Labour party

Thursday

Hugo Rifkind

Hand over £25, or the centre-left gets it

In order to become a ‘registered supporter’ of the Labour party, you first have to disclose whether you’re a member of an organisation opposed to the Labour party. Such as, I suppose, the Labour party. You also have to affirm that you agree with the party’s ‘aims and values’, which must be the hardest bit, because who alive now knows what those are? If the leader of the Labour party — to pick an example not wholly at random — agrees with the aims of the Labour party, then how come he just voted against the party’s own manifesto in order to oppose Trident? Or is the idea supposed to

Wednesday

Hugo Rifkind

Hand over £25, or the centre-left gets it | 20 July 2016

In order to become a ‘registered supporter’ of the Labour party, you first have to disclose whether you’re a member of an organisation opposed to the Labour party. Such as, I suppose, the Labour party. You also have to affirm that you agree with the party’s ‘aims and values’, which must be the hardest bit, because who alive now knows what those are? If the leader of the Labour party — to pick an example not wholly at random — agrees with the aims of the Labour party, then how come he just voted against the party’s own manifesto in order to oppose Trident? Or is the idea supposed to

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

The moral case against Jeremy Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters are making much of Owen Smith’s work as a corporate lobbyist for Big Pharma before he entered politics. Whether he behaved unethically is irrelevant. To anyone who knows the culture of the left, his old job description alone can be enough to damn him. Reciting ‘corporate lobbyist’ in many  left-wing quarters produces the same effect as reciting Satan’s name in a nunnery. No wickedness is unimaginable once such a demon is conjured from the depths. As I would expect, Corbyn supporters are already implying on the basis of no evidence whatsoever that Smith wants to privatise the NHS. Whether Smith responds in kind will tell you whether moral arguments

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Which Labour MPs are backing Owen Smith?

Owen Smith is now in a head-to-head battle with Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership. We’ll know by September 24th – the day before the Labour party conference starts – who has come out on top. As things stand, Corbyn is the clear favourite: a recent YouGov poll put the party’s current leader 20 points ahead of his rival. But Owen Smith is not going to relinquish without a fight and has already been doing his best to counter one of his main problems – how well-known he is. Smith has been positioning himself as the ‘radical’ yet ‘normal’ alternative to Corbyn in various interviews. He’s also vowed to be

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Coffee House Shots: Owen Smith’s ‘Mission-bloody-difficult’

Jeremy Corbyn is the clear favourite to win the Labour leadership battle, if yesterday’s YouGov poll is anything to go on. But now that Angela Eagle has dropped out of the race, is it just possible that Owen Smith might unite the anti-Corbyn vote and oust Jeremy? In this Coffee House Shots podcast, Fraser Nelson is joined by Isabel Hardman and YouGov’s Marcus Roberts to discuss what chance Owen Smith has in this race. Marcus Roberts tells Fraser Nelson that: ‘It’s not Mission Impossible – but it is a Mission Bloody Difficult, to put it mildly. What Owen Smith has to do now is to appeal – not just to

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Is Owen Smith ‘radical’ or ‘normal’? He needs to be both to defeat Corbyn

Owen Smith has told us he’s both ‘radical’ and ‘normal’. It doesn’t take a genius to work out those characteristics aren’t compatible. Yet, Owen Smith knows he needs to try and be both if he is to defy the huge odds and win this Labour leadership race. And therein lies the problem. Smith is deftly attempting a balancing act between praising Corbyn (his ‘radical’ bit) whilst trying to offer those policies in a more electable package (the ‘normal’ bit). So can Smith manage to do both? It’s going to be a tricky ask but he tried his best just now during his Today interview. After praising Corbyn as someone who

Tuesday

Rod Liddle

If smarmy Owen Smith is the answer, Labour’s asking the wrong question

Jesus H Christ. Is this what it comes down to? A smarmy post-Tribunite nonentity swathed in unrealistic ambition, versus Chauncey Gardener? It is close to pointless wondering who to support between these political titans, Owen Smith or Jeremy Corbyn. If Smith wins, which I doubt very, very, much, he is no more adept to change the nature of the party than is Corbyn. He has not the nous, balls or means to challenge the activist base and thus recapture those Labour votes which, since 2005, have been winnowing away to Ukip, or the Tories, or to nowhere. Nor even that much support within the PLP. There are two big issues

Steerpike Steerpike

Angela Eagle’s leadership campaign ends with yet another gaffe – ‘porridge!’

Today Angela Eagle has announced that she is dropping out of the Labour leadership race. Her decision comes after a campaign that has seen Eagle struggle to catch a break since it first kicked off — with hacks walking out of her campaign launch to attend Andrea Leadsom’s. So, perhaps it’s fitting that her campaign ended on a similar note. In an interview with Sky News, Eagle performed a routine sound test in which the producer checked the audio quality by asking her what she had had for breakfast. However, the broadcaster actually went live while this was going on. This meant viewers saw the former shadow business secretary repeatedly shout

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Angela Eagle pulls out of Labour leadership contest

In the past few minutes, Angela Eagle has pulled out of the Labour leadership contest, citing insufficient nominations in the race with Owen Smith. ‘I’m withdrawing from this race and supporting Owen with all of my enthusiasm and might,’ she told reporters in Parliament’s Central Lobby. This means that Labour now has its unity candidate to fight Jeremy Corbyn, and even those MPs who feel rather politically distant from Owen Smith will have to pull behind him in the name of dislodging Jeremy Corbyn. Supporters of Eagle will be angry that she took all the political heat and abuse for sticking her neck out first and triggering the contest, but

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Why Labour deserves to die

Who might save the Labour Party? That’s the question dividing dinner parties across London, causing spats at media soirees, getting socially conscious celebs scratching their heads. I have a different question. Why save the Labour Party? Save it to do what? To be what? To think what? The middle-class tussle over the future of Labour has become so obsessed with the stickler of which individual might make Labour electable again — safe, bland bet Owen Smith or ‘working-class northern girl’ Angela Eagle? — that its various factions have forgotten the purpose of a political party: to represent something, to say something, to embody popular opinion. Never have I so strongly

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Coffee House shots: the doomed Labour leadership challenge

Support for leadership contenders Angela Eagle and Owen Smith are roughly evenly split within the party – though all involved agree that only one can go forward if the party is to have any chance of purging Corbyn. But in this Coffee House shots podcast, James Forsyth tells Fraser Nelson that there might not even be a point to the contest: ‘The real news this morning is this YouGov poll which suggests that Jeremy Corbyn is on course to beat either of them – and quite comfortably.’ But if the Labour party is unsuccessful in purging Corbyn, then the party faces mass deselection of MPs at best, and the death of the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The Labour leadership contest looks set to be savage

Labour MPs are currently nominating candidates in the party’s leadership contest to replace Jeremy Corbyn. The current Labour leader does not need any nominations, but as the challengers, Angela Eagle and Owen Smith do. A deal has been done between the candidates for the one with the least support to step aside from the contest so that the membership has to chose between just Corbyn and one challenger and the moderate anti-Corbyn vote is not split. Owen Smith has enjoyed some good attention and momentum in the past few days, with MPs who had previously supported Eagle bleeding off to his campaign instead. But sources on the Eagle campaign insist

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Can Labour MPs use Trident disarray to oust Corbyn?

Demonstrations of Labour party disunity are ten-a-penny these days. But even so, last night’s Trident debate was still something to behold: 140 Labour MPs went against Jeremy Corbyn to back Trident renewal. Yet it wasn’t numbers but the words Labour MPs said which will have damaged Corbyn the most. Scores of backbenchers accused Corbyn of going against the party’s own manifesto policy on the vote. In one of the most damning speeches, John Woodcock said: ‘What Labour’s current front bench are doing is not principled. It shows contempt for the public, for party members and often in what they say for the truth.’ He went on to say the Trident vote

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Trident: How every MP voted

MPs have voted to renew Trident by an overwhelming margin: 472 voted for, compared to 172 against. It’s no great surprise that the decision to approve the replacement of Britain’s four nuclear submarines passed. Perhaps what was more interesting was the split on the Labour benches opposite the Government, with 140 of the party’s MPs going against Jeremy Corbyn and backing Trident. So, how did your local MP vote in the Trident debate? Here’s the Spectator’s full run-through of every MP and which way they sided: For: Conservatives: Adam Afriyie (Windsor), Peter Aldous (Waveney), Lucy Allan (Telford), Heidi Allen (Cambridgeshire South), Sir David Amess (Southend West), Stuart Andrew (Pudsey), Caroline Ansell

Monday

James Forsyth

The political theatre of the Trident debate

The Trident debate might be about national security, but all the parties have political points they want to make. Indeed, the reason the debate is happening now is that the Tories wanted something to bring them together, and divide, Labour post-referendum. Angus Robertson, the SNP’s Westminster leader, began with a few kind words for the new Prime Minister. But then, he was straight on to repeatedly—and theatrically—asking the government front bench to set out what the full life time cost of the Trident replacement would be. There is an argument to be had about the cost of Trident—and whether it is the most effective form of defence spending—but Robertson’s argument

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Corbyn savaged by his own MPs as he refuses to read out Labour policy on Trident

If you wanted evidence to support the repeated assertion from Labour MPs that Jeremy Corbyn cannot continue as Labour leader, today’s Trident debate offered it in cartloads. The vote, which had been promised in 2007 by a Labour defence secretary, is supposed to be about the renewal of the submarines that carry the nuclear warheads. But today’s debate was more about the deep split within the Labour party over the matter, and the contempt with which so many Labour backbenchers view their leadership. In most parliamentary debates led by the leaders of the two main parties, what normally happens is that backbenchers intervene on their respective leaders to offer supportive

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Is Owen Smith the answer to Labour’s Corbyn problem?

As Katy reports, Labour appeared rather divided at its leadership hustings today. Behind the scenes, Owen Smith does seem to be attracting the greater support, including defectors from Angela Eagle’s camp. Some of those around Eagle are upset that their party may be about to elect yet another man when a woman has had the bravery to start the leadership contest and to take a great deal of abuse for doing it too (her office had a brick thrown through its window last week). But they accept that even their party’s rather embarrassing failure to get anywhere close to the Tories in terms of female leaders is a second order

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Angela Eagle caught in a bear trap at Labour hustings

With nominations for the Labour leadership contest set to open this evening, the three hopefuls made their case to the Parliamentary Labour Party today at a lunchtime hustings. Despite Jeremy Corbyn being automatically on the ballot, he did grace the room with his presence — though as one MP remarked: ‘he couldn’t really not turn up. It would have been a gross sign of disrespect if he hadn’t’. Corbyn’s performance was — predictably — met with little enthusiasm from MPs. His talk of the need for the party to work together was seen to be a hollow remark given the divided state the party is in. However, the hustings were never really about him, but

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

The frivolity of the Left

I can tell you why hundreds of thousands think that ‘Jeremy’ – as they insist on calling him – must prevail. I can take you through it all: the oligarchs on one side and the food banks on the other; the Iraq war and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction; the bailing out of the banking system without one, not one, banker being prosecuted for ruining the economy or ravishing the exchequer; the inversion of the natural order, that preference for the past over the future, which has seen the government load benefit cuts and fees on the young while gifting pension rises and tax giveaways to the

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Today’s Trident vote will show how the split within Labour is widening

One of the first things Theresa May will have been briefed on when she took over as Prime Minister last week is the protocol for firing nuclear weapons. She’ll have been handed the nuclear codes in the clearest demonstration, if she doubted it before, that she really is in charge. And today, in her first Commons test as PM, she’ll be saying it would be a ‘gross irresponsibility’ to ditch Trident. She’ll also go on to say ‘abandoning’ our ‘ultimate safeguard’ would be a ‘reckless gamble’. In truth, she has little to worry about as to whether the vote will go through: barring a big upset, the Government will win comfortably