Labour party

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Len McCluskey turns on Jeremy Corbyn

Either Len McCluskey is, in the Corbynista narrative, a Tory, or things are going badly wrong for the man his union endorsed for the Labour leadership. The York Press reports that the Unite leader told an audience in York that Jeremy Corbyn ‘has to come to terms with his leadership’, that he ‘can’t necessarily say the first thing that comes into his head’ and that his comments about shoot-to-kill were ‘inappropriate’. What this shows - unless Len McCluskey really is a red Tory - is that even those union bosses who have been agitating for years for Labour to move left have been shocked by how disorganised and naive his operation has been since taking the helm of the party.

Isabel Hardman

Labour increasingly nervous about Oldham West and Royton by-election

A number of Labour MPs are campaigning in Oldham today, with fears growing in the party that it could be in serious trouble in the by-election there. Even though Michael Meacher won the seat in May with a 14,000 majority, the fears that I reported last week about white working class voters turning away from Labour and plumping instead for Ukip seem to be growing. No MP who has been there has anything positive to say about what they’ve seen, other than that their candidate, Jim McMahon, is hugely impressive. Some Labourites with a good knowledge of the seat are worried that the party may do well in postal votes, but perform poorly on polling day itself. ‘It therefore depends on us having a sophisticated postal vote operation in order to win,’ says one source.

Sebastian Payne

Labour supporters are still backing Jeremy Corbyn in droves

The Tories may be steaming ahead in the national opinion polls but the Labour grassroots are still pleased with Jeremy Corbyn. According to a new poll from The Times and YouGov — who surveyed the Labour membership during the leadership contest and predicted Corbyn's victory — two thirds of members think the leader is doing ‘well’. He continues to have the overwhelming support of those who backed him during the leadership contest too: 83 per cent of this group say he is doing well. It’s not just the Corbyn backers within Labour who are pleased with his performance — almost half of those who voted for Andy Burnham this summer think the leader is doing well, as do 29 per cent of Yvette Cooper’s backers.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Tory whips woo Labour MPs ahead of Syria 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.

Isabel Hardman

Labour MPs in despair at Corbyn’s ‘poor’ response to defence review

Labour MPs have had plenty of opportunities over the past few weeks to look miserable. But today the party looked its most miserable ever as Jeremy Corbyn responded to David Cameron’s statement on the Strategic Defence and Security Review. Even the frontbenchers, particularly Tom Watson, looked unhappy. Andy Burnham looked even more doleful than usual. On the backbenches, MPs such as Dan Jarvis and Caroline Flint wore masks of agony. Chris Leslie had his arms crossed defensively, looking miserable. Diane Abbott appeared to be a little snoozy. Helen Goodman was slumped in her seat in what appeared to be despair. Labourites afterwards described the response as ‘poor’.

The Spectator

Full text: Jeremy Corbyn’s response to David Cameron’s SDSR statement

I thank the Prime Minister for his statement. As I said to him in the House last week the first duty of a state is to protect its citizens. At the moment the country’s overwhelming focus is on the threat we face from terrorism and on how we can best ensure the defeat of ISIL. Labour supports the increased expenditure to strengthen our security services that he has announced to protect against the threat of terrorism. However, faced with the current threat the public will not understand or accept any cuts to frontline policing. Everyone will be very concerned about the warnings we now know he has had from security officials and the police that police cuts will reduce very significantly the ability to respond to a Paris-style attack.

Sebastian Payne

Labour’s social media clampdown should be the least of its worries

Labour appears to be obsessed with its image on social media. If the general election result taught us anything, it’s that opinions on Twitter and Facebook do not reflect the whole country. Yet at a recent meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee, a decision was taken to create guidelines for its members using social media. Peter Willsman, a member of the NEC, reports on the Grassroots Labour blog: ‘Several NEC members raised the issue of the very harmful leaks to the media and the very damaging way in which social media is being used. It was agreed that we need to develop a Labour Party Code of Conduct in relation to the use of social media.’ So, this is how the New Politics manifests itself.

Isabel Hardman

Corbyn facing a ‘point of reckoning’ over Syria vote

Pro-intervention Labour MPs are increasingly confident that they will help David Cameron get a majority for British military action against Islamic State in Syria. They also believe that the amount of support for such action will bring what one frontbencher describes as a ‘point of reckoning’ and another describes as a ‘turning point for the party’. This is because Corbyn is going to have to concede that he must give the Labour Shadow Cabinet a free vote on the matter, otherwise there will be a ‘bloodbath’, sources warn. A number of Shadow Cabinet members are minded to vote in favour of action if Cameron presents a sufficiently well-thought-out plan. And they would expect a free vote, or else.

Sebastian Payne

Maria Eagle: it’s ‘conceivable’ Jeremy Corbyn would support Syria bombing

David Cameron will be making the case for bombing Syria in the Commons later this week and all eyes are on Jeremy Corbyn and Labour to see if they supports his proposals. On the Today programme, the shadow defence secretary Maria Eagle summed up the party’s current position as we wait and see: ‘We are in a position in which we will make a decision after the Prime Minister puts forward his rationale – that is the sensible way of doing it and we will do that.

Sunday

Isabel Hardman

Labour struggles to talk straight on Syria vote

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.

Saturday

James Forsyth

Cameron to make his case for war to the Commons next week

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.

Thursday

James Morris

Exclusive poll: Jeremy Corbyn’s message is seen as unclear and incoherent

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.

Charles Moore

Jeremy Corbyn is the political version of a creationist

When Jeremy Corbyn says it is better to bring people to trial than to shoot them, he is right. So one might feel a little sorry for him as the critics attack his reaction to the Paris events. But in fact the critics are correct, for the wrong reason. It is not Mr Corbyn’s concern for restraint and due process which are the problem. It is the question of where his sympathies really lie, of what story he thinks all these things tell. Every single time that a terrorist act is committed (unless, of course, it be a right-wing one, like that of Anders Breivik), Mr Corbyn locates the ill as deriving from the behaviour of the West, especially the United States and Britain (and, where relevant, Israel).

Steerpike

Watch: Ken Livingstone calls Maria Eagle ‘silly’ in disastrous Newsnight interview

Yesterday Ken Livingstone found himself at the centre of a media storm after he suggested that Kevan Jones -- a Labour MP with a history of depression -- required psychiatric help, after he dared to question Livingstone's appointment as co-chair on Labour's defence policy review. As Jones -- along with Jeremy Corbyn -- called on Livingstone to apologise, a series of media appearances followed where he did no such thing. At first he said Jones should 'get over it', later explaining he was just standing up for himself as any self-respecting south London lad would. Eventually a grovelling statement appeared on Livingstone's Twitter account where he apologised 'unreservedly'.

Nick Cohen

Jeremy Corbyn isn’t anti-war. He’s just anti-West

[audioplayer src="http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/parisattacksaftermath/media.mp3" title="Nick Cohen and Freddy Gray discuss whether Jeremy Corbyn dislikes the West" startat=42] Listen [/audioplayer]Before the bodies in Paris’s restaurants were cold, Jeremy Corbyn’s Stop the War Coalition knew who the real villains were — and they were not the Islamists who massacred civilians. ‘Paris reaps whirlwind of western support for extremist violence in Middle East’ ran a headline on its site. The article went on to say that the consequence of the West’s ‘decades-long, bipartisan cultivation of religious extremism will certainly be more bloodshed, more repression and more violent intervention’.

Wednesday

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Labour in a spot of bother in Oldham West by-election

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.

Steerpike

Diane Abbott finds a novel way to spend heated PLP meeting

Last night's PLP meeting proved to be a lively affair as Jeremy Corbyn was turned on by members of the Labour party over his ‘shoot to kill’ comments. As Mr S's colleague Sebastian Payne reports, Corbyn was then ‘shouted down’ by MPs for his stance on military action and Syria. So where was the Labour leader's primary cheerleader Diane Abbott while all this was going on? Well Abbott, who has won herself the nickname Madame Mao since her close friend – and rumoured former lover – was elected, was rather distracted at the event.

Freddy Gray

By opposing shoot-to-kill, Jeremy Corbyn has shown he is a serious politician

There is nothing wrong with Jeremy Corbyn saying he 'isn't happy' with a shoot-to-kill policy. On the contrary, it shows once again that he is a man of principle. We may not agree with, or like, his principles -- but can we at least recognise that, unlike his opponents, he is not bending to the national mood? He is not willing to ditch his integrity in order to ease the public's fear and sate our lust for a violent response to terror. For Corbyn's haters on the Labour right, his position proves once again that he is not a 'serious' person. For one of his shadow cabinet, his position even makes him a 'f---ing disgrace' Why? Corbyn may well be right. It's certainly not disgraceful to oppose a policy of legal killing.