James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
It is hard to overstate the level of shock in moderate Labour circles at last night’s YouGov poll showing Jeremy Corbyn heading for victory in the Labour leadership race. Regardless of whether the poll is accurate, they fear that it will damage Labour in two ways. First, it will skew the contest further to the
[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/workingwithal-qa-eda/media.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and George Eaton discuss the rise of Jeremy Corbyn” startat=754] Listen [/audioplayer]It wasn’t meant to work out this way. A month ago, Westminster watched to see if Jeremy Corbyn could get the support of the 35 MPs he needed to enter the Labour leadership race. At the time, it seemed a
It wasn’t meant to work out this way. A month ago, Westminster watched to see if Jeremy Corbyn could get the support of the 35 MPs he needed to enter the Labour leadership race. At the time, it seemed a sort of joke. After all, the people who were lending him their backing weren’t doing
This was the last PMQs before the recess, and the Tory side of the House was in an end of term mood. When Harriet Harman stood up, the Tory benches enthusiastically beckoned her over — a reference to the anger in Labour circles at her openness to Tory plans to limit child tax credits to
The government has confirmed that it is pulling tomorrow’s vote on the relaxation of the hunting ban. A Downing Street source is frank about why they are doing this, the vote would be lost with the SNP voting against and so there’s not much point in having it. Indeed, even the Countryside Alliance accepts that
The ancient Greeks used to drop iron bars into the sea to demonstrate the permanence of the agreement they were signing. The point was that the deal would last until the iron floated to the surface – that it was irreversible. The Euro was meant to be the same: once a country had joined it
The Syriza-led Greek government has just submitted a new set of proposals to their creditors. It appears to shift Greece closer to the creditors on VAT and pensions reform. It is also, as many have been quick to point out, really quite similar to the proposal that the Greeks voted against in last Sunday’s referendum.
George Osborne had a ringside seat for New Labour’s dominance of British politics and you could see the influence that this has had on him in the Budget. First, there was Osborne’s determination to unpick the structural changes that Gordon Brown had made to move British politics to the left. So, Osborne took the axe
To understand George Osborne, it is important to realise that he cut his political teeth at the height of the New Labour ascendancy. He remembers the humiliations that were visited on his party as Tony Blair carried all before him. But there is one moment from that period that Tories can look back on with
What makes this Budget so politically astute is how it all fits together. The four-year freeze on working age benefits and the cuts to tax credits are made palatable by the introduction of a national living wage. Meanwhile businesses’ potential objections to this wage hike will be muted by the cut in corporation tax to 18p
The meeting of Eurozone leaders in Brussels has just broken up. There is still no agreement on a new deal for Greece. In these circumstances, the European Central Bank will not lend more to the Greek banks, so they will remain closed. What has been announced is a full summit of all 28 EU members
François Hollande and Angela Merkel have both given brief statements to the media ahead of their dinner this evening. Hollande was keen to stress that the door remained open to Greece for negotiations and struck a generally more emollient tone. Merkel, though, did not sound so emollient. She claimed that the deal that the Greeks
Right now, Britain is sitting on the side-lines waiting to see if there is, to use George Osborne’s phrase, an ‘11th hour’ deal between Greece and the rest of the Eurozone. Britain isn’t part of the Greek bailout or the Eurozone so is peripheral to this process; David Cameron isn’t invited to the emergency Eurozone
Greece has voted No in the referendum and resoundingly so. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, No is leading 61% to 39%. The result is a massive humiliation for Eurozone leaders who have spent the last few days telling the Greeks to vote Yes and warning them that this was really a
Greece has voted No, and resoundingly so. But the reaction from Berlin tonight does not suggest that Germany is prepared to have any further negotiations with the Syriza government. The vice chancellor, and head of the SPD, Sigmar Gabriel has declared that “With the rejection of the eurozone’s rules of the game, which has been
With half the votes counted, the No side in the Greek referendum is leading by 61% to 39%. With this lead for No at this stage in the count, it seems certain that it has won. The question now is how the Eurozone will react to this result. Before the vote, the Eurozone powers made
This time tomorrow, we’ll have had the first projections from the Greek referendum. We will have an idea as to whether the country has said Oxi or Nai. At the moment, the polls make the referendum too close to call. Whatever the result, there’ll be no quick deal between Greece and its creditors. But if
Few European leaders have been luckier than David Cameron. First he was sent Ed Miliband. Now events in Greece may be about to present him with a solution to the thorniest problem of his second term: how to negotiate a new form of EU membership for Britain that the Tory party can rally behind come
Good news for those who value the Michael Gove education agenda, Rachel Wolf — the founder of the New Schools Network — is joining the Number 10 policy unit. Wolf, who has spent the last few years in the States working on education technology, will be covering tech, innovation and education. As her work at
After much speculation that the Greek referendum was about to be cancelled, Alexis Tsipras has just appeared on Greek television to confirm that it is going ahead and to urge people to vote No. He said that those saying a No vote would mean Greece leaving the Euro were telling lies. He argued instead, that