Labour party

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

Why Yvette Cooper is keeping quiet about what she believes

What does Yvette Cooper believe? John Humphrys was desperately trying to find this out on the Today programme this morning, and got nowhere. The Labour leadership contender at least showed us that as party chief, she would be steadfast and calm under fire, but she clearly didn’t fancy telling anyone what she stood for any time soon. Neither, it seems, is she particularly keen on talking about what she offers that is dramatically different to her party’s offer in 2015. Humphrys was very keen to find out which way she might move the Labour party, but she wouldn’t bite. Why won’t Cooper talk about the direction in which she wants to take the Labour party?

James Forsyth

Why MPs can’t switch off this summer

There are few quicker ways to annoy an MP than to suggest that they are on holiday when the House of Commons isn’t sitting. Such a suggestion will be met with a tetchy and immediate list of the constituency work they are doing in recess. This week, however, marks the start of the first summer break since the election, so the honourable members should perhaps feel entitled to a rest. Indeed, most MPs who aren’t engaged in a leadership contest will be taking one. As they sink into their deckchairs, they will have plenty to think about. The election might only have been two and a half months ago, but the dynamics of this parliament have changed, utterly. Elections will return soon enough. There will be a Scottish Parliament vote and a London mayoral contest next spring.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn deserved a place on his party’s ballot paper

Some Labour MPs have been expressing their regret at the fun and games they indulged in to get Jeremy Corbyn onto the leadership contest ballot paper back in the heady days when this was about ‘broadening the debate’, rather than the guy actually having a chance of winning. Now that another poll suggests he could be in with a shot, the fun and games looks rather less fun. That’s why Tony Blair was so forceful this morning, and that’s why MPs such as Tristram Hunt and Chuka Umunna have been so agitated in public about the matter. But those in the party who are horrified that Corbyn is gaining so much traction should be careful of the way they express their alarm.

Alex Massie

Who is to blame for the rise of Jeremy Corbyn? Ed Miliband

Well, look, it's Ed Miliband's fault isn't it? Thrice over in fact. First for winning the Labour leadership, then for leading the party in the way he did and, finally, for leaving the leadership so abruptly. There are many ways of measuring the funk into which Labour has plummeted but one of the best is to consider that it is now seriously believed, in some quarters anyway, that Jeremy Corbyn might not be the worst choice as leader. Believed, I mean, by sensible people of reasonably sound mind who recognise that Corbyn would be a disaster for Labour and, quite possibly, for Britain. (If you doubt that, consider whether the country benefited from Iain Duncan Smith's tenure as leader of the Conservative party. Hint: it did not.) The alternative, after all, appears to be Andy Burnham.

Sebastian Payne

‘Yvette is dead in the water’ – Team Burnham on the YouGov Labour leadership poll

The YouGov survey might be ‘just one poll’ in a notoriously tricky race to predict, but it has sent shockwaves throughout the Labour party. Tristram Hunt and Tony Blair have been activated to plead with the party to stick to the centre ground, while the other leadership camps are taking differing views on what it means. Andy Burnham’s campaign do not seems too worried and thinks it spells trouble for Yvette Cooper. A source in the Burnham camp says: ‘It shows that Yvette is dead in the water, it’s a two horse race and she’s gone. We are ahead with members, just, and we’ll continue to fight for every vote.

Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn wins a celebrity backer

Although the majority of the MPs who helped to get Jeremy Corbyn on the ballot paper have remained mysteriously silent since a poll predicted that he is on course to be the next Labour leader, Corbyn can at least count on support from one well-known name The Silk actress Maxine Peake has voiced her support for Corbyn. Writing on her website last week, Peake labelled Corbyn 'our only beacon of hope to get the Labour Party back on track': 'For me Jeremy Corbyn is our only beacon of hope to get the Labour Party back on track, get the electorate back in touch with politics and save this country from the constant mindless bullying of the vulnerable and poor. Aspirational? Surely we should all aspire that everyone living in this country has the right to a decent quality of life.

Toby Young

‘Tories for Corbyn’ isn’t just a bit of fun. It’s an effective political weapon

Is the #ToriesForCorbyn campaign politics at its most infantile? As one of the few conservative commentators willing to defend it in the media, I’ve been doing my best to rebut that charge. The most frequent line of attack is that there’s something dishonest about it. The Labour leadership election isn’t an open primary. It’s restricted to members, registered supporters and affiliated supporters. OK, you can register as a supporter for £3 — a change brought in by Ed Miliband to reduce union influence — but only if you pretend to be a Labour sympathiser. And that’s just wrong. The short answer to this is that no such pretence is necessary — at least, it wasn’t when I signed up via the party’s website.

Sebastian Payne

Tony Blair advises Corbyn supporters to get a heart transplant

Tony Blair has made his predictable intervention in the Labour leadership contest. At an event with the Progress think tank in London this morning, the former Prime Minister made his pitch for the New Labour-ish direction Labour should be heading. Unsurprisingly, it’s somewhat different to the sentiments that have dominated the leadership race so far: ‘We won not because we did what we thought was wrong as a matter of principle but right as a matter of politics; but when we realised that what is right as a matter of policy is right as a matter of principle. ‘Labour shouldn't despair. We can win again. We can win again next time. But only if our comfort zone is the future and our values are our guide and not our distraction.

James Forsyth

Will this Jeremy Corbyn poll break the Labour fever?

It is hard to overstate the level of shock in moderate Labour circles at last night’s YouGov poll showing Jeremy Corbyn heading for victory in the Labour leadership race. Regardless of whether the poll is accurate, they fear that it will damage Labour in two ways. First, it will skew the contest further to the left as Burnham and Cooper both seek to halt the Corbyn advance and to position themselves to pick up second preferences. Secondly, the idea that Corbyn could win is hardly going to reassure those voters who worry about Labour’s economic competence. https://twitter.com/LadPolitics/status/623619130680320001 Another worry is that the hard left could, seeing how close Corbyn is to victory, sign up en masse to vote in the contest.

Tuesday

Sebastian Payne

Jeremy Corbyn on track to be next Labour leader, according to new poll

Could Jeremy Corbyn actually win the Labour leadership race? A new poll from The Times/YouGov suggests that he will. The new poll of eligible voters in the leadership contest — party members, registered supporters and affiliated trade unionists — has Corbyn on track to win in the final round of voting with 53 per cent of the vote, with the current bookies' favourite Andy Burnham trailing six points behind on 47 per cent. The left-wing leadership candidate's lead on first preferences is even more jaw-dropping. YouGov has Corbyn on 43 per cent, compared to Burnham on 26, Yvette Cooper on 20 and Liz Kendall on 11. Based on this, Kendall would be knocked out in the first round and her votes redistributed to other candidates.

Sebastian Payne

Andy Burnham opens fire at Labour’s ‘current leadership’ over the Welfare Bill

Relations between Andy Burnham and Harriet Harman must be disintegrating quickly. After the leadership favourite abstained during last night's vote on the Welfare Bill, Burnham attempted to his logic on the World at One. Burnham said his mind hadn’t changed and he has always been in favour of a ‘reasoned amendment’ — but he was unhappy with how the vote went: ‘Let me be clear: this was still a compromise position and it wasn’t a strong enough position for me. But I as leader firstly would have opposed this bill outright last night and would do so if elected leader.

Sebastian Payne

The 48 welfare rebels demonstrate the ‘Miliband effect’ on the Labour party

One in five members of the Parliamentary Labour Party voted against the party whip last night. Although the second reading of the government's Welfare Bill passed, it shows that the party is divided. I've been through the list of the 48 rebels are there are two trends amongst the rebels: many nominated Jeremy Corbyn for leader and the majority entered Parliament in the last few years. In the leadership contest, 18 of the rebels backed Corbyn for leader, compared to 15 for Andy Burnham, nine for Yvette Cooper and just one Liz Kendall supporter. Five of the rebels didn't back anyone.

Steerpike

Revealed: The ‘Blairite’ crime policy that never was

With rumours flying around the Commons that if elected, Labour leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn would appoint a Shadow Peace Secretary in the place of a Shadow Defence Secretary, Mr S is also looking forward to hearing Corbyn's plans to reform judicial punishment. However, Mr S is happy to place a bet on his approach not being as radical as a crime policy Tony Blair heaped praise on while in power. In today's Times, Blair's former chief speechwriter Philip Collins reveals what happened when he put forward a paper which suggested Blair take a less liberal approach when it came to dealing with crime: 'The Blair government was, to my mind, daftly authoritarian on crime and punishment so I submitted a paper in which I suggested we ignore all the namby-pamby liberal nonsense.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

The Welfare Bill has passed — and revealed a split in Labour

The Welfare Reform and Work Bill has, as expected, passed its second reading in the House of Commons, with 48 Labour MPs defying their party whip and voting against, while Harriet Harman and the rest of the party abstained. We will bring you a full list of rebels as soon as it is available and it will be interesting to see how many new MPs (from a rather left-wing 2015 intake) have joined the rebels. The size of the rebellion is not particularly surprising given the number of MPs who had signed up to Helen Goodman’s rebel reasoned amendment (which was not called, and Harman’s official amendment failed to pass, as expected). The row in Labour means that the rebels have had their way, even if they didn’t persuade their leadership to change its stance.

Sebastian Payne

Has Liz Kendall’s campaign run out of momentum?

Liz Kendall’s chances of winning the Labour leadership contest appear to be slipping away. On several measures, she has fallen into fourth place. Kendall has just 12 nominations from constituency Labour parties, compared to 58 for Yvette Cooper, 67 for Andy Burnham and 70 for Jeremy Corbyn. Leaked internal Labour party polling also put her in last place. The bookies concur: Ladbrokes currently have 10/1 odds on Kendall as the next Labour leader, compared to evens for Burnham, 9/4 for Cooper and 4/1 for Corbyn. Part of the problem might be Kendall’s strategy of throwing bucket after bucket of cold water over the Labour party. Take her speech this morning on devolution, for example.

Sunday

Sebastian Payne

Five things we learnt from the Sunday Politics Labour leadership hustings

The four Labour leadership contenders took part in another televised hustings today, this time chaired by Andrew Neil on the Sunday Politics. With just over 50 days left of this contest, the candidates are now more comfortable in each other’s company and seem much happier to attack each other. Although no one spectacularly won or failed, a few moments did provide some insight into the current state of the race. Here are five key points from today’s hustings. 1. Corbyn is comfortable running as the far left candidate. The rise of Corbynmania has overlooked that he has no frontbench experience and little idea of how to do serious politics.

Friday

Steerpike

George Osborne crashes Number 10 for Treasury party

When George Osborne stepped in for David Cameron at PMQs, it was seen as the Chancellor's chance to show that he had what it takes to be Prime Minister. With that bit of housekeeping done, the Chancellor seemed to let his ambition to move into Number 10 go to his head last night. Osborne broke with tradition by hosting his summer party in the Number 10 garden, rather than the Treasury courtyard. However, as guests wandered through the Number 10 door to raise a glass to the Conservative leadership hopeful, there was one snag. Rather than the usual supply of delicate canapés, hungry hacks were invited to feast on an austerity-friendly spread of Doritos and pretzels. Osborne may be in, but he doesn't have access to the kitchen yet.

Thursday

Sebastian Payne

Were ‘Lazy Labour’ voters, not ‘Shy Tories’, responsible for the election result?

The British Election Study is continuing to dig into why the pollsters called the general election incorrectly. Its latest batch of research suggests that the theories of a late swing to the Tories, a shift in the ‘don’t knows’ or 'Shy Tories' emerging on polling day may not hold the answer. Instead, the BES's evidence suggests that ‘lazy Labour’ voters were a significant factor — i.e. those who said they would vote Labour in surveys, but didn’t turn out on polling day.

Isabel Hardman

Labour MPs push for an amendment to the welfare bill

The Labour welfare rebellion advances further, with Helen Goodman tabling a ‘reasoned amendment’ to the Welfare Reform and Work Bill. She says she has the support of 40 Labour MPs for the amendment, which reads as follows: ‘That this House declines to give a Second Reading to the Welfare Reform and Work Bill, notwithstanding its potentially useful provisions on apprenticeships, because the Bill would have the effect of ignoring the plight of children in low income working households, removing the concept of child poverty from the statute book, increasing the number of children, especially those from large families, living in poverty, worsening work incentives for people whose incomes are below average and reducing the incomes of sick and disabled people.