Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Monday

Steerpike

Watch: Ex-Corbyn spinner gets schooled on Sky News

Dawn Butler's decision to back Militant didn't go down well on the first day of Labour conference, but the shadow equalities minister can still count on Corbyn's loyal defenders to stick up for her. Former spinner for the Labour leader, Matt Zarb-Cousin, rushed to Butler's defence on Sky News. But when he was asked to explain why Butler was right he was somewhat less certain. Instead it fell to his fellow guest Stephanie Lloyd to explain the error of his ways: Oh dear. But Mr S isn't convinced that Zarb-Cousin will have learnt his lesson...

Steerpike

Watch: Labour supporting teacher on getting rid of Tories

A teacher and Labour party member has just taken to the stage at the party's conference talking of the importance of giving kids a good education. Sensible enough, you might think. Except for the fact that Sion Rickard said that if children were educated properly it would mean that Tories would no longer exist. Here's what he said: 'I've never met a bad four-year-old. I've never met a four-year-old that was evil. So every child has a chance and if we give them a proper education, we'll empty our prisons, we'll have much less problems with our NHS, social issues... We'll probably not have any Tories because we'll have brought up our kids properly.' Mr S wouldn't want to be a kid in his class...

Robert Peston

The widening gulf between May and the Brexiters

There is widespread, fevered speculation that the prime minister will move away from her Chequers plan for a future relationship with the EU at this afternoon's Cabinet, under intense pressure from her ministerial colleagues. Having now spoken to several ministers, I am clear that she will stand firm on Chequers, and there probably won't be a concerted and coordinated effort TODAY from the Brexiters in her team - Gove, Fox, Leadsom, Mordaunt and McVey - to shift her towards the kind of free trade proposal preferred by Boris Johnson, David Davis, Jacob Rees-Mogg and the European Research Group.

Steerpike

Diane Abbott’s immigration plan fails to add up

What would the government’s immigration policy look like if Diane Abbott was Home Secretary? Abbott’s speech on the fringe of the Labour conference made it clear what it won’t be, even if what it will be is less certain. It won’t involve immigration detention centres, which Abbott has vowed to shut down. The shadow home secretary expressed her disbelief after her former opposite number Amber Rudd told her that places like Yarl's Wood were necessary because some of those awaiting deportation were violent: ‘I said: ‘How can that be?’ 'Even in the prison estate, the actual prison estate for actual prisoners, only a fraction of them have (been) convicted of violent offences.

Isabel Hardman

John McDonnell’s unashamedly socialist pitch to Labour conference

John McDonnell started his Labour conference speech with a tribute to his ‘friend’ Jeremy Corbyn, praising the way in which the Labour leader had held his nerve while being attacked in the press. As united as the two men may be, the Shadow Chancellor certainly gave the impression today that the Conservatives would have much more reason to fear a McDonnell-led Labour. His speech contained a cogent analysis of where things were going wrong for the British economy, and a clear explanation of what Labour would do to fix those problems. One of the things that Labour strategists have picked up from recent focus groups in the key seats - particularly towns - where the party needs to do better is a scepticism from voters about the party’s ability to deliver on its promises.

The Spectator

Full text: John McDonnell’s Labour conference speech

I want to start by thanking the Treasury Team: Peter Dowd, Shadow Chief Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, Annaliese Dodds, Clive Lewis, Lynne Brown, Lord Dennis Tunnicliffe, Lord Bryan Davies and PPS Thelma Walker who won back Colne Valley from the Tories last year. This month is the 10th anniversary of the financial crash. J.K.Galbraith in his book on the 1929 crash said sure you can try to create institutions to avoid crashes in the future but the best protection is memory. So it’s worth remembering. The causes of the crash were: Yes, greed; yes, the deregulation that turned the City into a multibillion pound casino, but more importantly it was caused by the power of a small, financial elite who exercised too much power over our political system.

Katy Balls

John McDonnell lends Theresa May a helping hand on Brexit

There were hopes among pro-Remain MPs that this year's Labour conference would mark a sea change in the party's Brexit policy. Instead, what's been served up is a Brexit fudge that ultimately fails to soften the party position. At last year's conference, the Labour leader managed to keep Brexit off the conference floor. This year around it wasn't possible with pro-EU members and unions – keen for a second referendum – voting for Brexit in the priority ballot. After a six-hour meeting to compose the motion last night, a fudge was agreed. The statement that is to be voted on says that if Theresa May's deal doesn't pass and there is no early election, all options will be left on the table.

Jonathan Miller

What is motivating Macron’s self-destructive Brexit position? | 24 September 2018

As France prepared to go to the polls in the Spring of 2017, it was already probable that Emmanuel Macron would become president, and that would not be good news for Brexiting Britain. That anybody was shocked that Macron led the autodafé of Theresa May at the European council in Salzburg last week is therefore itself shocking. Most appalling of all is that Mrs May walked straight into it. After he was elected president of France on the seventh of May last year, aged 39 3/4, Macron proclaimed his role model to be Jupiter, king of the gods. And by Jupiter!

Steerpike

Listen: Labour MP blasts Corbynite colleague at Progress rally

Here we go again. Although Labour conference has become increasingly Corbynite in recent years, the Progress rally can always be relied upon as a safe space for Labour moderates. And so it was that Corbyn-sceptic Labour MPs gathered at the annual event on Sunday night to air their grievances. Wes Streeting – the Labour MP for Ilford North – have a crowd-pleasing speech which took aim at Corbyn ally Chris Williamson, as well as Dawn Butler over her recent Militant comments: 'Good evening Progress – it's great to be here. It's like one of Chris Williamson's democracy tours except about thirty years younger in terms of average age. Here at Progress we don't talk about how we get rid of Labour MPs, we come together to talk about how we elect more Labour MPs.

Isabel Hardman

How Corbyn opponents are now turning to the trade unions

The Overton Window is a concept beloved particularly by the Left. It's a theory about the range of political ideas that the public will accept, and the reason the Left has been particularly interested in this window in recent years is that there is a belief you can move it in a certain direction so that previously radical and frightening ideas become quite normal. Jeremy Corbyn's supporters certainly believe that their party has succeeded in moving the Overton Window over the past few years, and that the old political adages about the public not wanting an overly left-wing party no longer apply. But within the party itself, there has also been a rather interesting movement of windows.

Katy Balls

The latest Labour rift: Momentum vs the trade unions

In the beginning, it seemed as though the Labour civil war consisted of the Corbynistas vs the moderates. Now things aren't so simple. The first day of Labour conference saw some ugly scenes in the conference floor. However, rather than the hard Left turning on the Blairites, it is a rift between two pro-Corbyn factions: Momentum vs the trade unions. Activists for the pro-Corbyn grassroots campaign group audibly booed the trade unions at several points on Sunday afternoon. Cries of 'shame!' were repeatedly heard across the floor. There were two points of disagreement – the democracy review and the priority ballots.

Tom Goodenough

Momentum’s big worry is that it is failing to capitalise on its success

What now for Momentum? The grassroots organisation has had extraordinary success over the last few years, not least in shoring up Jeremy Corbyn's position as Labour leader. The World Transformed, Momentum's event down the road from the party’s main conference in Liverpool, is a testament to the group’s growing influence: in its three years of existence, it has morphed into a lively, well-organised festival. Even if you think some of the speakers are barmy, the febrile atmosphere could not be more different from the stale feeling on the Tory fringes. Yet this isn’t a time for celebration for Momentum. Far from it. Indeed the organisation is finding that with clout comes responsibility – and its founder, Jon Lansman, is under pressure.

Nick Cohen

J.K. Rowling and the darkness on the left | 24 September 2018

You rarely come across a character in modern literature like Jimmy Knight. He’s a racist, but that’s not what makes him a novelty act. racists, after all, are deplored everywhere in the culture industry, from Hollywood to Pinewood Studios. Of this racist, however, his ex-wife says: ‘I wouldn’t trust him if it was anything to do with Jews. He doesn't like them. Israel is the root of all evil, according to Jimmy. Zionism: I got sick of the bloody sound of the word.’ Knight is also a misogynist, a type which is once again a familiar figure in contemporary fiction. But when his girlfriend cries out after he hits her, he replies by attacking her privilege with the language of the left: 'Oh fuck off, that didn’t hurt!

Steerpike

Labour conference 2018, in pictures

It's that time of year again: Labour conference. With Jeremy Corbyn's grip on the party tightening in the past year, the conference, too, has taken on a distinctly Corbynista feel. The exhibition hall is made up of a mix of business stands – including Apple – and campaign groups. Meanwhile, over at the sister festival – Momentum's World Transformed festival – pictures of Marx adorn the walls alongside banners making clear Sun journalists are not welcome. Viva la revolución! (Mr S will update this post as the conference goes on.

Sunday

Isabel Hardman

What Jeremy Corbyn wants to talk about at Labour conference

A lot of Labour’s energy at the moment seems to be spent on internal battles over which faction wins power on which committee, and whether it should be easier to deselect sitting MPs. A measure of whether its conference is a success is whether it manages to talk about what it wants to do in government. I understand that the leadership’s aim this week is to try to produce an analysis of where society has gone wrong. This sounds rather ‘Broken Britain’, though unsurprisingly the party won’t be using that line. Instead, the tag is ‘rebuilding Britain’, and Jeremy Corbyn and his colleagues will be talking about the impact of eight years of austerity, and post-industrialisation, particularly on parts of the UK that feel left behind.

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Jeremy Corbyn taken to task over anti-Semitism

Jeremy Corbyn – Anti-Semitism 'is a scourge in any society' With the Labour party conference now in full swing in Liverpool, Jeremy Corbyn met with Andrew Marr for an interview. Marr was keen to challenge Corbyn about the accusations of anti-Semitism against him and the failure to effectively stamp out the problem within the party. Corbyn attempted to set the record straight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaiqW2z0_Cw AM: Jeremy Corbyn - are you an anti-Semite? JC: No. I've spent my whole life opposing racism in every form and I will die fighting racism in any form... Anti-Semitism is a scourge in any society. I will oppose it all my life...

Steerpike

Hacks left in the cold at Labour conference

Jeremy Corbyn's relationship with the MSM has long been a strained one. When the Labour leader isn't bad-mouthing hacks, he's telling them that he will 'democratise' their publications. So, perhaps it should come as little surprise that journalists have found themselves left out in the cold at this year's Labour conference. Hacks arrived to find themselves not in the main building but in a tent outside in the cold. Adding insult to injury, to find it one must follow the 'dog exercise' area signs. To borrow the words of Chuka Umunna: won't Corbyn 'call off the dogs'?

Isabel Hardman

Labour’s deputy leader move highlights the party’s most interesting split

Generally, talk of a ‘split’ in the Labour Party focuses on the chasm between Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters and those ‘moderate’ MPs who want to leave. But there’s another, bigger split, which is between the Corbynites and a large chunk of MPs, including Deputy Leader Tom Watson, who disagree with the party’s leader but think Labour can change. Watson did go through a phase of staying rather quiet in the months after the last general election, avoiding both party events and interviews where he might be forced to take a stand against the leadership.

Robert Peston

Jeremy Corbyn is getting more serious about Brexit and Theresa May ought to worry

The most important statement by Jeremy Corbyn in today’s Sunday Mirror interview is not that Labour’s leader will embrace a so-called People’s Vote if that were what Labour’s conference backs this week. It is that Labour is “not happy” with the PM’s Chequers Brexit plan “and we would vote against it”. This is Labour's strongest and least ambiguous attack on Chequers. And – as if that were needed – it underwrites the view of many Tory MPs and ministers that the PM’s attempt to sell Chequers to Brussels is even more fatuous than dead-horse flogging, given that some 50 odd True Brexit Conservative backbenchers are adamant that they would vote against it.