Labour party

Thursday

James Forsyth

Emily Thornberry resigns over Rochester Tweet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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).

Sunday

James Forsyth

Why Rochester won’t provide much relief for Labour

Thursday can’t come soon enough for shadow Cabinet loyalists. They believe that the Rochester by-election will provide Ed Miliband with some ‘breathing space’ and turn the spotlight on David Cameron’s troubles with his own side.   To be sure, losing another seat to Ukip will be bad for Cameron and the Tories. But based on conversations I’ve had in the past few days, I don’t think it will cause the crisis that many expected just a few weeks ago. Equally, Labour won't gain any positive momentum out of a by-election in which it comes third.   There are, I say in the Mail on Sunday, two reasons why the expected Cameron crisis won't materialise. The first is the difficult few weeks Ed Miliband has had and the narrowing in the polls.

Thursday

Steerpike

Labour’s war on the media is working, as activists turn on hacks

Labour’s efforts to demonise the hostile anti-Ed media is working. At the Labour leader’s eighth ‘relaunch’ speech on Thursday at Senate House, every single question from journalists was greeted by boos, hisses and tuts. The Labour leader actually dealt with the smattering of questions about his latest leadership woes rather well, yet the crowd were having none of it. Party members even hissed the polite chap from the BBC, much to the acute embarrassment of Mr Miliband, who was forced to calm his crowd with a ‘come on now, it’s a fair question’. When another hack asked if Ed felt he had made any mistakes as leader, one passionate activist audibly spat out ‘yes, taking a question from you.

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: Miliband heads for the exit

One of the things that every political team needs is a Liz Sugg. Sugg works in Downing Street and makes sure that every trip the Prime Minister makes anywhere runs with military precision and doesn't involve him walking through a door with the word EXIT on it when he's delivering a make or break speech after serious questions about his leadership, for instance. Who does that for Miliband?

Isabel Hardman

Ed Miliband’s make-or-break speech: ‘I’m willing to put up with whatever is thrown at me’

Ed Miliband's make-or-break speech this morning was fine. That's fine as in it did the job just fine, rather than that it was a fine speech that his party will reminisce about for many years. The main challenge was for him to not mess up, either by failing to mention the deficit, tripping up on the way to the lectern, or appearing unconvincing. He did mention the deficit, he did deliver the speech from a lectern (albeit in the round, which is a favoured format of his because it looks informal, but that's not really what he needs at the moment when he's trying to look formal and prime ministerial), and he did sound passionate. Miliband talked about his values and his motivation for doing the job.

James Forsyth

Labour’s two biggest problems—and neither of them is Ed Miliband

The knives are out again for Ed Miliband this morning. But the Labour leader is the least of his party’s problems. Labour has still not come up with answers to the two existential questions facing it, what’s the point of it when there’s no money left to spend and how should it respond to globalisation. I argue in this week’s magazine that until it does, the party will be in a death spiral. The Labour party has always believed in spending money for the common good. Even Tony Blair’s new Clause IV declared, ‘by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone.’ Public spending was the glue that held together the traditional Labour coalition and the New Labour one. Blair himself increased public spending from 40.

Sebastian Payne

Podcast: the death of the left, Rochester and Strood and equality in marriage

Has Ed Miliband found himself on the wrong side of history? In this week's View from 22 podcast, James Forsyth discusses his Spectator cover feature on the plight of progressives with John Harris. With threats from the SNP, Greens and even Russell Brand, Ed Miliband is stuck in a corner, trying to figure out what the Labour Party stands for If he doesn't, the death spiral will continue. With one week to go until the Rochester and Strood by-election, Isabel Hardman examines how Ukip is trouncing the Conservatives in the campaign, putting them on course to have a second MP. The Tories' swagger earlier in the campaign appears to be hurting them now. And Fraser Nelson looks at how marriage is becoming a past time for the rich with  Julie Bindel.

Tanya Gold

There’s only one Alan Johnson (that’s why Labour’s in such trouble)

Labour voters feel hope and despair; hope, because the Tories are doing no better than we, and despair, for that same reason. Left-wing politics are resurgent where it matters least — outside the Labour party. A body without a head is just a corpse, and frightening; no one wants to vote for Russell Brand, who thinks the concept of voting is idiotic, as he is. Left-wing politics wears fancy dress (the Million Mask March), occupies the biscuit aisle at Fortnum & Mason (UK Uncut) or is ‘preaching from a mansion’ to a cardboard box (Johnny Rotten on Russell Brand, again). Ed Miliband is odd, say his critics. He has a funny face and he hates his brother. (I do not care about the funny face. David Cameron has a nice face, and look what he has done with it.

Isabel Hardman

The Tories are paying the price for their swagger over the Rochester by-election

[audioplayer src="http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_13_Nov_2014_v4.mp3" title="Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth discuss the Rochester by-election" startat=624] Listen [/audioplayer]In a corner of the Ukip campaign office in Rochester, a light-up orb is spinning, with the words ‘Vote Mark Reckless’ endlessly switching from yellow to purple. It’s hypnotic, if disconcerting, but also unnecessary because voters don’t need to be persuaded to vote for him. The by-election that Ukip thought would be a tricky one is turning out to be easier than anyone predicted. Poll after poll has put Mark Reckless as the winner of next week’s vote, and fewer and fewer Tories privately think that their party will win.

James Forsyth

It’s not just Ed Miliband. Labour’s on the wrong side of history

[audioplayer src="http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_13_Nov_2014_v4.mp3" title="James Forsyth and John Harris discusses the plight of progressives" startat=36] Listen [/audioplayer]Ed Miliband is the least of Labour’s problems. Its troubles go far deeper than any individual. They are structural and, potentially, fatal. It is certainly easier for Labour MPs, and ultimately more comforting, to concentrate on Miliband’s deficiencies as a leader than the existential crisis facing the left. But until somebody comes up with an answer to the question of what the party is for — in an era of austerity and globalisation — it will be stuck in a death spiral. The Labour party has always believed in spending money for the common good.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Miliband to pitch himself against Goliaths in fightback speech

Ed Miliband has a speech billed as his make-or-break fightback proof-I'd-make-a-great-PM tomorrow morning. In truth, it's rarely right to bill one political speech as The fightback, at least in voters' minds, but the Labour leader does need to show that he hasn't been crushed by the past few weeks - and reassure his party sufficiently for them to fight with him. His speech will be followed by 'interventions' from Ed Balls, Yvette Cooper, Chuka Umunna and Tristram Hunt in the next few days.

Isabel Hardman

Nigel Farage reinforces David Cameron’s own anti-Ukip squeeze message

Nigel Farage has talked in the past about his readiness to prop up a Labour minority government - he gave an interview to the Sunday People in October in which he said the Labour leader would just have to offer a referendum and a deal would be possible. But the fact that he has repeated it to the New Statesman this week is hardly helpful when his party is going head to head with the Tories in Rochester. His comments to Jason Cowley help David Cameron's squeeze message, which is that if you vote Ukip, you get Miliband. Ukip are trying to sound as though they don't care that this is getting so much pick-up, with a party source saying: 'They [the Tories] are the ones who want to do a deal with Labour!

Isabel Hardman

How can Labour overcome Ed Miliband’s poor appeal to voters?

How do Labour campaigners overcome the Ed Miliband problem on the doorstep? Today's Standard poll finds just 13 per cent of voters think he is ready to be Prime Minister, down from 22 per cent in June. MPs, candidates and activists have noticed a hardening in voters' attitudes towards the Labour leader. One says: 'Voters have gone from thinking "I'm not sure about this guy" to "I've made up my mind about this guy and I'm not going to vote for him".' But the candidate standing before them on the doorstep needs to work out how to persuade that voter to back them. So what do they do? One says that they explain to voters that when you meet Ed Miliband in person he's a 'really nice, funny, smart guy who cares desperately about our country'.

Isabel Hardman

Tories three points ahead of Labour in new poll

The Tories have pulled ahead of Labour in a new poll in today's Evening Standard. The Ipsos Mori poll puts David Cameron's party three points ahead of Labour, at 32, and Labour down four points to 29. The Lib Dems are on 9 and Ukip 14. This poll is just one poll, Labour will say, as it tries to stop more panic breaking out ahead of Miliband's speech tomorrow. But it is a bad poll, the worst poll for Labour so far. The Labour leader does need to reassure his party that going neck-and-neck and sometimes behind the Tories is not a symptom of Labour's weaknesses but a feature of the era of multi-party politics which means that no mainstream party can expect a poll lead. That the Tories are on 32 per cent is hardly a sign of strength, either.