Labour party

Wednesday

James Forsyth

PMQs: Corbyn's defensive performance gets him through unscathed

After the 72 hours that he has had, I suspect that Jeremy Corbyn is quite relieved to have got through his exchanges with David Cameron unscathed. The evening news tonight will be far better for Corbyn than it was yesterday. Corbyn, who was making his debut at the dispatch box, began by announcing that he wanted to change the style of PMQs and that he had got members of the public to email in questions. He proceeded to ask Cameron half a dozen of them. Cameron, who could hardly attack the question in these circumstances, answered respectfully and with only the odd jab at Corbyn which will have been a

Nick Cohen

When will Labour move against Corbyn?

The Labour party must dig deep into roots if it is to survive. The Blairites cannot do it, they are finished now. The far left is triumphant but they are a tiny force in the Parliamentary Labour Party, and nowhere near as popular in the country as their deluded supporters imagine. In the middle sit the broad mass of social democratic Labour MPs, and they do not know what to do. The leadership campaign showed that they could not inspire, although I thought that Yvette Cooper found her voice in its final weeks. They don’t know whether to sit in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet or to stand by their principles and

Sean Kemp

If Corbyn won't employ a spin doctor, he at least needs to hire a competent press officer

You cannot work for a party’s press operation and not have your fair share of disasters. During my time working for the Liberal Democrats, our party leader pontificated about his colleagues on a plane, made the odd unfortunate sartorial decision (the ‘double-fleece look’ being the example that aroused the most incredulity in the office) and there were gaffes, snubs, rows and all the other unfortunate moments that cause former press officers to shake their heads and write smug blogs saying it was all much smoother in their day. These things happen in politics, and when the media has tasted blood, there is often nothing you can do. But I have never

Isabel Hardman

Corbyn's new kind of politics is going to lead to confusion

Jeremy Corbyn wants to forge a new kind of politics, answering public discontent with the way things are done in Westminster. One of the things that voters often say they don’t like about politicians is the way they appear to abandon their principles in exchange for power. The idea that power acts as a sort of fire extinguisher on principles has been debated rather exhaustively through the leadership election. But Corbyn won that contest in part because people admired his ability to stick to his principles even when that appeared inconvenient. As an obscure backbencher being principled to the point of unpopularity was easy. Corbyn is discovering this week that,

Theo Hobson

Will Jeremy Corbyn boost his left-wing idealism with a religious message?

One major defect of Jeremy Corbyn has not yet been discussed. He’s not a religious believer. Why is this a defect?  Because these days left-wing idealism is hugely boosted by an alliance with religion. Only so can it widen its appeal beyond a chippy clique. Maybe he’s half-aware of this. In a recent interview with the Christian magazine Third Way, he said that his upbringing was quite religious, and that he retains some sympathy with faith: ‘I’m not anti-religious at all. Not at all… I find religion very interesting. I find the power of faith very interesting. I have friends who are very strongly atheist and wouldn’t have anything to do

Tuesday

Lloyd Evans

Sketch: Welcome to Snorin’ Corbyn

Great gag from the TUC. They played ‘Hey Big Spender’ as Jeremy Corbyn arrived to address their conference in Brighton. This was Stormin’ Corbyn’s first chance to reach beyond the Labour party and to address the nation. But he mentioned Britain only in the loosest terms. ‘The whole vision of those who founded the unions and founded our political parties was about doing things differently: that brilliant generation, those brilliant people who brought us the right to vote and brought women the right to vote.’ He meant the late Victorian campaigners who initiated trade unionism and gave birth to the Labour party. But he created the impression that he sees

Isabel Hardman

Government gets majority of 35 after Labour whipping shambles

The government has a working majority of 16. But today it managed to win a tricky vote in the House of Commons that its own MPs were threatening to rebel on, and that the DUP had said it wouldn’t help the government on. The measure was on tax credits, and the government got a majority of 35. Why didn’t Labour manage to get its act together? It has a new leader and its whips are just getting to work. I understand the Labour whips sent a panicked text message in the middle of this afternoon asking their MPs if they were on the estate. But this was a bit too late, and not

Sam Leith

Jeremy Corbyn, your rhetoric sucks — here are five ways to improve it

Perhaps the most teachable moment in the BBC’s coverage of Jeremy Corbyn’s speech to the TUC came around the 38 second mark in the video here. Corbyn is reaching an emotional climax. He’s already delivered his big line: ‘They call us [smacks lips] deficit deniers… but then they spend billions cutting taxes for the richest families, most profitable businesses, why, er, what they – what they are is poverty deniers… [hurries on embarrassedly in case ringing phrase results in disconcerting applause]… They’re ignoring the growing queues at food banks, they’re ignoring the housing crisis, they’re cutting tax credits when child poverty rose by half a million, um, under the last

Isabel Hardman

Labour defends Jeremy Corbyn's 'respectful silence' during the National Anthem

Labour has issued a line on why the party’s leader didn’t sing the National Anthem at today’s Battle of Britain memorial service: ‘Jeremy attended today’s event to show respect for those who fought in conflicts for Britain. ‘As he said in the words issued this morning, the heroism of the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain is something to which we all owe an enormous debt of gratitude. ‘He stood in respectful silence during the anthem.’ It’s not quite clear what the difference between respectful silence and stony silence is. But what this tells us is that the new Leader of the Opposition is currently prepared to display his

Sebastian Payne

Jeremy Corbyn at the TUC: Cameron and Osborne are ‘poverty deniers’

Jeremy Corbyn has delivered the second speech of his leadership at the TUC conference in Brighton this afternoon and it was a slight improvement on the first. The idiosyncratic address Corbyn gave after winning the Labour leadership contest was long-winded and repetitive. His TUC address shared some of these characteristics but it was a little bit more polished — in particular, the section where he slammed David Cameron and George Osborne for being ‘poverty deniers’: ‘They call us deficit deniers. But then they spend billions cutting taxes for the richest families or for the most profitable businesses. What they are is poverty deniers: Ignoring the growing queues at food banks. Ignoring the

Isabel Hardman

Business as usual for Labour as shadow teams get to work

If you’d missed Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader, and pitched up to business questions in the Commons today, you might not have noticed that much had changed, initially. Labour had a good frontbench team scrutinising the government, with Angela Eagle leading in her customary dry manner. She asked questions about the skills gap, while Tory ministers complained about Labour’s legacy from its time in government and tried to provoke the Opposition over the Trade Union Bill. Not much change there. But there were differences, even if Labour looked as though it was functioning vaguely effectively after a turbulent few days. The first was that Tory frontbenchers and backbenchers such

Monday

Frank Field

George Osborne could revolutionise welfare - but does he know what he's doing?

Have we ever had a more political Chancellor of the Exchequer? I doubt it. The political skills of George Osborne were on full display in July’s Summer Budget. Here he tweaked Labour’s tail particularly violently by pinching the party’s higher minimum wage strategy that all too many within Labour thought would be a winning card at the last election. I still wonder whether he sees the revolutionary potential of his Labour-baiting initiative, the ‘National Living Wage’. With a little more development it could become the most important game changer in Britain’s post-war welfare debate. A little over two centuries ago, with the rise of a dual agricultural and industrial society, those

James Forsyth

No enthusiasm for Corbyn as he addresses Labour MPs

Labour MPs are in no mood to fake it. At Jeremy Corbyn’s first meeting with the Parliamentary Labour Party, there was no cheer as he entered the room, no raucous applause when he stood up to speak. Instead, all that could be heard outside in the corridor was a few rounds of mild, polite applause. For a new leader, this is quite unprecedented. Corbyn’s message was that he had three priorities as leader: housing, the elections in Scotland and Wales next year and a Labour government in 2020. He also tried to stress that he wanted to be an inclusive leader, emphasising that he didn’t want any change to party

Steerpike

Labour staff flee party headquarters

Ahead of the general election, David Cameron used a fire metaphor to describe what he offered the nation in comparison to the chaos — he claimed — Ed Miliband would unleash on the country: ‘I feel like the firefighter, hosing down the burning building, and there’s Ed Miliband – the arsonist – saying “why aren’t you doing it quicker?”‘ Well, Miliband may be gone but the threat of fire certainly hasn’t. With Corbyn just three days into his leadership, rumours abound that many staff members may face the axe under the new regime. However, it was another disaster which caused Labour bods to flee their office this afternoon. Staff were evacuated from

Sebastian Payne

Labour turmoil dominates local government questions

The new Labour front bench made its first appearance at communities and local government questions this afternoon. Jon Trickett was announced as the new shadow communities and local government secretary just before 1pm and by 2:30pm he was at the dispatch box representing his party. Given the limited about of time Trickett and his team had to prepare, they managed to do a good job quizzing the government about affordable housing, brownfield sites and local government cuts. But everyone’s mind appeared to be focused on what’s going on in the Labour party. The Communities and Local Government Secretary Greg Clark welcomed his opposite number: ‘The shadow secretary of state was once PPS to

Camilla Swift

Meet the new anti-meat, anti-shooting, pro-badger shadow Defra secretary

It’s no surprise that Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet appointments have rattled a few cages – and the choice of Kerry McCarthy as shadow Defra secretary is just one of many. The MP for Bristol East (a city that Anthony Whitehead described a few weeks ago as employing a ‘totalitarian brand of environmental idealism’) has made her views on both meat eating and rural pursuits clear in the past, and has a fair few critics already. It has already been pointed out elsewhere that putting a vegan in charge of representing the farming industry is slightly odd – but then again, vegetarian Hilary Benn was Defra secretary for three years. But that

Isabel Hardman

Corbyn rewrites the rules to claim gender balance in Shadow Cabinet

After being criticised for not involving enough women in his shadow cabinet, Jeremy Corbyn has brought more women in by creating cabinet roles. He has promoted ‘young people and voter registration’ to a Cabinet role and given the job to Gloria de Piero, who will be terrific at it given her interest in non-voters and political apathy, but who may be surprised by the whooshing promotion that the role has received. Similarly, Luciana Berger is Shadow Minister for Mental Health, which is now a Cabinet position too. Perhaps it’s a good thing that mental health, so overlooked and underfunded, is a Cabinet role – though it’s not arepa rate department

Sebastian Payne

The Tories aren’t leaving Jeremy Corbyn’s destruction to chance

Jeremy Corbyn has been Labour leader for less than 48 hours and the Conservative party is already managing to set the tone of the debate. In a piece for POLITICO Europe today, I look at how the Tories are feeling about Corbyn’s victory over the weekend and their plans to deal with it. Some MPs feel sad that Labour is no longer a serious party. ‘Saturday was a sad day for our country and the Labour Party — I am not laughing,’ says one influential Tory MP. ‘The party of Ramsay Macdonald, Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson and Tony Blair has now been reduced to Jeremy Corbyn’. But any sorrow however is overwhelmed by jubilation that the next

Steerpike

Is Damian McBride angling for a job as Jeremy Corbyn's spin doctor?

Given that Jeremy Corbyn has been on the receiving end of a barrage of bad press this morning, he could do with the help of an expert spinner. Yet everyone who has cared about the Labour Party over the years is appalled at his triumph; no one is willing to defend him. No one, that is, except the currently ‘freelance’ former king of spin, Damian McBride. The disgraced spin doctor appears to have been on a mission to endear himself to Corbyn ever since he won the leadership election on Saturday. He kicked things off with an editorial in the Mail on Sunday titled ‘Jeremy Corbyn may be the best thing since Clement Attlee’. Yes, seriously. Corbyn,

Brendan O’Neill

Welcome to the era of conspiracy-theory politics

Who argues that a ‘shadow state’ controls Britain? That a gang of faraway, faceless suits ‘orchestrate public life from the shadows’, from their ‘yachts in the Mediterranean’? Who thinks people in ‘the shadows’, who always remain ‘hidden’, exercise a ‘poisonous, secretive influence on public life’? A spotty sixth-former who spends way too much time on the internet, perhaps? Or maybe one of those cranky guys who hangs out in the discussion threads of David Icke’s website, convinced that lizards in suits run the world? Actually it’s Tom Watson, new deputy leader of the Labour Party. All those claims come from his rather bonkers book on the Murdoch empire, where Watson