Politics Archives

Wednesday

6 Jan 2016

Harry Mount

Jeremy Corbyn has continued his purge of the Oxbridge set

Back in October, I wrote about how Corbyn had replaced the shadow cabinet’s Oxbridge and Harvard elite with red-brick university graduates. This week’s reshuffle has continued the trend. Maria Eagle – alma mater, Pembroke College, Oxford – has been demoted, and replaced by Emily Thornberry, who went to the University of Kent. Admittedly, the sacked Michael Dugher and Pat McFadden didn’t go to Oxbridge, but to Nottingham and Edinburgh respectively. Still, they are both higher-achieving universities than Northumbria University, where Emma Lewell-Buck, the new shadow local government minister, did her politics and media studies undergraduate degree. I don’t want to be intellectually snobbish. There’s nothing wrong with the universities attended by

Steerpike

Have relations between Emily Thornberry and the armed forces already soured?

Jeremy Corbyn made his views on changing the Labour party’s Trident policy pretty clear last night when he moved pro-Trident Maria Eagle out of the role of shadow defence secretary in favour of Emily Thornberry. Thornberry – who is anti-Trident – has been labelled as a controversial appointment by some given that – as well as having a penchant for white vans – she is in favour of nuclear disarmament. While this may make her job difficult when it comes to getting the armed forces on side, it won’t be the only obstacle she will have to overcome. Back in December 2014, Thornberry declared in her register of interests a donation

Theo Hobson

Justin Welby is right to offer only a vague message about refugees

We should be more generous to refugees, said Justin Welby in his New Year message. Is he saying that the government should let more of them in? If so, should he be more specific? Does David Davies, the Tory MP for Monmouth, have a point? He wrote on his website: ‘How wonderfully saintly it must feel to sleep at night with an easy conscience knowing you have roundly condemned the wicked politicians and bigots who worry about mass migration without actually having to take difficult decisions yourself and live with the consequences.’ But Welby didn’t condemn those worried about mass migration: he just reminded people that hospitality to outsiders is an

Isabel Hardman

Three Labour shadow ministers resign following Corbyn’s reshuffle

Here come the resignations. 10.40am: Jonathan Reynolds, a moderate frontbencher, has stepped down citing Pat McFadden’s sacking as one of the reasons. Reynolds writes in his resignation letter that ‘I cannot in good conscience endorse the world view of the Stop the War Coalition, who I believe to be fundamentally wrong in their assessment and understanding of the threats the UK faces. The security and well-being of my constituents must always be my first consideration and I therefore believe my colleague Pat McFadden was right to condemn those who would to any degree absolve ISIS for their actions following the atrocities in Paris’. Reynolds leaving the frontbench is not a

James Forsyth

Has Liz Truss just declared her support for Cameron in the EU referendum?

David Cameron’s declaration that ministers will be able to campaign on the opposite side from him come the EU referendum has prompted much speculation about who will take advantage of this freedom. One of those regarded as being undecided on this matter was the Environment Secretary Liz Truss. She is ideologically close to the Out camp, she founded the Free Enterprise Group of Tory MPs which is now headed by James Cleverly – an Outer – and worked closely with Vote Leave’s Dominic Cummings when she was an Education Minister, but she is also a Cameron loyalist. Her speech this morning to the Oxford Farming Conference suggests that Truss is

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn never really wanted a ‘revenge reshuffle’

Jeremy Corbyn is expected to make changes to his junior ministerial team today, though some might choose to walk anyway, particularly in protest at the sacking of Pat McFadden. Meanwhile sources in Hilary Benn’s camp are insisting that the decision to keep him in place as shadow foreign secretary but not allow him to take a dissenting position from the dispatch box won’t lead to a material change in the way the two men work together. A source says: ‘When you strip away the hysterical and breathless reporting of it, all you have got is two men who do not operate on a 24 hour news cycle and are not

The Spectator

Jeremy Corbyn’s new shadow cabinet in full

Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn MP Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Party Chair and Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office Tom Watson MP Shadow First Secretary of State, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Angela Eagle MP Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell MP Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Seema Malhotra MP Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham MP Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn MP Opposition Chief Whip Rosie Winterton MP Shadow Secretary of State for Health Heidi Alexander MP Shadow Secretary of State for Education Lucy Powell MP Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Owen Smith MP Shadow Secretary of State for Defence Emily Thornberry MP Shadow Lord Chancellor, Shadow Secretary of State

Isabel Hardman

My way or the highway, Corbyn tells tweaked Shadow Cabinet after night of the blunt knives

So in the end, Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet reshuffle wasn’t the wide-ranging purge some had anticipated it would be. The Labour leader has sacked two people – Michael Dugher and Pat McFadden – moved Maria Eagle, promoted Emily Thornberry, and told Hilary Benn to toe his line. The Labour leader sacked McFadden as Shadow Foreign Office Minister for the same reasons that he dispatched Dugher: the MP had criticised the leader in public. Or did he? McFadden asked David Cameron the following question after the Paris attacks: ‘Can I ask the Prime Minister to reject the view that sees terrorist acts as always being a response or a reaction to

Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn no longer ‘living with the enemy’

This week Jeremy Corbyn has found himself battling with the media once again as he had to reprimand lobby journalists for loitering too close to his office during his Shadow Cabinet reshuffle deliberations. Happily he no longer has to deal with such proximity issues when he returns home this evening. Mr S revealed back in December that the Labour leader was officially ‘living with the enemy’ after his lodger Gian Volpicelli started doing shifts for Mail Online. While Corbyn has made no secret of his dislike for the Mail group — making fun of both a Mail Online and a Mail on Sunday article in his party conference speech, Volpicelli managed to impress hacks at the website with his

Tuesday

5 Jan 2016

Isabel Hardman

Cameron: EU referendum campaign needs to be longer than three months

In his statement to the Commons this afternoon, David Cameron confirmed that ministers will be free to campaign for Britain to leave the European Union – and he gave a hint about when the referendum might be, too. The Prime Minister told the Chamber that he couldn’t guarantee agreement at February’s European Council summit, but: ‘If [agreement] is possible, the I’m keen to get on and hold a referendum. We shouldn’t do it precipitately, I’ve looked at previous precedents, I note that when Labour held a referendum in 1975, there was only a month between the completion of the legislation and the referendum. I don’t think that’s enough. ‘When the

Steerpike

Jess Phillips: I am interested in being Labour leader

In December, Julie Burchill had lunch with Jess Phillips MP, and decided in an article for Spectator Life that the gobby Brummie had the balls to drag the Labour party back from Korbyn’s Keystone Kommunism. It now seems that Phillips agrees. Speaking on Newsnight last night, she admitted – over a pint – that she was indeed interested in the role: ‘Yes, absolutely I would consider doing it, a long time in the future. It’s not something I’m planning on doing any time soon but it’s absolutely something I would do in the future, yes.’ Given what a tedious omnishambles Corbyn’s reshuffle is turning out to be, and given that Phillips has called for a

Steerpike

Revealed: David Cameron’s ‘well watered’ election bouquet

No doubt David Cameron looks back on his 2010 election victory with fond memories — the excitement on the night, the subsequent celebrations and of course the gifts that followed. So Mr S is sorry to report that one election present may not have been quite what it seemed. Julian Sayarer’s forthcoming book Messengers details his time as a delivery courier in London. In this, there is one intriguing entry regarding a delivery he undertook in May 2010 to Downing Street. His job was to deliver a bouquet of blue and yellow flowers to the newly appointed Prime Minister — David Cameron: ‘On the occasion of a 2010 election victory, I was obliged to

Isabel Hardman

Corbyn’s opponents reduced to hashtag mourning as reshuffle continues

By the end of the day, it will be quicker to count the number of Labour MPs – including members of the Shadow Cabinet – who have not expressed their sadness that Michael Dugher has been sacked. Even though the outpouring of anguish on social media is interesting and suggests that Jeremy Corbyn is not powerful enough to be able to demand loyalty even from those who will probably remain on the frontbench, it also shows how powerless those frontbenchers and their backbench colleagues who oppose Corbyn really are. Tom Watson and Andy Burnham, too, look powerless as they were unable to save Dugher through either their threatened power as

Steerpike

Labour MPs rally around their fallen attack dog

Michael Dugher has today been fired by Jeremy Corbyn from his role as Shadow Culture Secretary after serving less than five months on Corbyn’s frontline. Just been sacked by Jeremy Corbyn. I wished him a happy new year. — Michael Dugher (@MichaelDugher) January 5, 2016 While the move will no doubt come as a blow to Dugher, the responses from his fellow MPs on Twitter suggest that his demotion could actually be the biggest loss to politics in recent history. Dugher’s comrades have been releasing carefully worded tributes in honour of their fallen soldier: If getting rid of the Tories & electing a Labour government to implement Labour values is your thing, @MichaelDugher is your man.

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron will give ministers a free vote on EU referendum

As expected, David Cameron is to suspend collective responsibility for ministers who wish to campaign for Britain to leave the European Union. The Prime Minister will give a statement this afternoon in which he is expected to announce a free vote on the matter. Ministers will not be able to speak out until after the renegotiation has concluded, which is fair enough as it would undermine Cameron’s authority to have them campaigning for Brexit before they’ve even seen what he has brought back. This is not a surprise – the whips had been working on this assumption for months – but it does show that the Tory leader is trying

Isabel Hardman

Breaking: Corbyn sacks Michael Dugher

It seems that Jeremy Corbyn’s reshuffle has actually started for real. This is what Michael Dugher, Shadow Culture Secretary, has just tweeted: Dugher losing his job isn’t a huge surprise given his comments on Pienaar’s Politics at the weekend. The Barnsley East MP told the programme that Corbyn would be left with a ‘politburo of seven’ if he only appointed supporters. He has been an outspoken campaigner against the Labour leader’s plans for a ‘revenge reshuffle’, perhaps having decided that it might be better to go down in a final blaze of fighting. It will be interesting to see what the response is from Dugher’s ally Tom Watson, the party’s

D Guppy

The West must defeat a far worse enemy than radical Islam

The Monday after the massacre in Paris, I walk into a bank near the Place de la République to deposit a little over 1,000 euros into a friend’s account. After a number of tut-tuts the transaction passes. ‘Why all the fuss?’ I ask, only to be informed of new laws being phased in that will prohibit cash transactions over 1,000 euros, with equivalents in Italy, Belgium and numerous other countries also being enacted. ‘Soon, there won’t be such a thing as cash!’ When I question the logic behind such regulation, excitement turns to bewilderment. Didn’t I see what happened on Friday?! ‘C’est pour votre securité.’ Ah yes. Of course. Such

Steerpike

BBC execs fail to see the funny side of Dame Edna’s Jeremy Corbyn joke

Oh dear. After Nick Robinson declared that he was on a mission to tackle anti-Corbyn bias in the BBC’s political coverage, it appears some brains at Broadcasting House may be taking his sentiment a little too far. It now seems that there is also an anti-Corbyn bashing rule when it comes to satire. Barry Humphries — who is well-known for playing his comic creation Dame Edna Everage — has revealed in an interview with the Radio Times the difficulties he encountered when in discussions with the Beeb about appearing on Michael McIntyre’s Christmas show as Dame Edna. Humphries suggested he could do a joke about the man of the moment: Jeremy Corbyn. Alas,

Isabel Hardman

Corbyn to serve ‘revenge reshuffle’ cold: but will it leave Labour even more bitter?

Jeremy Corbyn is expected to announce the results of his reshuffle today, after keeping everyone in suspense with hours of secret talks yesterday in his office. His ‘even reshuffle’ is being served rather cold, and its ingredients are being kept a mystery. The Labour leader is believed to be going for a less fearsome set of changes than those briefed over Christmas, possibly even keeping Hilary Benn in his job. Though the rumour is that Maria Eagle all remain on the frontbench, but leave the Defence brief. This is all speculation, based partly on behind-the-scenes conversations about the dynamics in Corbyn’s own team (some of his aides believe he should

Monday

4 Jan 2016

Isabel Hardman

Won’t somebody in Labour think of the mayoral contest?

Jeremy Corbyn is currently conducting his reshuffle, with a group of journalists huddled at a discreet distance from the Labour leader’s office. So far, not much has happened, other than Corbyn asking the journalists not to stand outside his office, and Barry Gardiner emerging with a smile on his face. But still the briefings around the reshuffle and the anticipation of it have dominated the news agenda. This must be intensely frustrating for Sadiq Khan, who had planned to spend today getting lots of attention for his campaign on train fares. Labour members and staffers were up long before dawn handing out leaflets publicising the four-year fare freeze promised by