Labour party

Tuesday

Steerpike

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

From our UK edition

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.

Isabel Hardman

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

From our UK edition

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 on a new generation of nuclear weapons taking up a quarter of our defence budget is the right way forward.

Lloyd Evans

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

From our UK edition

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 almost calculated. Maybe it is.

Alex Massie

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

From our UK edition

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 played cricket in the past) has been offering his speech to various Labour leaders since the days of Neil Kinnock.

Sebastian Payne

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

From our UK edition

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 he was speaking about so it does come from the heart.

Isabel Hardman

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

From our UK edition

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 hall.

Sebastian Payne

Podcast special: Jeremy Corbyn’s conference speech

From our UK edition

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.

Fraser Nelson

Jeremy Corbyn can’t blame the ‘commentariat’ for public opinion

From our UK edition

Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party conference speech started pretty well, with him poking fun at the newspapers’ more apocalyptic predictions of what would happen should he become Prime Minister. He teased the Daily Mail for a story saying that he once welcomed the prospect of an asteroid hitting the earth.* And then, a wee joke. 'It's not the kind of policy I'd want this party to adopt without a full debate in conference.' Everyone, even the press, had a laugh at the press. They were probably even laughing in Iran, where the state broadcaster was showing his speech. But then Corbyn had to go and spoil it all by denouncing the ‘commentariat'. Again.

Steerpike

Chuka his toys out of the pram? Umunna misses Corbyn’s speech

From our UK edition

As Jeremy Corbyn made his speech to conference, Labour's new frontbench did their best to put on a united front on the front row. As for the frontbenchers of Labour's past? Well, it could hardly be described as a show of solidarity. Both Chuka Umunna and Tristram Hunt were nowhere to be seen at the speech, with ITV's Chris Ship reporting that they had already left Brighton on a train: https://twitter.com/chrisshipitv/status/648805512826503168 While Hunt did at least tweet supportive messages to Corbyn during the speech, Umunna has maintained a radio silence.

The Spectator

Jeremy Corbyn’s speech to Labour conference – full audio and full text

From our UK edition

Jeremy Corbyn has just finished delivering his speech at Labour's annual conference. The audio can be listened to here: Friends, thank you so much for that incredible welcome and Rohit, thank you so much for that incredible welcome. Rohit, thank you so much for the way you introduced me and the way our family and you have contributed so much to our community. That was absolutely brilliant. Thank you very much. I am truly delighted to be invited to make this speech today, because for the past two weeks, as you’ve probably known I’ve had a very easy, relaxing time. Hardly anything of any importance at all has happened to me. You might have noticed in some of our newspapers they’ve taken a bit of an interest in me lately. Some of the things I’ve read are this.

Alex Massie

Jocky Come Home: a Labour misery drama that will flop

From our UK edition

Jeremy Corbyn is supposed to come to Scotland this week. Thursday's visit will be his first since he became leader of the erstwhile people's party. Then again, he's been due to visit before only to find some better use of his time so who knows whether he can brave life beyond the wall this week? Yesterday John McDonnell, Jezzah's vicar, used his speech to the Labour conference to plead with Scottish voters to "come home" to the party. It was past time, he suggested, that voters understood that the SNP are no kind of socialist revolutionaries. Which will not come as any great surprise to most Scots. That's part of the point and one of the reasons why the nationalists have been trusted with the keys to power. They're no-one's idea of militant Trots.

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn’s conference speech challenge

From our UK edition

Jeremy Corbyn has, so far, had a reasonably good conference. Nothing has gone noticeably wrong. There have been no stand-up rows, no fights in the fringes, no heckling in the hall. And the atmosphere has been far better than Labour’s awful autumn conference last year, where everyone was full of gloom when the party was a few points ahead in the polls. But the Labour conference was still going to plan at this point last year, albeit in a moribund way. Ed Miliband hadn’t delivered his speech yet, and he therefore hadn’t forgotten to mention the deficit (the speech was poor, too, but the overall quality was quickly eclipsed by the discovery of his omission).

Sebastian Payne

Lisa Nandy’s workmanlike speech is indicative of Labour’s talent problem

From our UK edition

Lisa Nandy’s first conference speech as shadow energy and climate change secretary was solid and cordially received, if a little uninspiring. The MP for Wigan is one to watch in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet because she is frequently cited as a handover candidate — someone Corbyn could pass the leadership to before the 2020 election. Nandy's announcement that Labour won’t seek to nationalise the Big Six energy companies is an example of how she is helping to detoxify Team Corbyn and assuage the fears of voters who think the new leadership is too left wing (it's also yet another u-turn after Nato, Trident, EU membership): 'Jeremy and I don’t want to nationalise energy. We want to do something far more radical.

Isabel Hardman

Maria Eagle: I wouldn’t have resigned over Trident vote

From our UK edition

The Labour party may have avoided a divisive vote on Trident this week, but that doesn’t mean that it can always avoid working out whether it should have a new position. Last night Maria Eagle, the Shadow Defence Secretary, told a fringe that though she had made her mind in 2007 that she was in favour of the renewal of the nuclear deterrent, she wouldn’t have resigned had there been a vote that called for Trident to be scrapped at this conference.

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn: I love this country

From our UK edition

A set of headlines about a political party leader declaring that he loves his country might, in less unsettled times, be considered a sign that news desks have given up and are going to report all instances of dogs biting men. But in the man-bites-dog-world in which Jeremy Corbyn has just been elected Labour leader and John McDonnell appointed his Shadow Chancellor, it’s news. It’s also the first set of reasonably good headlines for the new leader, which is in part because his media team is working much better with the media now. (though you can't win 'em all) Corbyn is expected to say: ‘These values are what I was elected on: a kinder politics and a more caring society. They are Labour values and our country’s values.

Steerpike

Jess Phillips takes on George Galloway over Brighton beach incident: ‘he does struggle with women’s voices’

From our UK edition

Although Labour conference has so far been a rather tame affair, Jess Phillips can at least be relied upon to spice up proceedings. The outspoken Labour MP is developing a reputation for being a bit of a rebel after she made the news earlier this month for telling Diane Abbott to 'f--- off'. Now she has a new target in her sights. Phillips says that she confronted George Galloway, who was expelled from the Labour party in 2003, on the beach in Brighton yesterday. She says she decided to tell Galloway -- who was previously criticised by anti-rape campaigners for comments suggesting sexual assault charges facing Julian Assange were nothing more than 'bad sexual etiquette' -- that he was a 'rape apologist': https://twitter.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Labour conference is surprisingly even-tempered. Why?

From our UK edition

Why does Labour conference feel so even-tempered so far? In previous years the answer would be that it has been stage-managed to the hilt and all frontbenchers programmed with the lines to take. But this year the party’s conference strapline is ‘Straight talking. Honest politics’ and frontbenchers aren’t being sent daily lines to take, so even if they wanted to be on message, they couldn’t be. Of course, those frontbenchers are enjoying telling fringes that they take one view while their leader takes another, but what’s still remarkable about this conference is how good natured all the fringe meetings have been after a vicious leadership contest. Those running were abused endlessly online, as were activists who dared stray from the Corbyn line.

Sebastian Payne

Dan Jarvis’s only conference appearance is pleasant, but devoid of policy detail

From our UK edition

In Brighton, eyes are on two rising stars who are tipped to replace Jeremy Corbyn. The first is Keir Starmer, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, who is popping up at several fringe events about the future of the party. The second is Dan Jarvis, the former shadow justice minister, who made his only appearance at a Huffington Post fringe event this afternoon. Jarvis revealed that running for the Labour leadership this time around was ‘never on the table’ and Jeremy Corbyn did not offer him a job (contrary to previous reports) in his shadow cabinet — even though he turned it down. Just like the other moderates who have spoken at this conference, the MP for Barnsley Central said he could still ably serve his party from the back benches.

Steerpike

John McDonnell makes peace with Peter Mandelson

From our UK edition

Yesterday Michael Meacher wrote on his personal blog that it was time to expel Lord Mandelson from Labour. His sin? Badmouthing Jeremy Corbyn. Meacher, who is one of Corbyn's key backers, claims that Mandelson should be punished for speaking ill of Corbyn. So who better to fight Meacher's corner than John McDonnell? The shadow chancellor, who previously described Mandy'possibly the most divisive figure in Labour's recent history', bumped in to Mandelson this afternoon at Tory conference. However rather than scrap, Channel 4's Michael Crick claims that McDonnell assured Mandy he would not be expelled from Labour: https://twitter.

Sebastian Payne

Watch: Tristram Hunt and Ian Lavery shows who is up and down in Labour

From our UK edition

As the first day of Labour’s conference came to a close, LabourList hosted a ‘winning again’ rally in a dark corner of the Grand Hotel. A bunch of Labour speakers, including Eddie Izzard and Owen Jones, spoke about the party’s general election defeat and the glorious rise of Jeremy Corbyn. The two most contrasting speakers were Tristram Hunt, the former shadow education secretary, and Ian Lavery, the former NUM chief and shadow trade unions minister. The contrasting receptions Hunt and Lavery received shows which direction the party is heading.