Labour party

Jess Phillips made the news earlier this year after the Labour MP told Diane Abbott to 'f--- off' during a meeting of the PLP. The comment came after Phillips attempted to take Jeremy Corbyn to task over the lack of women in senior roles in his shadow cabinet, only for Abbott to jump to his defence. While Corbyn failed to intervene when the row between the two women escalated, it appears that some of his comrades are now fighting back. Jon Lansman -- who helped manage Corbyn's campaign before founding the hard-left Momentum group -- has tweeted a link this morning to an article published on the Left Futures website he edits. https://twitter.

Assuming we haven’t been vaporised by Vlad, the Oldham West and Royton by-election takes place next week, and Labour are seriously worried. Ukip’s odds to take the seat have fallen to 11/4 and as this observation from a campaigner explains, much of this seems down to the Corbyn effect. Labour have huge problems with their working class vote from what I have seen. These results were essentially reflected across the board by the 100 other campaigners over the last 2 weeks. Ukip is more popular than Farage though very few actively dislike him. But Corbyn has completely turned off his vote. Ukip are still going to struggle because near 30% (south east Asian electorate) actively dislike Ukip And are certain to vote Labour if they come out to vote.

As David Cameron confirmed in his statement to the Commons today, he will set out his strategy on attacking Islamic State in Syria on Thursday. MPs will then get the weekend to consider their positions, with a vote expected next week. A number of odd things are happening in preparation for this vote. One is that the Tory whips are being incredibly nice to people they normally ignore: Labour MPs. I understand that there is a briefing scheduled for Wednesday for Labour MPs at the Ministry of Defence, with a similar one for Tory MPs at a separate time. As I said this morning, it looks as though Labour MPs will help Cameron get the ‘biggest possible majority’ that he told the Commons he was after.

It’s quite clear what the Tory approach to a vote on British involvement in action against Islamic State in Syria will be: the Prime Minister will set out his strategy for this later this week, warning MPs that they need to choose to be ‘Churchill not Chamberlain’. George Osborne warned this morning on Marr that a second defeat in the Commons on Syria ‘would be a publicity coup for Isil, that would send a terrible message about Britain’s role in the world’. But Labour’s position is, of course, not clear at all at present. Jeremy Corbyn's slogan of 'straight talking, honest politics' sounds like an aspiration at present.

David Cameron will set out his case for air strikes against IS in Syria to the Commons late next week. Cameron is, as I say in my Sun column today, immensely frustrated by the current British position of only bombing Islamic State in Iraq and not Syria. But he knows that it would be politically back breaking for him to lose another Commons vote on a matter of war and peace, so is proceeding cautiously.   But last night’s UN resolution has strengthened Cameron’s hand. Even before that, 30 Labour MPs were certain to back Cameron on this issue and another 30 were highly likely to. With a UN resolution now in place, these numbers are only likely to increase.

Jeremy Corbyn has a problem: two thirds of voters have no idea what he is saying. In a new poll of 2,372 people, conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner and prior to Corbyn's remarks on the Paris terrorist attacks, 67 per cent say they don’t know or cannot recall what the Labour leader is saying — or that his message is rubbish, incoherent or just the opposite of whatever the Tories say (click to enlarge). Corbyn’s position is even worse for his core audience: the non-voters. Four out of five in this group have no idea what he is talking about.

Maria Eagle’s aides have denied reports that she is considering quitting her role as Shadow Defence Secretary over the appointment of Ken Livingstone as co-convenor of the Labour party defence policy review. But they are emphasising that she remains the lead on defence policy, and that this review will be feeding in to the party’s National Policy Forum.

A number of Labourites are very worried about the impact that Jeremy Corbyn’s shoot-to-kill comments will have on the party’s chances in the Oldham West and Royton by-election. They think it is the latest in a line of incidents that will suggest to voters in that seat that the Labour leader isn’t really thinking about things that they worry about, and is more focused on the things that London types worry about. I understand that those involved in the campaign are worried the party is already in trouble, anyway.