Labour party

Friday

Sebastian Payne

Jeremy Corbyn: the most unpopular new opposition leader in the history of polling

Labour’s conference in Brighton might not have been the disaster some expected but it hasn’t done much for Jeremy Corbyn’s standing with the public. A new YouGov/Sun poll shows the Labour leader’s personal rating is minus eight — the lowest since polls of new opposition leaders began with Hugh Gaitskell in 1955. As the chart below shows, Corbyn is eight points lower than Michael Foot in 1980 and Iain Duncan Smith in 2001. This rating also puts him 34 points behind Ed Miliband in 2010. This poll follows a trend: Ipsos MORI’s first tracker for Corbyn put him on minus three in their net satisfaction ratings — five points behind

Thursday

Peter Jones

Cicero on Labour taxes

Heidi Alexander, Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow health secretary, has emphasised how important it is ‘to weave into [Labour’s] language, our narrative and our political mission a fundamental respect for taxpayers’ money, something that is clearly missing given our current reputation for profligacy’. Cicero would be cheering her on. Cicero’s de officiis (‘On Duties’) was composed in 44 bc, the year in which he was assassinated on Marc Antony’s orders. The work, the second to be printed in the Gutenberg revolution after the Bible, was immensely influential during the Renaissance and Enlightenment. In it, he envisaged a community bound by partnership (societas) and trust, whose leaders obeyed the law and had the

Piers Morgan

Diary - 1 October 2015

Party conference season is the most pointless waste of money, time and liver quality ever devised. I attended these sweaty, drunken gatherings for ten years during my newspaper-editor days and achieved nothing constructive other than clarity over which is the best way to treat a monstrous hangover. (Answer: my late grandmother’s recipe of vine tomatoes on toast, laden with thick Marmite and gargantuan grinds from a pepper mill.) But they were fun, so long as I adhered to the golden rule: always leave the bar before 2 a.m., thus avoiding the moment when enough alcohol emboldens other delegates, and indeed one’s own staff, to tell you what they really think

The Spectator

Will Spain learn?

One of the unforeseen consequences of the reunification of Europe after the Cold War has been a resurgence of independence movements in western Europe. Emboldened by a greater sense of security and influenced by the rebirth of independent nations to the east, separatist parties have begun to challenge the boundaries of nation states which a quarter of a century ago we took for granted. Scotland’s near miss — a 45 per cent vote for ‘yes’ — inspired the leader of Spain’s Catalonia region, Artur Mas, to launch his own vote on secession. This week, forbidden by Madrid from calling a referendum, he called regional elections in which pro-independence parties formed

Martin Vander Weyer

VW and the truth of engineering: say what you do, do what you say

Not that I was much of a boy racer, but the sexiest car I ever owned was a 1982 Volkswagen Scirocco with the lines of a paper dart and the cornering of a cheetah. I once drove it overnight from the City to Tuscany with a blind date who barely uttered a word, en route or afterwards. In an era when British factories could make nothing better than a laughable Allegro or a downmarket Escort, everyone coveted a German car — the top choice for twenty-somethings being the VW Golf convertible (Sciroccos were rarer) whose quality came as a revelation after years of broken fanbelts and burst radiators on unreliable

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Tom Watson has no intention of practising Corbyn's 'kinder, gentler' politics

If Jeremy Corbyn’s speech yesterday was the musings of a left-wing activist, Tom Watson’s today was that of someone who is interested in winning elections. Watson made clear to the conference delegates that what matters is getting back into office and set about explaining how he thought Labour could do that. He told the hall, that if they weren’t interested in representing small business owners, then they wouldn’t be in government again. He said that after its ‘summer of introspection’, it was time for Labour to get back to making its case to the country again. It was a strikingly different tone to Corbyn’s yesterday. Watson clearly has no intention

Isabel Hardman

Corbyn’s Trident comments spark end-of-conference row in Labour

Jeremy Corbyn has really pushed the button on the tensions in his party over Trident renewal. The Labour leader insists that he is just being honest when he says that he would never use nuclear weapons. But what he has done is to put his party in an impossible position. Either it respects his huge mandate and makes scrapping Britain’s nuclear deterrent official policy. Or else it votes to force the resignation of the leader. At first glance, this sounds rather confusing, and Corbyn’s team and John McDonnell have been spinning that Jeremy is just being honest about a long-held personal position. Why is this the implication of a man

James Forsyth

Next year's Labour conference will be even more Corbynite

Sitting in the hall during Jeremy Corbyn’s speech, one couldn’t help but be struck by how much the audience agreed with what he is saying. Corbyn was speaking to them, and they loved it. Now, as long as the Labour activists represented in that hall think Corbyn is their man then it will be almost impossible for the Parliamentary Labour Party to remove him. This week, Corbyn has done little to reach out to the country. But he has consolidated his position in the party. In casual conversations, the date at which people think a coup could be launched against him keeps slipping back. Next year, I suspect that Labour’s

Sebastian Payne

Podcast special: Labour conference review

Labour’s conference is rolling to a close today and it hasn’t been the explosive event some predicted it might be. In this View from 22 special, Isabel Hardman, James Forsyth and I discuss the highs and lows of the past days in Brighton and the impact it has had on the party. How big was the divide between the Corbyn-friendly activists and the MPs and politicos? And will next year’s conference see the promised fireworks? You can subscribe to our View from 22 political specials through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer every week, or you can use the player below:

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn: I wouldn’t use nuclear weapons anyway

Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t want nuclear weapons. We all know that. We also know that because he has a huge mandate (a phrase bandied about so much at this conference that it’s starting to feel like a refrain in Are You Being Served?), he’s keen to turn his views into official party policy on this area at least. But we now also know that if his party determined that it would remain committed to Trident, and if Jeremy Corbyn were Prime Minister, he wouldn’t ever use his weapons anyway. Which makes it entirely pointless to fund them at all. On the Today programme, the new Labour leader was asked if he

Sebastian Payne

Watch: what Labour activists make of this year's conference

There may have not been fireworks at Labour’s conference in Brighton but the attendees appear to have enjoyed themselves. In the very lengthy queues for Jeremy Corbyn’s speech, I surveyed the activists to find out what they have made of the conference — you can watch what they said above. Those attending for the first time (a significant chunk of those here) generally said it has all been wonderful, while conference veterans were more split between those who think it’s been inspirational and others who have sensed divides rumbling along under the sheen of the new leadership. Judging by the continuous standing ovations Corbyn received for his speech, it’s a fair to say

Steerpike

Labour conference 2015, in pictures

After four days of ‘straight talking‘ politics in Brighton, Jeremy Corbyn’s first conference as Labour leader draws to a close today. With this year’s conference bringing together a mix of Corbynistas, Milifans and Blairites, Mr S has assembled a selection of photos showing some of the slightly strange elements of this year’s conference: Two-dimensional Jeremy Corbyn The Milifandom lives on A warning to Corbyn   Scottish Labour go wild #piggate makes its way to Labour conference at the Mirror party  

Tuesday

Sebastian Payne

Keir Starmer: ‘I don’t think it’s about Jeremy Corbyn’

Along with Dan Jarvis, Keir Starmer is one of the new intake of Labour MPs who is cited as a rising star and someone who could replace Jeremy Corbyn. The former Director of Public Prosecutions and MP for Holborn and St Pancras, spoke at a Bright Blue fringe event this evening about Labour’s general election defeat and how the party can rebuild itself. Starmer backed Andy Burnham for the leadership and had a few choice words about Corbynmania: ‘I don’t think it’s about Jeremy Corbyn – I think it’s about a disaffection that’s been growing for a very long time. We lost most of our voters in 05 and we

Steerpike

John McTernan: Jeremy Corbyn's speech gaffe shows he isn't who he says he is

Jeremy Corbyn has come under increased scrutiny today after Mr S’s colleague Alex Massie revealed that parts of his conference speech were taken from a four-year old reject speech by the writer Richard Heller. The Labour press office claim that their straight talking leader approached Heller ‘because JC thought some of his material captured what he wanted to say’. However, given that Heller suggested Ed Miliband use the speech four years ago, it hardly epitomises Corbyn’s so-called ‘new kind of politics’. With the party playing the incident down, one Labour member is at least feeling more forthcoming. Speaking at the Fabian Society’s ‘week in review’ event, John McTernan — Tony Blair’s former director of political

Isabel Hardman

Corbyn's tougher line on nuclear weapons could become a resigning issue for Shadow Cabinet

Jeremy Corbyn’s aim at this conference has been to keep the Labour party on an even keel. But there was one line in his speech that has unsettled some frontbenchers. He said this about Trident: ‘Today we face very different threats from the time of the Cold War which ended thirty years ago. That’s why I have asked our Shadow Defence Secretary, Maria Eagle, to lead a debate and review about how we deliver that strong, modern effective protection for the people of Britain. I’ve made my own position on one issue clear. And I believe I have a mandate from my election on it. I don’t believe £100 billion

Lloyd Evans

Sketch: Corbyn's speech proved he is as cunning as Blair

He looked bored. He looked dishevelled. His half-knotted crimson tie sagged disconsolately beneath his bearded throat. The drab jacket seemed as beige as ever. Corbyn spoke to the Labour conference looking like an embarrassed scout-master thanking his colleagues for a surprise party he didn’t want. ‘Any chance we could start the speech?’ he asked as the crowed clapped and cheered him. He began in ever-so-humble mode by saying how grateful he was ‘to be invited’ to address the conference. And he warmly thanked the three rival candidates he had trounced in the leadership election. He sounded as if they’d trounced him. The hesitant, informal style is so effective it looks

Alex Massie

Exclusive: 'unspun' Jeremy Corbyn used an old speech rejected by Miliband

On its own terms, I imagine Jeremy Corbyn’s speech to the Labour conference can be considered tolerably acceptable. Much of it, after all, consisted of time-served bromides with which almost no-one could reasonably disagree. It was a Marx and apple-pie speech that omitted most of Marx. And who dislikes pie? Nevertheless, what was new was not good and what was good was not new. Much of it, actually, was not new at all. I can disclose that a significant chunk of Corbyn’s speech was, in its essentials, written many years ago. Not by Corbyn, of course, but by the writer Richard Heller. Mr Heller (with whom I should say I have

Sebastian Payne

'Inspirational', 'poetic' and 'one of hope' — what the comrades think of Corbyn's speech

Jeremy Corbyn’s first conference speech as Labour leader was targeted at his core fanbase and they certainly appear happy with what he had to say. So far, this is what members of Corbyn’s shadow cabinet and his friends in the trade unions have said about the speech: Andy Burnham, shadow home secretary and Corbyn’s leadership rival: ‘I think out there the public are crying out for a different way of politics, a different style of politics, they are fed up of the soundbites the spin, they want to see authenticity, people who mean what they say and that’s what you saw today from Jeremy Corbyn. ‘He’s fought all his political life for the things

Isabel Hardman

Labour activists loved Jeremy Corbyn's speech. But will voters?

Jeremy Corbyn’s speech was excellent. It was passionate, full of campaigning zeal, focused on issues that the MP has campaigned on for years, and well-received in the hall. The new Labour leader came across as warm, principled, personable, fun. He was introduced in a lovely, low key fashion by a member of his own constituency party, whose own life story summed up his own values. He opened with jokes about the media claiming that he was keen for an asteroid to destroy the earth (more on this and his opposition to PIGEON BOMBS here), and these went down well – both amongst the activists and the media sitting in the

Sebastian Payne

Podcast special: Jeremy Corbyn's conference speech

Jeremy Corbyn has just delivered his first conference speech as Labour leader. Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and I discuss the address in this View from 22 special — looking at his delivery, the reaction in the hall, who it was meant to appeal to and whether it will change Corbyn’s standing with the general public. You can subscribe to the View from 22 through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer every week, or you can use the player below: