Labour party

Why do politicians constantly bring plagues on their own houses? This week, the Tories have embraced the Jared O’Mara allegations with gusto, prompting Theresa May to speak about it at Prime Minister’s Questions, calling for emergency debates and writing letters about the matter. Some Labourites have been responding by pointing out that it’s highly unlikely the Tories will be entirely clear of sexists themselves. Of course, the Labour point is being deployed as whataboutery to distract from the party’s own nightmare with its Sheffield Hallam MP. But it is also true – and given there is now an appetite in the media for exposing other MPs for similar behaviour, it

How did Jared O’Mara end up in Parliament, and will he remain there for much longer? Today he was suspended from the Labour whip, and an investigation was launched into the allegations about his online posts and conversations, including an allegation that he used misogynistic and transphobic language to a constituent this year. The suspension happened just before Prime Minister’s Questions, and after the session, Jeremy Corbyn’s spokesman said the party had acted today because the latest claims, which O’Mara disputes, related to more recent behaviour. The curious thing is that while some of O’Mara’s colleagues say they had known about the allegations for weeks – as well as the

The Women and Equalities Select Committee is a member down today after one of its male intake was forced to resign on Monday over his formerly misogynistic behaviour. However, to the surprise of some feminists, it’s not Philip Davies, the man many have spent the past year calling a misogynist, but Labour’s Jared O’Mara. The MP for Sheffield Hallam’s equality credentials have been cast into doubt after Guido uncovered a series of online messages from him dating back ten years or so. They include calling gay people ‘fudge packers’ and ‘poofters’, asking Girls Aloud for an orgy (on the condition the blonde member wasn’t in the picture), and claiming fat women don’t

With the Labour party currently leading in the polls, it’s easy to think that the party’s problem with anti-Semitism must have been resolved. However, Andrew Neil was on hand this week to remind the public that this is not the case. In the keynote speech at the Holocaust Education Trust dinner in London, Neil launched an attack on the left for getting away with it ‘in the way that the anti-Semitism of the far right is not allowed to get away with it’: ‘At the Labour Conference, in a fringe meeting, but official enough to be on the official programme of the Labour Party Conference, one person – a chair

For George Osborne, it was the 5:2 diet that was credited for sculpting his political ambitions. His decision to shed the pounds was taken as a sign by the commentariat that he had serious leadership ambitions. So, Mr S was curious to hear that Labour’s Tom Watson is now on a mission to lose weight. Writing in his newsletter, Labour’s deputy leader says he is on a diet – or a ‘lifestyle change’, if you’d prefer: ‘Did I tell you I’m on a diet? I know you’re not supposed to call them that anymore, to be on message they have to be a ‘lifestyle change. Using rudimentary ‘nudge theory’ every time

If Labour’s party conference in Brighton suggested the party was in a celebratory mood, that sense of triumphalism has been vindicated by the shambolic gathering of Conservatives in Manchester. The comparison between the two parties has been starker than ever: the buoyant Corbynistas laying out Marxism to unwavering applause, whilst bickering Conservatives can’t even sell their policies to a paying audience. If the Labour party looked in rude health last Wednesday, they look an even more attractive proposition after the Maybot suffered an all too human malfunction during her headline address yesterday. A circular that went out to Labour party members after the Prime Minister’s speech was clearly drafted before

The people’s flag is even deeper red in Scottish Labour, where the daggers are plunging in all directions amid a bloody leadership battle.  Interim leader Alex Rowley has been secretly recorded admitting he backs left-wing candidate Richard Leonard, despite promising to remain neutral in the contest. It comes barely a week after Rowley’s turn as Fife’s answer to Mark Antony at First Minister’s Questions, where a jeremiad against millionaires was widely interpreted as a veiled denunciation of Anas Sarwar, the centrist candidate and a chap with a bob or two million to spare.  The Rowley tape also contains a reference to ‘private discussions’ on the future of Kezia Dugdale, who has since departed as

Brexit has been an odd sideshow to the Labour conference, with pro-Corbyn factions such as Momentum working hard to keep the topic away from any awkward votes on the floor of the Brighton Centre hall. Perhaps that’s why it took more than an hour for anyone to mention it as a potential issue the party needed to think about at tonight’s Fabian Question Time fringe. By this point, we had run over the same arguments for solving the housing crisis that are wheeled out and then packed away without much progress, tax avoidance, and the Labour Party’s problem with anti-semitism (none of the speakers tried to claim this didn’t exist,