Labour party

Jeremy Corbyn is ahead in the Labour leadership race to the extent that it will now be something of a surprise if he doesn’t win. YouGov has published a poll putting Corbyn 32 points ahead of Andy Burnham on first preferences on 53 per cent and 21 per cent respectively, and 24 points ahead of Yvette Cooper in the final round voting on 62 per cent to 38 per cent. Corbyn is now the 1/2 favourite to win the contest according to Ladbrokes. He has had the Big Mo for weeks, and as ballots go out this week, he is sustaining that momentum at just the right time.

According to some of the more far-left members of the Labour Party, Harriet Harman is a Tory. The somewhat surprising claim came after she told her party to abstain on the Tories' Welfare Bill, leading 48 MPs to break whip and vote against it. However, seemingly keen to silence the naysayers -- in an interview with the Guardian -- Harman, who has three children with Jack Dromey, has given an account of the lengths she has gone to to avoid socialising with Tories. The acting Leader of the Labour Party says that she once hid in a side corridor to prevent Margaret Thatcher -- who she likens to a witch -- from meeting her baby son: 'Very early on, I brought in one of the babies to the Commons and I saw her at the other end of the corridor.

Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters and spokespeople are fiercely debating whether or not he told the Independent on Sunday’s Jane Merrick that he wants to bring back clause IV. His quote to the journalist seems pretty clear: ‘I think we should talk about what the objectives of the party are, whether that’s restoring Clause Four as it was originally written or it’s a different one. But we shouldn’t shy away from public participation, public investment in industry and public control of the railways. ‘I’m interested in the idea that we have a more inclusive, clearer set of objectives. I would want us to have a set of objectives which does include public ownership of some necessary things such as rail.

Since Karen Danczuk announced her split from her husband Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP, she has been embroiled in a bitter row with him over the reasons for their parting of ways. Happily, in recent weeks this has cooled, as they try to put their differences aside for the sake of their children. Not that this means the 'selfie queen' is about to become a wallflower. The former Labour councillor has started a blog -- titled 'Selfie Made Woman' -- in which she offers readers an insight into her deepest thoughts. And while the Mirror reported earlier in the week that she faces bailiffs after ignoring a court order concerning rent, Danczuk has decided to focus on another issue at hand: her worries ahead of her first girls' night out: 'I feel like the new Bridget Jones.

One of Andy Burnham’s problems is his occasional pandering towards populism. In an interview with GQ magazine, the Labour leadership contender tries to talk up his credentials as an ordinary bloke and says he doesn’t intend to spend the rest of his life in politics, arguing there should be a limit on how long MPs should remain the Commons: 'Not necessarily, no. I think modern politics is intense - it's changed in my 14 years in parliament. I always felt I would give it my all for 20, 25 years. Never put a time limit on it but then maybe finish off my career by doing something different. If you've had a seat for 25 years, people should let some new thinking in.' What motivated Burnham, who has served as an MP since 2001, to say this?

‘Corbynomics’, aka Jeremy Corbyn's plans for the UK economy, has entered the Westminster lexicon today. It appears to consist of the work primarily of one man, Richard Murphy. The director of TaxResearch UK, who advises various charities and trade unions on tax matters, has taken credit for the handful of economic policies Corbyn has announced so far, which have been attacked by Labour’s shadow chancellor Chris Leslie today. https://twitter.com/RichardJMurphy/status/628127935543799808 In case you missed the birth of Corbynomics two weeks ago — the launch event was closed to the media — here is a summary of what we know so far. The details of these proposals have come from Murphy's blog and Corbyn's pamphlet: 1.

George Galloway has announced that he would like to return to the Labour party if Jeremy Corbyn is elected leader. The former Respect MP for Bradford West sees Corbyn as a comrade in arms and would feel at home alongside him. He told LBC this week: ‘I think if Jeremy were to win everyone on the left would rejoin the Labour party. That's the part of the problem that saw us part solved. I've always been a Labour man I consider myself real Labour. I've never been a Marxist or a Trotskyist or any other kind of -ist other than a Labour-ist.’ And asked if he would contemplate a  return to the Labour fold if Corbyn wins, Galloway said 'definitely, pretty damn quick.

Jeremy Corbyn is the trade unions’ favourite candidate for Labour leader. From the more militant folks at Unite to the moderates at Unison, the comrades are buying into 'Jez we can’. But this is not only about electing their man, some trade unionists are on a greater mission to stamp out to Blairite ‘virus’ from the party.

George Osborne reigns supreme over Westminster — how did he end up with all this power? On this week’s View from 22 podcast, Isabel Hardman discusses our cover piece on the Chancellor's dominance with George Parker from the Financial Times. As the de facto deputy Prime Minister, is the Chancellor a shoe in to succeed David Cameron? How has Osborne won over once-sceptical Tory MPs? And how significant was his image makeover? Former Labour adviser John McTernan also discuss whether the modernisers in the Labour are stuck in the past and why the party is falling in love with Jeremy Corbyn. If Corbyn wins the leadership contest, what will the Blairites do next? How long would he last running the party?