Labour party

For a man prepared to stick to his principles over decades, no matter how unpopular they make him, Jeremy Corbyn has changed his mind a remarkable number of times today. His latest stance on freedom of movement is as follows: ‘Labour is not wedded to freedom of movement for EU citizens as a point of principle, but I don’t want that to be misinterpreted, nor do we rule it out.’ This makes the party’s infamous ‘controls on immigration’ mug from the 2015 election look like such a simple, wholesome proposition. Here is the evolution of Corbyn’s stance: Last night: Labour is not wedded to freedom of movement for EU citizens as a point of principle. This morning: Labour isn’t going to restrict the rights of people to move to the UK.

Because the SNP have won so often and so conclusively in recent years there is an understandable temptation to suppose they must always know what they are doing. Accordingly, Nicola Sturgeon sits in Bute House like some political Moriarty: motionless, perhaps, but like a spider at the centre of its web. And 'that web has a thousand radiations, and [s]he knows well every quiver of each of them'. Other political parties may plan, but the SNP plots. Everything is done for a reason and nothing is left to chance. The nationalists are relentless and implacable. No wonder they put the fear of God into their foes (especially a Labour party they long since supplanted as the natural party of government in Scotland).

With Labour predicted to win as little as 20pc of the vote in the 2020 election, there's been little cause for celebration in the Leader's Office this week. However, should you be a glutton for punishment, an opportunity has arisen to join the beleaguered party as its 'deputy director' of Strategy and Communications: The lucky candidate will work as Seumas Milne's deputy -- and will preferably have experience of project management in 'complex situations'. It seems, too, that Corbyn may be looking to step outside of his comfort zone -- with the deputy director required to have 'first class' networking skills. Alas it might not be the longest career working for the Labour party -- the job only lasts as long as Corbyn is leader...

It is the fate of all new prime ministers to be compared with their recent predecessors. Theresa May has already been accused of being the heir to the micro-managing Gordon Brown. Her allies, meanwhile, see a new Margaret Thatcher, an uncompromising Boadicea destined to retrieve sovereignty from Europe. But perhaps a more fitting model for May would be a less recent Labour prime minister: Clement Attlee. When Labourites reminisce about Attlee, it isn’t so much the man himself who makes them misty-eyed. It is the achievements of those who worked for him — Nye Bevan, Ernest Bevin and the rest. Attlee’s government created the welfare state and the National Health Service, and built a million houses. It had lots of excuses not do any of these things.

Today’s Fabian Society paper on the state of the Labour Party — and what a state it is — has put Labourites and the leftish Twitterati into a spin. Aptly titled ‘Stuck’, the paper says just over half of the people who voted Labour in 2015 support the party today. And if an election were called right now Labour could expect to win a measly 200 seats: 40 fewer than in 2015 and 70 fewer than in 2010. Most strikingly, Labour has lost four times as many Leavers as Remainers.

Just what is it about the proposal to require voters to show ID that so frightens the Labour party? Funny, but this was the party which, during 13 years in power, hugely added to the surveillance state; which passed the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, leading to councils snooping on our wheelie bins and, in one famous case, to Poole Council spying on a couple wrongly suspected of faking their address in order to get their child into a better school. It is the party which empowered agencies of the state to retain information on our emails and phone calls, which was happy to see our streets plastered with CCTV cameras. And yet here it is objecting to what seems an obvious precaution against electoral fraud: asking voters to show some form of identification at the polling station.

The Copeland by-election will be a fascinating test of whether Brexit can open up more votes for the Tories in the north – the topic of my Daily Telegraph column today. Labour is slowly abandoning its working class voters, with their unfashionable views on human rights and immigration. This was happening under Ed Miliband, and the forces wresting traditional Labour voters away from the Labour Party were laid out in detail by a strikingly prescient report by the Fabian Society entitled 'Revolt on the Left'. It identified the various groups of voters moving away from Labour: typically the low-waged and less prosperous pensioners. Those in work tended to resent those who were not. They resented Labour for losing control of immigration and the abuse of welfare.

The hunt continues for the man thought to be responsible for the attack on Berlin’s Christmas market. But despite the urgency of the situation, the Sun says Germany - and the EU - continue to get their priorities all wrong. After all, the paper says, their ‘first duty’ should be keeping ‘their people safe’. Instead, the Sun says, they have released a photo of the wanted man with his eyes censored to protect his privacy. And the European Court isn’t doing much more to help keep people safe, according to the paper. Its ruling against the so-called 'snoopers’ charter' yesterday means that security services will lose out on a vital weapon in the fight against terror.

Jamie Reed, the Labour MP for Copeland, has announced he is stepping down from Parliament from the end of January 2017. He is leaving to work at Sellafield, which is in his constituency. Reed is a well known critic of Jeremy Corbyn, and though his resignation letter is warm and polite, it makes frequent and pointed references to the need for a Labour government. It closes with Reed wishing Corbyn well in his endeavours to become the next Labour Prime Minister, something the MP has made pretty clear in previous statements that he thinks is impossible. [caption id="attachment_9717962" align="alignnone" width="702"] Jamie Reed's resignation letter[/caption] So why is he leaving? Reed's constituency is now a marginal seat, with a majority of just 2,564.

Oh dear. Just in case there weren't enough novelty Christmas songs out there, brains at Labour have decided it is time to offer up one of their own. Siobhain McDonagh, the MP for Mitcham and Morden, has rallied the troops to record 'National Living Rage'. The track -- which takes inspiration from Band Aid 20's 'do they know it's Christmas?

What could Jeremy Corbyn attack Theresa May with this week at Prime Minister’s Questions? The Labour leader has already had a go at the crisis in social care funding, which the government is trying to patch up this week by raising the council tax precept from 2 per cent to 4 per cent. He could have another go, given what has long been a serious issue is starting to become a political row too. The problem is that the Labour leader so often retreats to social care and the NHS as a comfort blanket that his attacks are a little blunter than they could be. One row that really hasn’t had as much attention as it deserves is the one over Boris Johnson’s remarks about Saudi Arabia.

Since Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour leader, the party has struggled when it comes to forging a positive relationship with the MSM (mainstream media). Right wing press aside, Corbyn has taken issue with coverage from the BBC, New Statesman, The Guardian, the Mirror and Channel Four. However, are times a-changin'? Last night journalists were welcomed into the Leader's Office for Corbyn's Christmas drinks. True to form, Corbyn stayed on brand -- using a box Chilcot Reports as a handy door stopper. However, in a sign that he is willing to compromise in order to appeal to the masses, the vegetarian lay on a spread of chicken legs and pork pies for hungry hacks.

Labour’s dire performance in the Sleaford by-election is just the latest sign of a party in terminal decline. To cap it off, a YouGov poll out this week puts them 17 points behind the Tories – their worse showing since the gloomy days of Gordon Brown. Jeremy Corbyn is taking his share of the blame for the miserable state of the Labour party. But for me, the beginning of the end for Labour can be traced back to well before Corbyn. The third of March, 2011, to be precise. It was on this day the Barnsley Central by-election brought rising Labour star Dan Jarvis into Parliament. As a rookie reporter for the Barnsley Chronicle, I had a front row seat for this political event which, on the face of it, might not have looked particularly unusual.