Labour party

Thursday

James Forsyth

Does Labour still not get it?

You wait ages for a Labour leadership contest, then five come along at once. In the past few days, nominations have closed for the contests to be leader and deputy leader of the UK and Scottish Labour parties respectively as well as on the party’s pick for London mayor. Who wins these races will determine how Labour defines itself in opposition and how quickly it can regain power. Labour is in the dire position of being out of office at UK level, at national level in Scotland and at city level in the capital. Labour should be taking a long, hard look at itself before deciding what to do next. Instead, it has a leadership contest in which sloganeering seems to be taking precedence over thought.

Robert Philpot

Imposter syndrome

As graduates of the country’s best university, most former Cambridge students neither seek nor expect much in the way of public sympathy. Last weekend, however, the frontrunner in the Labour leadership contest, Andy Burnham, attempted to elicit a little. Describing his journey from a Merseyside comprehensive to Cambridge as the thing which ‘brought me into politics’, he told of his bewilderment when, as a prospective English student, he was asked at his interview, ‘Do you see a parallel between The Canterbury Tales and modern package holidays?’ He was, he said, ‘still pondering what the question meant when I arrived at Warrington station six hours later and when the rejection letter dropped through the door’.

Wednesday

Sebastian Payne

The ‘anyone but Tom Watson’ campaign has its first success

Five candidates have made it onto the ballot paper for deputy leader of the Labour party. Tom Watson and Caroline Flint have long had the 35 nominations required to make it into the contest, but until this morning, it was looking to be a two-horse race. But with just under an hour to go until the nominations closed, Rushanara Ali, the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, withdrew her candidacy to help get others on the ballot paper. In the nick of time, her 24 backers flocked elsewhere to ensure Stella Creasy, Ben Bradshaw and Angela Eagle (who were all struggling to find 35 backers) had enough support. With a good variety candidates in the running, the deputy leadership contest has the potential to be more interesting than the leadership race.

Steerpike

Liz Kendall on safe ground for Newsnight debate

Tonight's Newsnight debate will see the four Labour leadership hopefuls -- Liz Kendall, Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Jeremy Corbyn -- head to Nuneaton in a bid to boost their campaigns. Given that this week, Kendall's supporters have been dubbed the 'New Labour Taliban' by a Labour source, relations are likely to be strained between the four. However, Kendall can at least take heart that she is on safe ground in Nuneaton, a seat which Labour failed to win the election. The party's candidate in the election, Vicky Fowler is backing Kendall.

Sebastian Payne

When will the Labour leadership contenders realise it’s the 2020 election they’re fighting?

Tonight’s Newsnight Labour leadership debate is a sink or swim moment for Liz Kendall. So far, there has been a lot of talk about Kendall's candidacy and her potential to be a reforming leader. But until now, there hasn’t been a lot of proof to back that up. Some have been whispering that she doesn’t perform well under sustained pressure; others have likened her supporters to the Taliban. Either way, tonight’s debate is her opportunity to show that she is credible — as well as hopefully answering the crucial question of what, if anything, she stands for. It’s a mistake to label Kendall as just the Blairite right-wing candidate. Again, she has the potential to have far broader appeal, what could be described as 'New with a touch of red.

Tuesday

Rod Liddle

Forget Jeremy Corbyn, I’m backing Liz Kendall for Labour leader

I daresay some of you lot are amusing yourselves by joining the Labour Party for three quid so as to vote for Jeremy Corbyn in the forthcoming leadership election. Can’t say I blame you – it would be a hoot to watch. That being said, he is not the worst candidate on the list. At least Corbyn has a critique of why Labour lost. A wrong critique, I think – just as it was wrong when Tony Benn said the same stuff after the 1983 disaster. But a critique at least (and Corbyn, when he doesn’t mention the IRA, can be a fairly agreeable chap). No – the thing is, if you really wanted to hurt Labour in a wizard wheeze, you’d join the party and vote for Yvette Cooper. No critique at all there. Just a perpetual state of denial. I’m voting for Liz Kendall, btw.

James Forsyth

‘Purdah’ amendment to EU referendum bill defeated — but only thanks to Labour

The government has defeated Bill Cash’s rebel amendment on the changes to the ‘purdah’ rules during the EU referendum campaign, but only thanks to Labour abstaining. The actual vote was 288 to 97. Now, the SNP voted with the Tory rebels as did Douglas Carswell, a few Labour Euro-scpetics, Plaid and the DUP. This means that around 2o to 30 Tories rebelled, we’re still waiting for the full division list to get the precise number. This is a rebellion that is embarrassing rather than earth shattering. But with Labour support, it would have been enough to overturn the government’s majority, which is a reminder of how hard governing with a majority of 12 could turn out to be.

Sebastian Payne

Yvette Cooper is trying to distance herself both from ‘Taliban New Labour’ and Andy Burnham

Yvette Cooper is attempting to put as much distance as possible between her and the anonymous ‘Taliban New Labour’ comments. In an article for the Huffington Post, Cooper’s campaign chair Shabana Mahmood says there is no place for negative briefing in the Labour leadership contest. Mahmood sets out two promises from the Cooper campaign: ‘If anyone is speaking on behalf of the campaign, they will do so explicitly on the record.

Steerpike

Richard Desmond: I made £5,000 profit from Labour donation

Although Richard Desmond recently pledged his allegiance to Ukip's Nigel Farage, the media mogul previously backed Tony Blair, with the owner of the Express papers donating £100,000 to Labour in 2001. Now, in his new biography Richard Desmond: The Real Deal, Desmond claims that he made a £5,000 profit from the donation. Desmond writes that the donation came about after he attended a dinner with Lord Alli: 'Waheed said Tony really liked me. Would I make a contribution to the party? What they didn’t realise was that I had put everything I’d ever had – some £37 million – into the Express, along with £97 million that I had borrowed, my house and half my pension pot.

Steerpike

Battle of the pundits: Owen Jones vs ‘the Katie Hopkins of the Blairite right’

Today the BBC invited arch-enemies Dan Hodges and Owen Jones onto Daily Politics to discuss the Labour leadership battle. What began as a civil exchanging of views over Jeremy Corbyn's inclusion on the ballot, rapidly turned into an all-out spat with Jones calling Hodges 'the Katie Hopkins of the Blairite right': DH: You've insisted he's on the ballot, he's on the ballot. Do you now want him to win? OJ: Yeah, I'll be supporting and fighting for Jeremy Corbyn DH: So you genuinely think if Jeremy Corbyn is leader of the Labour party, the British people will elect Jeremy Corbyn?

Monday

Sebastian Payne

Jim Murphy: second independence referendum is inevitable

Jim Murphy is quitting frontline politics with a bang. The outgoing leader of the Scottish Labour party addressed Policy Exchange this afternoon, offering his thoughts on why Labour lost the election and did so badly north of the border. Murphy revealed that he thinks another independence referendum is inevitable: 'There will be another referendum whenever the SNP can get away with it. Why wouldn’t there? If you were an insurgent nationalist party with unprecedented power and with an absolute majority of parliamentarians in both parliaments, why wouldn't you try and engineer certain circumstances that get you another referendum? ‘My frustration is that Cameron is so lame-assly dumb on it that he would stumble into it and give them an excuse to do it.

Julia Hartley-Brewer

Jeremy Corbyn is definitely not what Labour voters want

The clock struck noon and it was if the past 32 years had never happened. Veteran Left-wing MP Jeremy Corbyn had, with seconds to spare, got the necessary 35 nominations to win his place on the Labour leadership ballot. And with that news, it became clear that the Labour party has not just failed to learn the lessons of last month’s election failure; they are still too busy ignoring the lessons of 1983. In that year, one of the party’s most traumatic defeats in its history, the British people voted en masse to reject Michael Foot and his socialist manifesto – famously dubbed 'the longest suicide note in history'. Today, no one in the Labour party – well, at least no one remotely sane – thinks Jeremy Corbyn will win the party leadership.

Sebastian Payne

Jeremy Corbyn makes Labour leadership ballot paper

Thanks to a last minute rush of nominations, Jeremy Corbyn has made it onto the Labour leadership ballot paper. Corbyn had 30 MPs backing him at 11am this morning and it seems some undecideds and Team Burnham defectors were persuaded it would be a good thing to have Corbyn in the contest, taking him to the 35 names he needed. The MP for Islington North is now the most left-wing candidate to fight a Labour leadership election since Tony Benn ran against Neil Kinnock in 1988. But as you can see from the list of MPs nominating him below, many of those backing Corbyn are not his natural supporters. In fact some, such as Sadiq Khan, have radically different political stances.

Sebastian Payne

Team Burnham: ‘Taliban New Labour’ remarks came from Cooper’s campaign

Who described the folks backing Liz Kendall as the ‘Taliban New Labour’? The Telegraph’s story this morning attributed the vituperative comments to a ‘sources close to Burnham and Cooper,' but both campaigns are distancing themselves from the remarks. A source on Team Burnham tells Coffee House that the comments came from Yvette’s Team and not from anyone on the Burnham campaign. But Team Cooper on the other hand is quick to say that the comments did not come from them either. A source on Cooper’s campaign says: ‘I don’t think it helps to get into finger pointing. It absolutely wasn’t us. It’s not language we endorse or have even heard.

Steerpike

Lesley Garrett: Labour chose the wrong Miliband brother

As a Doncaster resident, Lesley Garrett is well acquainted with her local MP Ed Miliband. However, the soprano was left disappointed by Labour's effort in the general election. In an interview ahead of her performance in Garsington Opera’s production of Così fan tutte, Garrett -- who is a loyal Labour supporter -- blamed their election defeat in part on the party choosing the wrong Miliband brother to lead the party: 'Yes. I think most people do. I think his brother had more experience, and a more authoritative voice. I think Ed was very good at what he did, and I think the two of them together would have been unstoppable.

Sebastian Payne

The Labour leadership contest is about to get nasty

Today is the last call for nominating candidates in the Labour leadership contest. At noon, the nominations will close and we’ll know then whether it’s going to be a three or four horse race. Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall are on the ballot paper so it’s now a question of whether Jeremy Corbyn can find the extra 17 MPs to meet the 15 per cent threshold. By our calculations, there are 42 MPs still to declare, so it remains very possible that a late surge will push Corbyn towards the 35 nominations needed to make it onto the ballot Once nominations are closed, the leadership race is thrown into the hands of Labour party members. This is also the point when the campaign is likely to become dirty.

Andrew Haldenby

The government has found new momentum for NHS reform

The PM’s first policy speech in this Parliament was devoted to the NHS and marked a big shift in tone compared to the election.  The campaign message was somewhat defensive, majoring on the extra spending that the Conservatives would provide (and leading some to ask where the extra £8 billion a year was coming from).  11 days after the election, the message was very different. 'The NHS must step up,' said Cameron.  His key phrase was 'There is no choice between efficiency savings and quality of care'. That was an unsubtle rejoinder to the health leaders who had been arguing, even during the election campaign itself, that much more money and staff must come. Since then ministers have kept up the momentum.

Friday

Sebastian Payne

Mary Creagh drops out of Labour leadership contest

Mary Creagh has announced she is withdrawing from the Labour leadership contest. The shadow international development secretary has explained in tomorrow’s Guardian that she is quitting the race but won’t be backing another candidate. Given that Creagh had just seven MPs openly backing her — with only a rumoured handful still in the shadows — it was increasingly clear over the last week that she wouldn’t get the 35 names she needs to get on the ballot paper. Creagh has used her spot in the Guardian to attack Ed Miliband's leadership. She says Labour was too anti-business under him and that this approach must be reversed if the party is to have any chance of making it back into power.

Sebastian Payne

Labour’s left and right wings want Jeremy Corbyn on the ballot paper

Jeremy Corbyn is adding some unlikely excitement to the Labour leadership contest. Although he does not have enough MPs yet to make it onto the ballot paper — he needs another 16 nominations at the time of writing — there is still a sense he might make it into race. As I wrote earlier in the week, the other campaigns are open to ‘loaning’ Corbyn some of their nominations if he nearing the magic 35 threshold. Typically, Corbyn is sticking to his principles and has told Total Politics he is not keen on the idea of other candidates helping him: ‘I’m not particularly into charity nominations. I want to see a proper debate within the party.

Thursday

Sebastian Payne

John Prescott: David Miliband should ‘shut up’

David Miliband is falling rapidly out of favour with his former colleagues, thanks to his constant critique of Labour. John Prescott spoke for many in the party on the Daily Politics today, where he described Miliband's interjections on Labour’s future as ‘terrible’: ‘He should shut up. We’ve gone through that period. The Miliband period is now gone. We’re not looking to a period where he now emerges now as another Miliband interpretation; I don’t think that’s possible. ‘He did shut up during the elections though there was enough hints to say that he wasn’t happy. I’m not happy! He's now become a Blairite, but when he was with me he didn’t want to be associated with the Blairites.