Uk politics

Although Labour MPs have much to disagree with their leader on of late, one thing many have been buoyed by is the fact that Jeremy Corbyn appears to be softening the party's Brexit position. The Labour leader's big Brexit speech in February voicing support for some form of permanent customs union was widely seen as a step forward in uniting the two sides - and the result of lobbying from Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary. Since then an uneasy truce has formed within the party over Brexit. Owen Smith was the first to break it – using an article to diverge from Labour policy and call for a referendum on the final Brexit deal. He was subsequently sacked from the front bench for breach of shadow cabinet collective responsibility.

Although politicians and pundits have learnt the hard way not to take polls as gospel, the latest Opinium/Independent poll on free trade ought to give the government some cause for alarm. New polling has found that when asked whether ditching current food standards would be a price worth paying for a deal, 82 per cent of those surveyed said keeping current regulations in place should take priority – even if that meant no deal. Meanwhile, just 8 per cent said a free trade agreement with the US should take priority. Of course this is just one poll and the stark findings could in part be down to the phrasing of the question. But regardless, it touches on what the next big Brexit debate will be: the battle between the protectionists and the free marketeers.

The UN Security Council will meet on Monday to discuss a suspected chemical attack in Syria on the rebel-held town of Douma. With dozens of people killed, today there has been widespread outrage, with President Trump one of many to criticise Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies Russia and Iran – saying there will be a 'big price to pay'. However, over in Labour HQ a more vague response is underway. The Labour press office have today issued a statement which is so bold as to suggest that 'anyone found responsible' for using chemical weapons should be 'brought to justice'. It goes on to criticise the atrocities of this war 'whether committed by the Assad regime' or the 'Jihadist militias'.

With more than fifty murders in London already this year and knife crime up by 21% in England and Wales according to the latest figures, there’s a clear need for action on violent crime. As I write in The Sun this morning, the government’s long awaited violent crime reduction strategy is out next week. The Home Secretary Amber Rudd briefed the Cabinet on this strategy a few weeks ago. Cabinet Ministers tell me that it is impressive but very much focused on early intervention: the aim is to stop people from turning into violent criminals in the first place. This is a sensible strategy. But there is a need for action now. First, there needs to be more use of the Section 60 power which allows the police to stop anyone in a given area.

Here we go again. Although John McDonnell advised his Labour comrades to boycott Russia Today following the Salisbury poisoning, not everyone is willing to take heed of his advice. On Thursday, Chris Williamson – a key Corbyn ally – took to the airwaves of the Kremlin-funded broadcaster to cast doubt on the government's handling of the nerve agent attack on a former Russian double agent. With Moscow claiming it has nothing to with them, the Labour MP said that it was diplomatic row with Russia was 'very convenient for the Government' and had been used 'not so much as a smoking gun but as a smoke screen' to divert attention from Brexit and austerity.

David Lammy has just popped up on BBC News to complain about the lack of police on Britain’s streets. Unfortunately for the Labour MP, as he was doing so Mr S couldn’t help but notice who was standing behind him: a police officer. Lammy told the BBC: 'We haven’t seen a police while I’ve been here and I’ve been here for a little while.

When I lived in the Soviet Union in my early twenties, I developed a personal hostility to socialism. I saw the misery it had visited on that society – the political, spiritual and economic harm. I understood at first-hand how the secret police corrupted personal and public life, how state propaganda denied freedom of thought and how the regime hid the slaughter and imprisonment of millions of its own people. I came to the conclusion that whichever totalitarian power had survived World War II – Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union – they would probably have looked much the same by the time of their demise.