Labour party

Thursday

Stephen Daisley

Nothing can justify a vote for Jeremy Corbyn

From our UK edition

For Labour moderates agonising over whether they can vote for the party led by Jeremy Corbyn, an answer to their dilemma comes from a surprising quarter.  The quandary of party or principles comes down to whether you agree with Margaret Thatcher or Enoch Powell. Early in her premiership, Mrs T paid a visit to the Conservative Philosophy Group and got into an unexpected row with the original tribune of the New Right. Posed a problem — whether one owed first loyalty to country or values — the divergence of Thatcherism and Powellism was stark. Powell said: 'I would fight for this country even if it had a Communist government.’ Thatcher was horrified: ‘Nonsense, Enoch. If I send British troops abroad, it will be to defend our values.

Wednesday

Matthew Lynn

If Corbyn wins, the markets will be in full-scale panic

From our UK edition

Friday morning. A humbled looking Theresa May is muttering about how 'defeat means defeat', while Boris Johnson readies his leadership bid. Nicola Sturgeon is flying down to London with a list of demands for supporting a Labour-led coalition. And Jeremy Corbyn is finishing off some work on his allotment before hopping on a bus to the Palace. It might sound far-fetched. But the polls are so all over the place, it is no longer impossible that the Tories will lose their majority. If it happens, one point has been overlooked. Over in the City, stocks will be getting trashed, and the pound will be in free-fall. The markets have only just begun to contemplate what a Corbyn-led Labour Government would be like, but have hardly paused to give it any serious consideration.

Tom Goodenough

The Spectator’s complete election guide: what to look out for and when

From our UK edition

'Strong and stable', 'weak and wobbly', 'coalition of chaos': you've heard enough of the slogans. Now, election day is nearly upon us. Here's the Spectator's guide to what to watch out for on the night as we find out whether Theresa May is heading for a big win - or an historic blunder: 10pm All eyes will be on the joint exit poll from the BBC, ITV and Sky. In 2015, this was the key moment for the Tories with the poll suggesting that the party was heading for a surprise majority. 11pm Houghton & Sunderland South – where Labour upped its majority in 2015 - is likely to be the first seat to declare. We’ll also get the result from Sunderland Central – likely to be another Labour hold - at around 11.

James Forsyth

Will the Tory majority be bigger than expected?

From our UK edition

The overall result of the general election isn’t really in doubt: the Tories will be returned to government tomorrow with an increased majority. But just how big that majority is will have a huge impact on what happens at Westminster over the next few years—and that is much less clear. There are two reasons for this. First, the British polling industry remains in crisis; meaning that it is hard to have confidence in the numbers they are pumping out today. Second, in this election, there isn’t going to be a national swing, but a series of regional swings. For example, I hear that the Tories are sending extra resources into Battersea, a seat where they have an almost 8,000 majority.

Tim Stanley

Why I’m voting Tory for the first time ever

From our UK edition

This is the first election in my life in which I shall vote Conservative. I voted Labour in the last local elections as a sort of last fling at the ballot box. But not this time. This time I’m going to go all the way with Theresa May. Like a lot of Eurosceptic Labour voters, I was drawn to May by her declaration that Brexit would mean Brexit. But Brexit has hardly come up in this campaign, and while the PM is said to have floundered, Labour has supposedly surged. Nevertheless, for me, and countless voters like me, the issues might have changed but the dynamic hasn’t. I don’t like Labour anymore. I do like Theresa May. This is the hardest thing to write. You see, I was born Labour and when you’re born Labour you’re supposed to bloody stay that way.

Pádraig Belton

If we’re heading for a hung Parliament, Northern Ireland will prove crucial

From our UK edition

If YouGov's projections come anywhere near to being true and control of the House of Commons teeters on a knife's edge, then suddenly Northern Ireland's 18 MPs go from a curiosity to being right at the heart of parliamentary arithmetic. The DUP holds the largest batch of eight seats - precisely the same as the Lib Dems won in the entire United Kingdom in 2015. They're likely to win a similar number this time around. So what happens if we end up with a hung Parliament? If invited to cooperate with the Tories, the DUP's price will not be extortionate. But it won't be insignificant either. In particular, they will not want investigations of police and military personnel actions during the Troubles - an important issue for Sinn Féin in stalled Stormont talks.

Tom Goodenough

Corbyn or May? The papers have their say

From our UK edition

This time tomorrow, the politicians will have finally fallen silent and the polls will be open. But who to vote for? Here’s what the papers say: The Sun backs Theresa May and has a ‘simple message’ for those considering voting for Ukip or Labour: ‘don’t’. Given that the ‘Tories alone are committed to seeing Brexit through in full’, the Sun suggests a vote for the 'Kippers would be redundant. And for those who believe Labour will ensure Brexit happens, the Sun says that it 'does not believe' it 'for a second’. For those who have always voted Labour, the Sun says to remember that Corbyn's party ‘is not the moderate Labour of Tony Blair’.

Tuesday

Brendan O’Neill

Labour’s desperate crawling to the young is a sad admission of defeat

From our UK edition

In this slow-motion car crash of a General Election campaign, there have been few sights more tragic than that of grizzled, greying Labour people pleading with the young to vote for them. Even Diane Abbott’s dumbfounded face on every political show on the box and Tim Farron’s wobbly expression every time a member of the public asks him why he hates Brexit have been no match for these political versions of sad old uncles in skinny jeans creepily cosying up to yoof. How I’ve winced. They’ve all been at it. There was Armando Iannucci, funnyman turned another boring Tory-fearer, who got a gazillion retweets when he said he was getting down on his ‘gnarled and brittle knees’ to beg 18-to-24-year-olds to vote.

Nick Cohen

Seumas Milne and the Stasi

From our UK edition

Few noticed in 2015 when Seumas Milne excused the tyranny that held East Germany in its power from the Soviet Invasion in 1945 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Nearly every page reeked of a sly attempt to sweeten dictatorship and cover up the murder it inevitably brings. It was greeted with deserved indifference. As for Milne, two-years ago he was just another columnist in a newspaper industry that is stuffed with them. He provided a niche service on the Guardian by catering for a corner of the market that yearned to hear defences of 20th century Soviet Communism and 21st century Islamo-Fascism at the same time and for the same reasons. Now Milne is Jeremy Corbyn’s Executive Director of Strategy and Communications.

Tom Goodenough

In the wake of the police numbers row, attack is the best form of defence for the Tories

From our UK edition

Boris’s last appearance on the airwaves during the election campaign left many scratching their heads. Just what did the word 'mugwump’ actually mean? This time, the Foreign Secretary’s attack against Jeremy Corbyn was much more straightforward: the Labour leader's opposition to the ‘shoot to kill’ policy. Here, Corbyn has undoubtedly changed his tune: in 2015, he said he wasn’t happy with the idea; and last year, he said that he hadn’t changed his mind. In the wake of the London attack though, Corbyn backed officers being able to use lethal force in certain situations.

Ross Clark

Is Jeremy Corbyn really out to help the poor?

From our UK edition

Is Jeremy Corbyn really out to help the poor – or just to entice the middle classes into his big socialist tent? I ask because the more you examine the manifesto he keeps waving before the television cameras, the more it seems to be designed around giving benefits to the better-off. These won’t come without cost, of course – the better-off will also be paying for the benefits which Corbyn is dangling before their eyes, in the form of higher income taxes, and possibly new wealth taxes, too. But for the moment, it seems to be the potential handouts which are making Labour headlines rather than the prospect of higher taxes. Could Corbyn potentially sweep to power on the back of the student vote, and the votes of students’ parents?

Monday

James Kirkup

Jeremy Corbyn has transformed into a ruthless political operator

From our UK edition

Jeremy Corbyn says that if he was Prime Minister, he would authorise the police to use 'whatever force is necessary' against terrorists. Is that true? Is he really ready to go back on decades of suspicion of the police, of hostility to the security forces of an imperialist British state? How can this be reconciled with the man who was so obviously unwilling to back the use of lethal force in that interview with Laura Kuenssberg that's doing the rounds again. Jeremy Corbyn opposes 'shoot to kill' policy. Does he mean it? I have no idea. But the comment confirms that Mr Corbyn's newfound political ruthlessness is the story of this election.

Nick Cohen

This election will be remembered as a triumph for the wealthy

From our UK edition

This dismal, unnecessary election, conducted between the scream of police sirens and the murders of civilians, will be remembered for one thing only: the dementia tax. In years to come, political pros will shake their heads at the naivety of Theresa May. She appeared invincible, they will say. All she had to do was to keep quiet, turn up and she would win a landslide victory. Then she faced one of the great questions of the day. Everyone says they want politicians to do that. Who has not exclaimed that they must stop listening to focus groups and be brave? May was, and see how she has suffered. The PM understood that the social care system cannot cope now, and could collapse as more of us trudge into senility.

Saturday

Carola Binney

Corbyn supporters are peddling ‘fake economics’

From our UK edition

Labour have been up-in-arms this weekend about a viral Conservative campaign video, which used some dubious editing to suggest that Corbyn said ‘No’ when asked whether he would condemn the IRA. In fact, he said ‘No, I think what you have to say is all bombing has to be condemned and you have to bring about a peace process.’ This still doesn’t sound like a full-bodied condemnation, but, that aside, the Tory video still has far fewer views than a similarly dubious one by a Labour supporting group. The clip, entitled ‘We’re all in it together’ was uploaded by The People For Jeremy Corbyn, a grassroots organisation, last weekend. It features a time-lapse of a banker and a nurse (both played by actors) discussing Tory economic policy.

Chris Mullin

Corbyn for PM? | 3 June 2017

From our UK edition

‘The news that Harry Perkins was to become prime minister went down very badly in the Athenaeum.’ Thus begins my novel A Very British Coup, written 35 years ago and, with the narrowing gap in the opinion polls, suddenly topical again. Since Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader it has been reprinted twice and, earlier this year, an e-book promotion sold 2,500 copies in a single day. The hero of my novel, Harry Perkins, is a former Sheffield steel worker who was brought to life in a subsequent TV adaptation by that wonderful actor Ray McAnally.

Friday

Tom Goodenough

Corbyn bursts through 40 per cent in latest Ipsos Mori poll

From our UK edition

Only a few weeks ago, the polls brought nothing but joy for the Tories. With just six days to go until election day, that’s no longer the case. An Ipsos MORI survey out today cuts the Conservative lead down to just five points. Labour’s support has burst through the 40 per cent mark - rising by six points since Ipsos MORI's last poll on May 18th. The poll comes off the back of this week’s shock YouGov estimate, which suggested we could be heading for a hung Parliament. And YouGov’s updated election model for today doesn’t bring any better news for the Tories: it suggests that Theresa May will now fall 13 seats short of an overall majority. Today’s Ipsos MORI poll is interesting for three reasons.

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Are we heading for a coalition of chaos?

From our UK edition

Theresa May's warnings about a 'coalition of chaos' used to sound like empty threats. Not any longer. Since the publication of this week's YouGov poll which suggested we could be heading for a hung Parliament, the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn making it to No.10 suddenly seems less unbelievable than before. But if May does lose her majority, Corbyn would not be able to govern alone. Make no mistake, says the Sun: ‘Labour could not govern without a coalition with the SNP’. So whatever Jeremy Corbyn might say about his plan for governing - and Brexit-  there’s little doubt that it would be the Scots who ‘would call the shots’.

Thursday

Stephen Bullivant

Labour’s abortion stance is the final straw

From our UK edition

Well, that didn’t last long: in April, I rejoined the Labour Party. Last Sunday, I cancelled my subscription and cut up my membership card. Being part of the official opposition to a Tory Government, my conscience can live with; being the official opposition to the unborn, it cannot. I've always leaned towards backing Labour. And while my radicalism may have mellowed somewhat in my old age, I would certainly have voted for Jeremy Corbyn in the first leadership contest. So when the snap election was called, it seemed like an obvious move to put my money where my ballot is.

Julie Burchill

Did Jeremy Corbyn forget to unlock Diane Abbott’s talent?

From our UK edition

Reading Jeremy Corbyn’s latest election document on the perennially hot potato of race, it was hard to know whether to shudder or snigger. Hearing that only Corbyn ‘can be trusted to unlock the talent of black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people’, my dirty mind was irresistibly drawn to the story told in the recent biography of the Glorious Leader of how he ‘showed off’ a naked Diane Abbott to the rest of Chess Club - sorry, his comrades in the socialist struggle - way back in the street-fighting, free-loving 1970s. According to a helpful nark in Rosa Prince’s book Comrade Corbyn: 'One Sunday autumn morning...we were out leafleting. And for some reason he called four or five of us and said: 'Oh, we've got to go back to my flat and pick up some leaflets.

Patrick West

Sticking up a ‘Vote Labour’ placard is an exercise in virtue signalling

From our UK edition

To judge by the number of Labour placards outside people's houses at the moment, you'd be forgiven for thinking the party is heading for a romping victory. Sure, you will see some 'Vote Conservative' placards dotted about here and there. But for the most part, putting up political posters is now predominately a left-wing pastime. This is certainly the case in the urban heartlands of England's three big cities, London, Birmingham and Manchester, where the rare Conservative posters that have made an appearance are often defaced or torn down. Perhaps surprisingly, 'Vote Labour' posters are most conspicuous in the wealthier parts of our cities.