Jeremy corbyn

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

What matters in Labour’s leadership contest is what works

From our UK edition

Jeremy Corbyn’s attempt to strike a contrast between his beliefs and those of his Labour leadership rival Owen Smith would have rather big implications or medical research in this country. The Labour leader told the launch of his campaign to hold on to his job that pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer shouldn’t take on medical research: ‘I hope Owen will fully agree with me that our NHS should be free at the point of use, should be run by publicly employed workers working for the NHS not for private contractors, and medical research shouldn’t be farmed out to big pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and others but should be funded through the Medical Research Council.

Steerpike

Sorry Jeremy, shouldn’t Labour’s gender equality review start at home?

From our UK edition

Today Jeremy Corbyn has launched his campaign ahead of the Labour leadership election. Corbyn, who is being challenged by Owen Smith, used the launch to announce that -- under him -- the next Labour government would introduce compulsory pay audits for companies with more than 21 staff -- in order to show whether or not they are discriminating against female employees. However when asked by Sky News if this meant he would publish an equal pay audit for his own office, Corbyn failed to commit. Perhaps that's for the best given that any such report is unlikely to make inspiring reading. Forget comparing the salary difference between women and men in the top jobs, when it comes to the Leader's Office it's men who tend to rule the roost.

Tom Goodenough

Diane Abbott sticks the knife into Owen Smith as she compares him to David Cameron

From our UK edition

If we didn't know it before, Diane Abbott has made it clear that this summer's Labour leadership contest is going to be very nasty indeed. On the day Jeremy Corbyn will officially launch his campaign, his loyal ally has taken to the airwaves to stick the knife into his challenger Owen Smith. We've had a taste of just how the Corbynistas are planning to attack Smith before and it seems his links to Pfizer, where he used to work, will be the main thrust of their attempts to undermine him. Abbott made that much obvious this morning. She managed to concede that Owen was a 'great bloke and so on', but her main purpose in speaking out was to go on the attack. Here's what she said about him on the Today programme: 'He wasn't a scientist, he was a lobbyist.

Steerpike

Corbyn campaign website sends a mixed message

From our UK edition

With Owen Smith now Jeremy Corbyn's official challenger in the leadership election, the pair will spend the summer campaigning ahead of the September vote. Thankfully Corbyn has a shiny new leadership website titled 'Jeremy4Leader' to help him do exactly this. However, judging by the main photo one could be forgiven for thinking it was a site for the Socialist Workers Party. Although the site is designed to 'help get Jeremy re-elected as Labour leader', in the photo -- from a march in support of Corbyn -- there are several SWP placards as well as a charming sign with a picture of Hilary Benn -- and the caption 'chat sh--, get sacked': The chances of uniting the party after the leadership election look slimmer by the day.

Hugo Rifkind

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

From our UK edition

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 be that Labour was only pretending to have those aims and values, in order to get the electorate into bed?

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: Theresa May’s hard head and soft heart is terrifying for Labour

From our UK edition

What we know for sure about our secretive new PM is that she uses her clothes as a bush-telegraph. What did the tom-toms tell us? Mrs May was done up like an Evesham house-wife going to dinner with her husband’s boss in about 1950. Neat hair. Navy blue jacket. White top underneath. A rope of fake pearls and just a hint of neck. Across the shires the faithful will have cheered this display of Brief Encounter elegance. She was good at the despatch box, nervous certainly, sometimes stumbling over her words. But she produced a forceful impression of competence and compassion. Hard head. Soft heart. She has ‘grip’ as they say. Terrifying for Labour. She should work on her gags by not working on her gags. Her strain of humour is so dry it can seem effortful. Haughty even.

Steerpike

Meet Jeremy Corbyn’s new Question Time champion – the Vote Leave campaigner

From our UK edition

After Jeremy Corbyn faced a vote of no confidence from Labour MPs over his lacklustre effort in the failed Remain campaign, a leadership contest is now underway. Corbyn and his challenger Owen Smith will spend the summer campaigning against one another for the leadership. However, in order to have a vote supporters only have until 5pm today to cough up £25 to join the party as a registered supporter. In order to encourage his supporters to do exactly this, Jeremy Corbyn has today tweeted a video of his new star supporter Michelle Dorrell. Michelle will look familiar to many.

Tom Goodenough

Did Theresa May’s flash of nastiness at PMQs tell of trouble to come?

From our UK edition

That Theresa May 'won' Prime Minister's Questions today, there is no doubt. Tory backbencher Simon Hoare said it was 'game, set and match' and few are likely to disagree with that summation of what took place in the Commons. Jeremy Corbyn was repeatedly left floundering throughout by a politician who showed that she means business. As James Forsyth says, the Labour benches looked even more fed-up than usual upon their realisation of just how effective an adversary May will be. But from the woman who famously coined the 'nasty party' term about the Tories, was there also a part of that moniker on display from the despatch box this afternoon? It certainly seemed that way. Take this exchange with Tim Farron.

Hugo Rifkind

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

From our UK edition

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 be that Labour was only pretending to have those aims and values, in order to get the electorate into bed?

James Forsyth

Theresa May wipes the floor with Jeremy Corbyn at her first PMQs

From our UK edition

Theresa May was utterly brutal with Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs today. She mocked the Labour leader repeatedly, leaving the Tory benches delighted and the Labour benches looking more miserable than ever. Once again, Corbyn’s problem was his inability to think on his feet. He asked May about Boris Johnson saying that some of Barack Obama’s view came from him being ‘part-Kenyan’ and his use of the word ‘piccaninnies’. May didn’t defend the new Foreign Secretary, instead choosing to answer a different bit of Corbyn’s question. But the Labour leader failed, as he so often does, to properly follow up on this. Corbyn then walked into a trap.

Nick Cohen

The moral case against Jeremy Corbyn

From our UK edition

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 can still move left-wing minds.

Steerpike

Watch: Theresa May ridicules ‘unscrupulous’ Corbyn over Labour job insecurity

From our UK edition

In recent weeks, Jeremy Corbyn's popularity has hit a new low with the Parliamentary Labour Party. Things are so bad that he is unable to assemble a full Shadow Cabinet -- instead having to assign some people with more than one position. So, it was an interesting move of the Labour leader to bring up job insecurity and difficult bosses at today's PMQs. Corbyn suggested that Theresa May had much work to do when it came to making employment rights fairer. Alas, the Prime Minister was unimpressed with Corbyn's complaints.

Tom Goodenough

Which Labour MPs are backing Owen Smith?

From our UK edition

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 like the 'duracell bunny' in his energy for taking the fight to Corbyn and ousting the Labour leader. Ninety Labour MPs are pinning their hopes on him doing just that.

Cindy Yu

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

From our UK edition

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 those supporters he already has, but all of those voters – about 15-20 points of them – who are weak Corbyn supporters.

Tom Goodenough

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

From our UK edition

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 had been 'great at identifying the question' he tried to move things on to suggest he is the man to provide the answers.

Tuesday

Rod Liddle

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

From our UK edition

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 upon which Labour has lost its votes: immigration and welfare.

Steerpike

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

From our UK edition

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 the word 'porridge' live on air, before she went on to explain why she was dropping out.

Brendan O’Neill

Why Labour deserves to die

From our UK edition

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.

Cindy Yu

Coffee House shots: the doomed Labour leadership challenge

From our UK edition

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 party at worst. Can the Tories take advantage of this weakness in the Opposition?

Isabel Hardman

The Labour leadership contest looks set to be savage

From our UK edition

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.