Nominations for the Labour leadership contest may have only been open for 24 hours but Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall already have enough to support to make it onto the ballot paper. There are, though, still around 70 MPs who have yet to declare their intensions — see who they are here. All of
The dissection of Labour’s election defeat continues with a very thorough series of pieces in today’s Times by Rachel Sylvester and Michael Savage. Describing Ed Miliband’s tenure as leader as a ‘five-year suicide note’, the articles look at the countless errors of judgment and mistakes made by both Ed Miliband and those around him over the last five years. Here are five interesting
David Miliband just can’t leave his brother’s election defeat alone. After several brutally honest post-election interviews, Miliband Sr. popped up again on CNN last night to offer his harshest analysis yet on his brother’s leadership. Under Ed, David said, Labour actually went backwards: ‘What I think is important for all the candidates [to replace Ed Miliband]
George Osborne is making his first big move as Chancellor in this Parliament. In his Mansion House speech tonight, he will announce a ‘new settlement’ for the economy: a permanent commitment to running budget surpluses in normal times. Osborne will point to the Tories’ election victory as the mandate to enshrine this commitment in law: ‘The result of
Andy Burnham’s Labour leadership bid hit a rough patch at the GMB hustings today. When asked by the moderator Kevin Maguire if he supported the £23,000 a year benefits cap, unlike the other candidates, Burnham was unable to give a straight yes or no answer. As you can watch above, he attempted to explain his stance: ‘In
The second reading of the EU referendum bill today was dominated by questions about the voting franchise and the neutrality of Whitehall. On the first topic, the SNP, Liberal Democrats and Greens expressed concerns that 16 and 17 year olds won’t be allowed to vote. The SNP’s foreign affairs spokesman Alex Salmond said it was ‘deeply insulting’
The Tories are facing a Heathrow problem. With Zac Goldsmith joining the race for the London mayoral nomination today, the idea of the Conservatives supporting a Heathrow expansion is becoming harder to envisage. The final recommendation from Howard Davies’ Airport Commission is due this summer and the Tories are expected to put it to a vote
Boris Johnson is back to his old tricks, causing headaches for David Cameron. After the Prime Minister’s confused position on whether ministers should be allowed to take part in the ‘Out’ campaign, the Mayor of London thrown a grenade at the idea that collective responsibility will hold. On his LBC phone-in this morning, Johnson said it would
Tristram Hunt’s education policy was assumed to be a victim of Ed Milband’s straitjacket. But now, the shadow education is free to speak his mind about where Labour went wrong and his actual thoughts on education policy. On the Today programme this morning, Hunt explained why he was sticking the boot into Miliband for the second time in 24 hours:
Liz Kendall is now on the ballot for Labour leader, thanks to the support of Gloria de Piero. The shadow minister for women and Ashfield MP has announced her support for Kendall in tomorrow’s Daily Mirror. As another shadow cabinet minister backing Kendall, it’s a good boost for her campaign on the eve of the nominations
Ukip continues to talk up a big role for itself in the Out campaign. As Britain’s most Eurosceptic party, it is eager to dive into a referendum it has been waiting almost a quarter of a century for, but the extent of its involvement is not clear.The kippers believe that their ground operation will be
The fear and loathing within Labour continues with the admission from Harriet Harman that its voters were relieved it didn’t win the election. The party’s interim leader is interviewed in the Independent this morning, claiming that voters were ‘not massively enthusiastic’ about voting Conservative but ‘settled for the devil they knew’: ‘Sometimes after an election, you get a sense
Liz Kendall’s turn on the Andrew Marr sofa was slightly shaky and vague on details. She continued on the theme of being the ‘change everything’ candidate but failed on clarify what she would do differently to the Tories and her fellow leadership candidates. When asked by Marr if she was the candidate Yvette Cooper suggested had ‘swallowed’ the Tory manifesto,
The Fabian Society hosted a hustings for the Labour leadership this afternoon, featuring all five of the declared candidates: Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall, Mary Creagh and Jeremy Corbyn. Following the Progress event a few weeks ago, this is the second time four of these candidates have appeared onstage together — Corbyn only entered
The Labour leadership contest will heat up in the next few days. Tomorrow, the Fabian Society will host a hustings with all of the declared candidates. Liz Kendall is set for a grilling on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday. On Monday, all of the candidates will address the Parliamentary Labour Party before heading to
Renegotiating substantial change in Britain’s EU relationship is a problem for David Cameron. On the one hand, the Eurozone is facing an unknown challenge with a Grexit on the horizon. But many in the Tory party believe the Prime Minister’s efforts are smoke and mirrors, and he won’t achieve the change they crave. Michael Gove is one,
Nigel Farage has made made some changes to his core team. After the Ukip wars, his senior aide Raheem Kassam left the party and has been replaced by Michael Heaver. From today, he will be dealing with media queries for the leader’s office and running his social media accounts. Heaver previously worked in the party’s press
Ed Miliband’s general election campaign was clearly dysfunctional, but now we have an insight into just how bad it was. The Guardian’s political editor Patrick Wintour has produced a fantastic long read on the undoing of Miliband, revealing the fear and loathing inside his operation. The piece is such a fascinating read it’s worth buying a copy of the paper for. If you aren’t able
Is the NHS bossing around the British people too much? On this week’s View from 22 podcast, Douglas Murray and Christopher Snowden discuss this week’s Spectator cover feature on the high priests of health and how the NHS is telling us how to live our lives. Does this level of continued intrusion show that the NHS is unsustainable on its current form? And what
The march of academies takes a step forward today. The government will publish the Education and Adoption Bill, which will make it a legal requirement for failing schools to convert to academies. There are currently 235 schools deemed to be failing by Ofsted and the Department for Education estimates that 1,000 schools will convert to
