Labour party

After a disappointing local election result for Labour last week, politicians were quick to blame the party's Brexit ambiguity for the net loss they suffered. Labour councillors in Sunderland and Barnsley said talk of a second referendum had been unhelpful on the doorstep. Meanwhile, MPs including Jess Phillips suggested that a clearer call for a so-called People's Vote would boost support for the party. Downing Street hoped they could capitalise on the party's Brexit worries by convincing the Labour frontbench to back some form of Brexit deal in order to bring the matter to a close. However, the view in Labour a week on is rather different.

These are the most extraordinary local elections of my lifetime. The Tories’ loss of more than 1,000 councillors is way worse than the gloomiest projections. And yet Labour should be as depressed as the government because the fact that it is losing more than 100 seats, and its share of the vote is broadly the same as the Tories' is devastating for it, when arguably this is the most shambolic government in modern history and the comparator elections are the 2015 Ed Miliband lowpoint. And although Brexit is one explanation for both parties’ poor performance, for Labour in particular it is a million miles from being the whole explanation – for the definitional reason that Labour isn’t in charge of Brexit.

Jeremy Corbyn has again shown his power over the structures of the Labour party by winning today's national executive committee showdown over its European elections manifesto. A faction of MPs, led by Tom Watson and backed by the GMB, Unison, Usdaw and TSSA unions, had hoped to change party policy to support for a confirmatory referendum on any Brexit deal that Parliament comes up with. But Corbyn and the Unite union had opposed this, and this afternoon, they came out on top.

A concerted attempt by Labour MPs and MEPs to engineer that their party would campaign unambiguously for a ‘confirmatory’ Brexit referendum in the EU elections looks set to flop. Instead Jeremy Corbyn’s preferred position of characterising a new public vote only as an option is likely to prevail, because he seems to have retained the backing of most of the leaders of the big trade unions. The decision on how strongly to push for a referendum, and how Labour’s position on it should be worded in its manifesto, will be taken at a crunch emergency meeting of the party’s ruling NEC on Tuesday.

The sunshine was glorious. There was a new episode of Game of Thrones to watch in the middle of the night, and everyone seems to have forgotten about Brexit for a while. As bank holiday weekends go, it was a pretty good one. Under a Labour government, however, it would have been even better. Instead of going back to work, today would have been the St George’s Day holiday and we could all have slept in for another twenty-four hours. The trouble is, lots more state-directed time off is the last thing the British economy needs. Indeed, in a deregulated, flexible gig economy it is debatable whether we need bank holidays at all – and we certainly don’t need yet more of them.

On religious holidays it’s customary for politicians and parties to send out well-wishing notes to the celebrating group. An ‘Eid Mubarak’ to Muslims, a ‘Merry Christmas’ to Christians. The practice has become so assumed that to not do so is often viewed as a slight or offence. Yesterday, on the first day of the Jewish festival of Passover, the official Labour Twitter account sent out a message of support. As we all know, accusations of the party's institutional anti-Semitism has been a contentions debate for the last three years under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. You would expect Labour then to be making every effort to prove this label unfit and unfair.

To understand the decay of the Labour Party since 2015, look no further than its London youth wing. London Young Labour (LYL) is the Momentum-controlled home of the capital’s under-27 Labour members. It is also a sparkling example of the worst kinds of regressive identity politics popping up on campuses across Britain. As a 26-year-old Labour member, albeit of a more moderate persuasion than those now running the show, I decided to go along to LYL’s Annual General Meeting last weekend. People talk of Labour as the party of young people. I hoped that the event might make me grow a newfound respect for a party I am quickly losing confidence in. Unfortunately, I left disappointed.

Tories beware – Jeremy Corbyn is in 'training for power'. But the Labour leader isn't readying himself for Downing Street by ensuring his party finally makes up its mind on Brexit. Instead, he is going on long runs, according to a Corbynista fan site with close links to the Labour leader's office. Skwawkbox reports that Jez 'has been preparing for the demands of office with regular 15 kilometer runs'. [caption id="attachment_10269852" align="alignnone" width="343"] Skwawkbox reveals Jeremy Corbyn's fitness regime[/caption] According to the site, 'Corbyn’s training regime reflects his readiness for Downing Street and Labour’s determination to get there'. Corbyn's Labour party has sometimes been likened to a cult.

Probably the most important event at yesterday's shadow cabinet was a presentation by Labour's campaigns director Niall Sookoo of polling that purported to show that 'our support has fallen because we back a People's Vote' - according to a frontbencher. The party's chairman Ian Lavery, who opposes Labour backing a Brexit referendum, was thrilled and crowed 'I told you so', according to my source. The shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, who backs a People's Vote, 'ripped it to shreds'. Another source said: 'There was a presentation to the shadow cabinet updating on the local election and the impact of support for a second referendum on our levels of support, including doorstep feedback'.

On Saturday, the Times published a much-lauded interview with Jess Phillips. As with all her public outings, she comes across as decent, kind, funny, hard-working, honest, and down-to-earth. These are certainly fine qualities to have in an MP. But the interview concluded with Phillips stating that she thought she would be a good prime minister. Many people concurred. This should make us stop and consider whether we’re looking for the right qualities in a potential PM, especially given that we might be seeking a new one sooner rather than later as a result of Theresa May's failure to get her Brexit deal through Parliament at the second attempt.

When Jess Phillips first entered parliament in 2015, she quickly made the headlines after she told Diane Abbott to 'f--- off' when they had a disagreement over whether Jeremy Corbyn had appointed enough women to his shadow cabinet. Since then, Phillips is frequently in the news for speaking up on the political issues she cares about – recently going viral for a speech on olives in which she lambasted the government for earnings caps on immigrants. I'm delighted to have Phillips as a guest on The Spectator's Women With Balls podcast. When we spoke last month, we discussed what it's like to go viral, growing up in a political family and her perspective on class in Westminster.

A fresh war broke out this week between Labour MPs and the party leadership over how impartial Labour has been when dealing with anti-Semitism disciplinary cases. The fighting began after the Observer reported this weekend that Corbyn advisor Andrew Murray had personally lobbied for the party to be more lenient toward a member accused of defending an anti-Semitic mural. Labour HQ has since hit back and insisted that 'Any suggestion that staff in the leader’s office overturned recommendations on individual cases is categorically untrue.' But Mr Steerpike wonders if Labour MPs are right to be worried about meddling, when Corbyn's top advisors have shown themselves willing to defend their friends and allies who have been accused of anti-Semitism.