Labour party

Monday

Sebastian Payne

Labour turmoil dominates local government questions

From our UK edition

The new Labour front bench made its first appearance at communities and local government questions this afternoon. Jon Trickett was announced as the new shadow communities and local government secretary just before 1pm and by 2:30pm he was at the dispatch box representing his party. Given the limited about of time Trickett and his team had to prepare, they managed to do a good job quizzing the government about affordable housing, brownfield sites and local government cuts. But everyone’s mind appeared to be focused on what’s going on in the Labour party. The Communities and Local Government Secretary Greg Clark welcomed his opposite number: ‘The shadow secretary of state was once PPS to Peter Mandelson our members will recall.

Camilla Swift

Meet the new anti-meat, anti-shooting, pro-badger shadow Defra secretary

From our UK edition

It’s no surprise that Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet appointments have rattled a few cages – and the choice of Kerry McCarthy as shadow Defra secretary is just one of many. The MP for Bristol East (a city that Anthony Whitehead described a few weeks ago as employing a ‘totalitarian brand of environmental idealism’) has made her views on both meat eating and rural pursuits clear in the past, and has a fair few critics already. It has already been pointed out elsewhere that putting a vegan in charge of representing the farming industry is slightly odd – but then again, vegetarian Hilary Benn was Defra secretary for three years. But that isn’t the only black mark against her.

Isabel Hardman

Corbyn rewrites the rules to claim gender balance in Shadow Cabinet

From our UK edition

After being criticised for not involving enough women in his shadow cabinet, Jeremy Corbyn has brought more women in by creating cabinet roles. He has promoted ‘young people and voter registration’ to a Cabinet role and given the job to Gloria de Piero, who will be terrific at it given her interest in non-voters and political apathy, but who may be surprised by the whooshing promotion that the role has received. Similarly, Luciana Berger is Shadow Minister for Mental Health, which is now a Cabinet position too. Perhaps it’s a good thing that mental health, so overlooked and underfunded, is a Cabinet role - though it’s not arepa rate department to health. But the fact remains that Corbyn has not promoted women to the great offices of state.

Sebastian Payne

The Tories aren’t leaving Jeremy Corbyn’s destruction to chance

From our UK edition

Jeremy Corbyn has been Labour leader for less than 48 hours and the Conservative party is already managing to set the tone of the debate. In a piece for POLITICO Europe today, I look at how the Tories are feeling about Corbyn’s victory over the weekend and their plans to deal with it. Some MPs feel sad that Labour is no longer a serious party. ‘Saturday was a sad day for our country and the Labour Party — I am not laughing,’ says one influential Tory MP. ‘The party of Ramsay Macdonald, Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson and Tony Blair has now been reduced to Jeremy Corbyn’. But any sorrow however is overwhelmed by jubilation that the next election appears to be in the bag for the Tories.

Steerpike

Is Damian McBride angling for a job as Jeremy Corbyn’s spin doctor?

From our UK edition

Given that Jeremy Corbyn has been on the receiving end of a barrage of bad press this morning, he could do with the help of an expert spinner. Yet everyone who has cared about the Labour Party over the years is appalled at his triumph; no one is willing to defend him. No one, that is, except the currently 'freelance' former king of spin, Damian McBride. The disgraced spin doctor appears to have been on a mission to endear himself to Corbyn ever since he won the leadership election on Saturday. He kicked things off with an editorial in the Mail on Sunday titled 'Jeremy Corbyn may be the best thing since Clement Attlee'. Yes, seriously. Corbyn, he says, 'comes from the right place'.

Brendan O’Neill

Welcome to the era of conspiracy-theory politics

From our UK edition

Who argues that a 'shadow state' controls Britain? That a gang of faraway, faceless suits 'orchestrate public life from the shadows', from their 'yachts in the Mediterranean'? Who thinks people in 'the shadows', who always remain 'hidden', exercise a 'poisonous, secretive influence on public life'? A spotty sixth-former who spends way too much time on the internet, perhaps? Or maybe one of those cranky guys who hangs out in the discussion threads of David Icke's website, convinced that lizards in suits run the world? Actually it's Tom Watson, new deputy leader of the Labour Party.

Steerpike

Labour’s campaign genius (finally) meets Jeremy Corbyn

From our UK edition

Ahead of the Labour leadership results, Lucy Powell engaged in some gentle bitching online about Jeremy Corbyn’s lack of social interaction with her. Ed Miliband’s former deputy campaign chief told Miliband’s former political secretary Anna Yearley that she had never, ever met the man of the moment. https://twitter.com/LucyMPowell/status/633748657712398336 This led Ukip's Douglas Carswell to offer to make an introduction. Happily this gesture won't be needed as the times are a'changin. Seemingly willing to overlook this slight, the newly-elected Corbyn has appointed Powell as Labour's shadow education secretary. However, given that blunder-ridden Powell was behind some of Labour's worst election gaffes, she may not be the asset Corbyn requires at this testing time: 1.

Leo McKinstry

The Trade Union Bill must tie up Thatcher’s unfinished business

From our UK edition

The People’s Assembly, the self-appointed left-wing pressure group behind the recent anti-austerity demonstrations, portrays itself as the voice of the masses struggling under oppressive Tory rule. It claims that no fewer than 250,000 demonstrators went to its rally in central London in June (a figure dutifully regurgitated by broadcasters). But photographs of the event in London indicate no more than 25,000 attended. The bogusness does not stop there. Despite its demotic name, the People’s Assembly is no spontaneous uprising of the angry British public.

Sebastian Payne

Jeremy Corbyn’s first shadow cabinet is going to be divisive

From our UK edition

Well, Corbyn really has gone for it. Although the new shadow cabinet is not made up entirely of hard-left appointees, the new Labour leader is taking his mandate seriously. Crucially, making John McDonnell shadow chancellor, whose has said some interesting things about the IRA and wants to nationalise the banks, is a bold move by Corbyn and not one that is going down well. On the Today programme, the former home secretary Charles Clarke said he was ‘aghast’ at the appointment of McDonnell and predicted that Labour MPs would end up creating their own economic policy alongside whatever McDonnell does. Even Corbyn’s new shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn failed to defend McDonnell's appointment when directly asked twice.

Sunday

Rod Liddle

Please Jezza, don’t tack to the right and be inclusive

From our UK edition

The one bright spot, if you are a normal Labour Party supporter rather than a perpetual adolescent anti-austerity arriviste with lime jelly between the ears, was Cristina Kirchner’s message of congratulations to Jeremy Corbyn. Hopefully similar valedictions will arrive soon – from Jihadi John, and whatever addle-brained Islamist thug is leading Hamas, and from Putin and various murderous bog-trotting Feinians. The more, the better. Let the British public know who this idiot’s friends are. Iain Dale’s questions to Corbyn are apposite, as were Tony Parsons' latest piece in GQ in which he said, having watched the deluded halfwits championing Corbyn’s election: whatever side these people are on, I’m against. Yes, absolutely.

Isabel Hardman

Meet your Shadow Chancellor: John McDonnell’s greatest hits

From our UK edition

Given few knew who Jeremy Corbyn was before the summer, chances are that few will know who John McDonnell is either. Well, here's your quick guide. He was first elected in 1997, having previously served on the Greater London Council as member for Hayes and Harlington (the constituency he represents in Parliament). He is chair of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs, and worked as a researcher and official for the National Union of Mineworkers and the TUC. And here's what else you need to know about the new Shadow Chancellor: 1. John McDonnell is quite the Commons performer. He famously grabbed the mace in the Chamber to express his outrage at the decision to approve a new runway at Heathrow - and was suspended from the Commons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpDyW-p_KWs 2.

Isabel Hardman

John McDonnell is the Shadow Chancellor

From our UK edition

These are the latest appointments to Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet: Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Seema Malhotra MP Shadow BIS Angela Eagle MP This tells us two things about Corbyn. One is that he is loyal to his friends. He and McDonnell have worked together for years, with Corbyn focusing on foreign policy while his friend stuck to economic policy. McDonnell wanted to be Shadow Chancellor, even though Angela Eagle clearly also fancied the job - and was a more credible candidate. Corbyn's friend won. The second thing is that Corbyn is clearly keen to push the party as far left as quickly as possible.

Isabel Hardman

Burnham and Benn take Shadow Cabinet jobs

From our UK edition

In the past few minutes, more details of Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet team have been announced. Andy Burnham is the new Shadow Home Secretary, and is replaced by Heidi Alexander in the Shadow Health Secretary. This is intriguing, as Burnham has quite different views on immigration to Corbyn. Hilary Benn is the Shadow Foreign Secretary: a boost for Corbyn given Europe will be such a big issue in the next few years. Lord Falconer is the Shadow Justice Secretary and Shadow Lord Chancellor, while Yvette Cooper will chair a taskforce on refugees: something she will bring a great deal of passion and expertise to. What these announcements do show is a serious attempt from Corbyn to be open and welcoming to those from different wings of the party.

Isabel Hardman

How big will Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench be?

From our UK edition

It was always obvious from the moment he won that Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench team would look very different to the one that Labour had last week. What’s more surprising than those stepping back from the Shadow Cabinet, including Chuka Umunna, is who from a different wing of the party to Corbyn agrees to take a frontbench role. Angela Eagle and Andy Burnham are the biggest names likely to work in Corbyn’s team, though Corbyn is struggling with John McDonnell, who wants to be Shadow Chancellor instead of Eagle. Rosie Winterton remains as chief whip: which is a huge boost to Corbyn given how popular she is in the party.

Sebastian Payne

Tom Watson covers for Jeremy Corbyn in the new Labour leadership’s first outing

From our UK edition

24 hours into his leadership and Jeremy Corbyn is already defying the conventions of being an opposition leader. He cancelled a long-scheduled appearance on the Andrew Marr Show — but found time to attend an event in his constituency — leaving it to the party’s new deputy leader Tom Watson explain to the nation what Labour has just done. Watson's appearance suggested he is not going to be an easily-controlled disciple — he has his own agenda to reform the Labour party. One of Watson’s main areas of concern is to reform the party's internal structures: ‘I’ve stood on a platform … I’ve got my own mandate to reform the Labour Party.

Steerpike

Owen Jones’s election advice falls flat with Alastair Campbell

From our UK edition

With Jeremy Corbyn appointed as the new leader of the Labour party, few could be more pleased by the news than the left-wing messiah's personal cheerleader Owen Jones. In fact the Guardian columnist was one of the first to celebrate the Labour MP's victory yesterday, praising Corbyn during a string of media appearances. He then moved on to offer some advice to the New Labour wing of the divided party over what they should do to support Corbyn's election campaign; urging them to 'turn away from the negativity of your media champions' and 'come up with a vision' as 'that's how you win'. Alas these comments did not go down well with Tony Blair's former spin doctor Alastair Campbell — who had urged people to vote for Anyone But Corbyn.

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

Labour moderates try to stop the march of the Left after Corbyn victory

From our UK edition

Naturally, today is not a good day if you’re a Labour moderate. The Blairites’ troubles have been well publicised, but the old right, or moderate, wing of the party, represented by Labour First, is licking its wounds too. The faction did see Tom Watson elected Deputy Leader (which shows firstly that Watson and Corbyn are not from the same part of the party at all, and secondly that ‘moderate’ is quite a wide term), but it tried to encourage members to fight Corbyn every way they could, particularly by blocking him using second and third preferences. Labour First is now trying to stop the Corbynites taking control of the policymaking process in the party.

Sebastian Payne

Podcast special: Jeremy Corbyn is Labour’s new leader

From our UK edition

Jeremy Corbyn's momentous victory in the Labour leadership contest is going to have a dramatic effect on British politics. In this View from 22 podcast special, James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and I discuss what Corbyn's victory means for British politics and the Labour party, as well as what we can expect to happen over the next few days. We also look at Tom Watson's victory in the deputy leadership contest and how he will work with the new leader.

James Forsyth

Jeremy Corbyn’s boiler plate victory speech was no move to the centre

From our UK edition

No one in the hall was in any doubt about the result, the only thing in question was the scale of Jeremy Corbyn’s victory. In the end it was overwhelming, 59.5 per cent on the first round. Corbyn led in every single section and the scale of his triumph will make it very hard for the Parliamentary Labour Party to move against him even in the medium term. Though, large numbers of the Labour figures here today are making no effort to hide their dismay at the result. Corbyn’s victory speech, delivered without a tie, was no move to the centre. It did contain some unifying themes, his tribute to Liz Kendall for standing up for what she believes in, but it was largely left-wing boiler plate.

James Forsyth

Jeremy Corbyn has arrived — here’s what happens next

From our UK edition

It has happened. Labour has elected Jeremy Corbyn as its leader. The party hasn’t just lurched to the left, but dived headlong in that direction. Never, in the history of the universal franchise, has a leader of one of the two main parties been so far from the political centre. Just because something is absurd doesn’t mean it can’t happen. This is the lesson of Jeremy Corbyn’s victory in the Labour leadership contest. At first, the prospect of Corbyn leading Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition was seen to be so ridiculous that bookmakers put the chances of it at 200 to 1. Labour MPs were prepared to nominate him to broaden the ‘debate’. The temptation now is to declare that a Corbyn leadership can’t possibly last.