomfortable half hours of the Labour leader’s tenure. In contrast to the ITV debate, where he appeared confident and quick-witted, Corbyn struggled to answer questions on a number of different issues, complaining all the while that Neil wouldn’t let him finish. By the end, he might have wished that he’d had more interruptions as this was a very poor interview. His refusal to apologise for the Labour party’s handling of anti-Semitism has naturally attracted the most attention. He point blank disagreed with the Chief Rabbi, saying he was ‘not right’ to say it was ‘mendacious fiction’ that Labour had

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Corbyn doesn’t care about reassuring British Jews

An allegedly racist party protesting its innocence has many strategies open to it. The best is to admit its guilt and reform. Labour cannot because Labour’s leader and his supporters are so contaminated by racial prejudice they lack the moral capacity to change, or even admit to themselves the need to change. Labour might try to meet specific Jewish fears and begin by accepting that they are genuine. It is not just that Jewish people and their allies would not like prime minister Corbyn to take power as a result, one assumes, of some tartan-Stalin pact between Labour and the SNP. Our biased electoral system ensures that most voters don’t

Sunday

Steerpike

Watch: Angela Rayner continues Labour’s Brexit confusion

Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner took to the Andrew Marr Show this morning to discuss her party’s Brexit position. The veteran BBC interviewer questioned Ms Rayner on whether her party would campaign for their newly renegotiated Brexit deal if a future Labour government was to put it to the people. The Labour frontbencher decided to dodge the question, calling it a ‘hypothetical’. Is the party now rowing back on Jeremy Corbyn’s commitment to stay neutral during any future referendum? A clip from the discussion can be found here:

Friday

Steven Fielding

Jeremy Corbyn is a pale imitation of Clement Attlee

To excited cheers, Angela Rayner last week promised Labour supporters that a Jeremy Corbyn-led government ‘would knock the socks off’ the one led by Clement Attlee. Given Attlee oversaw the creation of the NHS and the nationalisation of 20 per cent of the economy while establishing a universalist welfare state, not to mention building nearly one million homes – and all during a time of acute post-war shortages – Rayner’s claim was a brave one. Given its record, the government elected in 1945 is Labour’s version of Motherhood and Apple Pie. It has long enjoyed a revered status across the party. During the early 1980s, both those who left Labour

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Jeremy Corbyn’s credibility problem

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party manifesto has made the front of all the papers today. The response is mixed. While the Daily Mail labels it a ‘Marxist manifesto’ and the Telegraph an ‘£83bn tax blitz on the middles classes’, the Mirror hails it as proof for readers that Corbyn is ‘on your side’. However, the issue for the Labour leader isn’t just that the ideas inside that document – which range from a £11bn windfall tax on the oil industry to a four day working week to a five per cent pay rise for public sector workers – divide opinion, it’s whether those who like what they’re hearing believe Corbyn can