Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.
With Lisa Nandy making it onto the ballot paper in the Labour leadership contest, the competition has just got rather less predictable. It had previously been assumed that the final fight before the membership would consist of a battle between Corbynism and not-Corbynism in the form of Rebecca Long-Bailey vs Keir Starmer. Now, presuming Long-Bailey
In the past few minutes, Jess Phillips has confirmed that she is pulling out of the Labour leadership race, saying the party needs a candidate who can unite people across its movement. In a video message, she said: ‘I have to be honest with myself, as I said I always would be throughout this campaign,
Keir Starmer has made it through to the final round of the Labour leadership contest, having secured the backing of shop workers’ union Usdaw. The party’s rules state that a candidate needs to get the backing of three affiliated organisations, of which two must be trade unions (or the nomination of at least 33 constituency
Jess Phillips’ campaign slogan is ‘speak truth, win power’, but in yesterday’s party hustings, she seemed to think that the extent of the truth that the Labour Party needs to hear is that it needs to win elections again and it had a few duff ideas in its manifesto that voters didn’t believe. The candidate
The first hustings of the Labour leadership campaign was not particularly inspiring. It did not suggest that any of the candidates either believed their party would win the next election or that they were capable of telling the membership what it really needs to hear in order to get as close as possible to winning.
‘You end in the grotesque chaos of a Labour council – a Labour council – hiring taxis to scuttle round a city handing out redundancy notices to its own workers.’ One of Neil Kinnock’s most famous and admirable moments was when he turned on the Militant tendency in his party from the stage at the
Parliament feels rather quiet at the moment, and it’s not just because there are no longer constant knife-edge votes on Brexit. One of the reasons there is less bustle is that select committees aren’t currently meeting, because they need to be re-elected at the start of the new parliament. There are quite a few vacancies,
Do we already know the top two candidates in the Labour leadership contest? Tonight a poll by Survation for LabourList puts Rebecca Long-Bailey narrowly ahead of Keir Starmer for first preference votes on 42 per cent and 37 per cent respectively. There is a huge gap between these two and the other contenders: Jess Phillips
There were two obviously planted questions at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions. Both were clearly designed to help the government with its very tricky forthcoming decision on Huawei helping build some of the UK’s 5G infrastructure. Both pointed towards the government taking the decision in favour of Huawei, despite American entreaties to the contrary. The first
Now that the second phase of the Labour leadership contest is underway, the five candidates are finalising their campaign teams. Some of them, of course, have had some kind of infrastructure running for a good long while before the December election was even called. Others are just announcing their big hires and co-chairs now. Here’s
Emily Thornberry has made it through to the second round of the Labour leadership contest, having secured the required number of nominations from MPs and MEPs at the eleventh hour. As I explained this morning, Thornberry had struggled to gain support from colleagues because of strained interpersonal relationships and her – somewhat unfair – reputation
There’s a dramatic day ahead in the Labour leadership contest, with the first stage of the process closing this afternoon. The candidates must have secured the nominations of at least 22 MPs or MEPs by 2.30pm in order to proceed to the next step. And while Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Jess Phillips and Lisa Nandy
If you needed an illustration of why short-termism in politics is a very bad thing, look no further than the report from the Independent Commission for Aid Impact today into the UK government’s preventing sexual violence in conflict initiative. This is more popularly known as William Hague and Angelina Jolie’s drive to end rape as
Is Barry Gardiner running for Labour leader or not? The question is almost as confusing as whether Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have resigned from the Royal Family. In the former case, two journalists had the story that Gardiner was standing and would be backed by Len McCluskey, who has become unhappy with Rebecca Long
Prime Minister’s Questions might be shorter now that Lindsay Hoyle is the Speaker, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the quality of the session is any better. There are still MPs who don’t really see it as an opportunity to ask the Prime Minister a question, preferring instead to compliment him. Today’s worst offender was
Keir Starmer, clearly the frontrunner in the Labour leadership contest, has just secured the backing of trade union Unison. This is the first union endorsement in the contest and is a huge boost to a campaign that is already going very well. Unison was among Jeremy Corbyn’s backers in the 2016 contest, and has the
Why didn’t Boris Johnson update the Commons on the tensions between Iran and the US, instead of sending his Defence Secretary Ben Wallace to give a statement this afternoon? Jeremy Corbyn thought this was worth complaining about when he responded, telling the Chamber that the Prime Minister was ‘hiding behind his Defence Secretary’. He demanded
MPs are back in Parliament today after the Christmas recess, and for some of them, this is the first real week of work after spending their first few days in the Commons reeling after winning their seats. New MPs are still waiting to be given offices, and are starting to hire new staff so they
Despite the muttered predictions from some of the leadership campaigns, Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee has today decided on a set of rules for its leadership contest that even a really committed conspiracy theorist would struggle to badge a ‘stitch-up’. The timetable is very slightly longer – Jeremy Corbyn will remain Labour leader until 4
The candidates to replace Jeremy Corbyn have been busily launching their campaigns and giving political interviews this weekend, with the party deciding the rules for the contest at a meeting of its ruling National Executive Committee tomorrow. There are still a couple of candidates left to launch their official campaigns, including Rebecca Long-Bailey, who appears
