Labour party

Monday

The Spectator

The best and the worst of Gordon Brown

From our UK edition

Tonight Gordon Brown announced he will stand down as an MP at the next election. Current political leaders have been paying tribute, with Ed Miliband calling his old boss a 'towering figure', while David Cameron said he was 'someone dedicated to public service and has worked very hard for other people'. Even those who worked with Brown accept in their tributes to their former boss that he wasn't perfect, while pointing out the good they felt he did in his long spell in frontline politics. So what were Brown's good and bad bits? Spectator editor Fraser Nelson and our political editor James Forsyth pick one of each: Fraser Nelson Good: He tested to destruction the idea that more money is the remedy for bad public services. Thanks to him, no one will make that mistake again.

Isabel Hardman

Class war at Education questions

From our UK edition

Labour is very pleased with the amount of attention it garnered for its new private schools policy when Tristram Hunt unveiled it last week. So it was natural that the Shadow Education Secretary used this as his main line of attack at today’s Education Questions. He set the scene first using one of his shadow ministerial team Alison McGovern, who contrasted bankers’ pay rising by 7 per cent on average with a 1 per cent rise for nursery staff. It was clear that Labour was keen for a game of Us vs Them. Hunt then piggybacked onto a question from party colleague Ian Lucas about the public benefit of private schools and these comments on the matter by Sir Michael Wilshaw.

Thursday

Roger Alton

What football can tell you about Jim Murphy (and what Jim Murphy can tell you about football)

From our UK edition

The author of a rather brilliant little book about football could just hold the key to Labour’s otherwise negligible prospects in next year’s election. Jim Murphy is the last of the devout Blairites left on the scene, following the fratricidal killing of David Miliband, the departure of James Purnell to big bucks at the BBC, and the decision of the head of the church himself to spend more time with his mansions. After 2010, the Ed Miliband team reshuffled him out to international development. Murphy is direct, angry, utterly undeferential and passionate about everything he does.

Alex Massie

The National shows just how much danger the Union – and Scotland – is still in

From our UK edition

Nearly 20 years ago, during one of the many impasses on the road to ‘peace’ in Northern Ireland, Gerry Adams reminded his opponents that the republican movement would set the terms of any agreement. The IRA reserved a power of veto. ‘They haven’t gone away, you know,’ he said. Scotland is not Ulster, of course, but the Scottish nationalists haven’t gone away either. Anyone who thinks the referendum settled this country’s constitutional future hasn’t been paying attention. The long war continues, albeit — and mercifully — in figurative terms. If anything, defeat has encouraged the nationalists to redouble their efforts. The SNP is the only political party in Scotland that can credibly claim to be a mass organisation.

Wednesday

Charlotte Henry

The Labour MPs who deny planning to defect to Ukip

From our UK edition

Ukip are desperate to build on the momentum from their Rochester win as the general election looms ever closer. At the very top of the party figures including leader Nigel Farage and Deputy Chairman Suzanne Evans have made no secret of the fact that they’d like their next major defector to come from Labour. So, are Ukip going to succeed in wooing over a Labourite, and if so, who? Former Cabinet member Kate Hoey has the right Eurosceptic credentials for Ukip, although her Vauxhall constituency doesn’t lend itself to joining the purple ‘people’s army’, given Ukip’s weakness in London. I got in touch with her office and Hoey replied saying ‘I am not prepared to waste any time on this’. Hardly the categorical denial her whips would like.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

The fight for the soul of the Labour party

From our UK edition

Fight! Two senior Labour MPs locked horns yesterday over the Scottish leadership contest. Ivan Lewis and Tom Watson scrapped after the latter wrote a piece endorsing left-leaning Neil Findlay for the leadership. Lewis tweeted shortly after Watson promoted his piece that ‘it’s essential that Scots decide best person to be leader of Scottish Labour. Others interfering not in the interests of the Labour Party’. Watson took this as it was clearly meant and dived straight in with a retort: ‘Presumably you’d rather they quietly elect your candidate whilst we all watch. Plus ça change.’ This is ostensibly a debate between the two men about rival candidates in the contest for Scottish Labour leader. But it’s also about a great deal more.

Sunday

James Forsyth

No breathing space for Miliband and Labour

From our UK edition

This was meant to be the weekend when Ed Miliband got some ‘breathing space’, a chance to recover after the last torrid few weeks. But his—and his party’s—troubles are still all over the papers today. The Tories defeat in Rochester has not moved the spotlight on to Cameron and his difficulties in the way that Labour hoped it would.   Now, this is largely because of that Tweet. Emily Thornberry has succeed in uniting Miliband critics and loyalists alike in anger at her stupidity. But, as I report in the Mail on Sunday, many of Miliband’s longest standing political allies feel that the Labour machine has grossly mishandled the issue.

Saturday

James Forsyth

The politician who can fill a venue quicker than Kylie

From our UK edition

What’s the most significant political story of the week, Ukip winning Rochester or Emily Thornberry’s resignation? Well, I suspect, it might be neither of them and that the really big event this week happened north of the border, Nicola Sturgeon being sworn in as First Minister. For the new SNP leader is riding a quite remarkable wave of popularity. Right now, she’s addressing a rally at the Glasgow Hydro, a 12,000 seat venue that she sold out faster than Kylie Minogue—what other politician in Britain could hope to do that?   As I say in the column this week, what makes Sturgeon’s popularity all the more remarkable is that she is a career politician.

Friday

Sebastian Payne

Nigel Farage: I would love a Labour defector to join Ukip

From our UK edition

Ukip's victory in Rochester has lead to the inevitable question of 'what next?' for the party. Now that Nigel Farage has two representatives in the House of Commons, his main answer is shockingly more MPs. Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless came from the Conservative Party, but there has been much chatter in Westminster about the possibility of a Labour defector. Frank Field and Austin Mitchell are just two of the names that are mentioned. Farage added credence to these rumours by acknowledging he has been in touch with a 'few' Labour people. Speaking to reporters in Rochester this morning, the Ukip leader said: 'I would love a Labour defector because that would reinforce the message as to why we won this by-election yesterday.

Steerpike

Ed Miliband reveals he ‘feels respect’ whenever he sees a white van

From our UK edition

The fallout from Emily Thornberry’s ‘snobbish’ photo of a flag-furnished house in Rochester looks like it still has plenty of gas. The house’s owner, Dan Ware, has travelled to Thornberry’s Islington house today in search of an apology. https://twitter.com/johnestevens/status/535779676632129538 Thornberry, who resigned from the shadow cabinet yesterday following a furious conversation with Ed Miliband, has said she is ‘more than happy’ to meet Mr Ware. Nonetheless, a quick glance at some of Thornberry’s ‘favourite’ tweets over the last 24 hours suggests she hasn’t exactly repented of her actions: https://twitter.com/EmilyThornberry https://twitter.com/EmilyThornberry https://twitter.

James Forsyth

Thanks to Emily Thornberry’s resignation, the biggest losers from Rochester were Labour

From our UK edition

Walk round the Commons today and it is striking that Tory MPs are in relatively good spirits while Labour ones looks distinctly more downcast. At first this seems odd, after all it is the Tories who have just lost another seat to Ukip. But in the battle of the weak that is British politics right now, Labour have had the worst of the past twenty four hours. Obviously, it is Ukip who have the best of it, but the Tories have come off rather less badly than Labour which is what counts for relative success in Westminster at the moment. In the end, the Rochester result wasn’t as bad for the Tories as they feared it would be a fortnight ago. Ukip’s seven point margin of victory means that the Tories have a strong chance of taking the seat back in May.

James Forsyth

Ukip on course for victory in Rochester – but no Tory panic

From our UK edition

Counting is underway in the Rochester and Strood by-election and the early indications are that Ukip has won the seat on a turnout slightly over 50%. The result is expected between 3.30am and 4am, and my colleague Seb Payne will be tweeting updates throughout the night. This was a campaign that started with the Tories saying they could win—and many saying that they had to win, but ends with the discussion all being about how big the Ukip majority will be. Here’s the rub, though: there’s no sign yet that defeat will send the Tories into a full-on panic. Even Cameron-sceptic MPs are saying that this by-election defeat is ‘priced in’.

Thursday

Sebastian Payne

Podcast special: was Emily Thornberry right to resign?

From our UK edition

Just a few hours ago, Labour's Emily Thornberry was protesting that she had no idea why anyone would take offence at her Tweeting a picture of a Rochester house with three St George flags and a white van. Now, the tweet has ended her front bench career - she has had to resign as Shadow Attonery General Emily Thornberry. Just why was Ed Milband so sensitive? And what will be the fallout of Ukip taking Rochester? James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and myself discuss this in a podcast special.

James Forsyth

Emily Thornberry resigns over Rochester Tweet

From our UK edition

Emily Thornberry has resigned from the shadow Cabinet for sending a Tweet that appeared to mock a Rochester voter who was flying several St George’s Cross from their window and had a white van parked outside. Thornberry’s resignation follows Miliband aides briefing that the leader was the angriest they’d ever seen him after being told about the tweet. All this shows just how sensitive Labour is to the charge that it is now a party run by a metropolitan elite who have little connection with the party’s traditional working class base. I suspect that if Miliband had not had the last few weeks that he has, Thornberry would have been allowed to try and ride out this storm. But Labour clearly feel that they have try and close this story down as quickly as possible.

Isabel Hardman

Emily Thornberry exposes Labour’s agony in Rochester

From our UK edition

The Tories expect to lose in Rochester tonight - and blame Labour. Had it not been imploding, they argue, the Ukip vote would not be so big. And why is it imploding? Enter Islington MP Emily Thornberry, who was't really helping any late efforts by tweeting this 'Image from Rochester.' Within no time, this was being taken as a Londoner's "snobby and derogatory" sneer at White Van Man: She has (sort of) explained herself to MailOnline here. But not to the satisfaction of Simon Danczuk, Labour MP for Rochdale:- "Everyone will know exactly what she meant by that comment. I think she was being derogatory and dismissive of the people. We all know what she was trying to imply.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Poll for Unite says Labour will fail to take its seventh target seat from the Tories

From our UK edition

Stockton South is seventh on Labour’s target seat list in terms of the swing needed to win yet a Survation poll in the constituency has put the current Tory MP James Wharton on track to hold it. When don't-knows are stripped out, poll (tables here) puts Wharton two points ahead of Labour’s candidate Louise Baldock on 39 per cent to 37 per cent. The Lib Dems are on 3 per cent, Ukip on 18 per cent, with others polling 3 per cent. This is interesting enough given Labour should expect to win its seventh target seat easily. This is a northern seat which Wharton currently holds with a 332 vote majority. It is the sort of constituency where Labour’s cost-of-living crisis message should hit home.

Ed West

I have more respect for Labour politicians who defend their record on immigration than those who pander

From our UK edition

Wonderful: Labour has a new slogan on immigration, which appears to be the Conservatives’ old slogan from 2005, the one that Labour said was racist. I have far more respect for any Labour politician who actually defends their record on mass immigration – only a fifth of which was from Europe, incidentally, although that gets at least four-fifths of the coverage – than those who goes along with the current fashion. Someone who said that diversity made us more tolerant and kinder and was culturally-enriching; and that the economic benefits, although they are more helpful to the rich than the poor, are worth the downsides.

Isabel Hardman

Responding to Ukip shouldn’t just mean talking about immigration

From our UK edition

Can you out-Ukip Ukip? Depending on which day of the week it is, both mainstream political parties think you can and you can't. Last week Ed Miliband said you couldn't and that he wouldn't, arguing that it was about time someone levelled with Nigel Farage's party. Yesterday Yvette Cooper announced tough immigration measures that some in her party thought suggested Labour was trying to chase Ukip. The Tories have the same struggle. One of the problems for both Tories and Labour is that it is unhealthy for them to allow Ukip to become in effect a think tank that sets policy for other parties by spooking their own MPs.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

The immigration arms race

From our UK edition

Who is tougher on immigration? Neither the Tories nor Labour want to be left behind by Ukip, and have descended into an arms race over who can best crack down on EU migration. Today Ed Miliband's party launched a two-pronged attack on the subject, with Yvette Cooper speaking in the morning about her plans to hire 1,000 additional border guards by imposing a charge on visitors from certain countries including the US, and Rachel Reeves announcing plans for a clampdown on EU migrants claiming out-of-work benefits. Amusingly, Reeves gave her policy to the MailOnline as an exclusive, just a few days after Ed Miliband spoke about dark forces out to get the Labour party.

Isabel Hardman

Myleene Klass attacks Ed Miliband’s ‘sexy’ mansion tax

From our UK edition

Myleene Klass had a bit of a go at Ed Miliband last night when she appeared next to the Labour leader on The Agenda. She was very cross about what she described as a 'sexy tax that says let's take from the rich and give it to the poor', which is of course Labour's mansion tax. Apart from a rather awkward bit when she started pointing at a glass of water and said 'you can't just point at things and tax them!', Klass has a point about the 'sexy tax' (which would be a great Labour theme tune, adapted from Justin Timberlake's 'Sexy Back', in which the party could tell voters that they've 'got a sexy tax, them other parties don't know how to act' and then threaten to tax anyone who misbehaves and so on and so forth).