Politics

Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.

Tuesday

27 Sep 2016

Full speech: Tom Watson at Labour party conference

Hello, Conference. Thank you for being here in this great city, at this historic gathering of the greatest movement for social change our great country has ever known. It’s a privilege to address you. Thank you. I’d better get the difficult stuff out of the way: Saturday’s result, whatever you think of the man, whatever he’s done, how can Ed Balls be bottom of the leader board on Strictly Come Dancing? Strictly, of course, is a hot bed of media-obsessed prima donnas and harsh critics slating your every move. You’d think after a decade in Parliament Ed would have done better than that. Disappointing, Ed, to be honest. Whereas I

Katy Balls

Watch: Tom Watson defends New Labour’s record in barnstorming speech

Down-hearted moderates at this year’s Labour conference have received a much-needed boost this afternoon from the party’s Deputy Leader. Tom Watson gave a barnstorming speech to congregates as he defended Labour’s record in government and vowed to take the fight to the Tories in the next general election. After months of navel-gazing in the Labour leadership race, Watson turned his ire on the opposition. He described Theresa May as a Lib Dem manifesto pledge — ‘abandoned’ — as he accused her of ‘ducking and diving; humming and hahing’ on everything from the Northern powerhouse to the Single Market. As for the Liberal Democrats’ claim that they are the real opposition, Watson

Steerpike

Watch: Andrew Neil grills Shami Chakrabarti over her peerage

Although David Cameron faced flak over his resignation honours list, it was Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to give the chair of his anti-Semitism inquiry a peerage that attracted the most criticism. Today Shami Chakrabarti — now Baroness Chakrabarti of Kennington — appeared on the Daily Politics where Andrew Neil. While she freely admitted that her findings were yet to be ‘fully implemented’, she also praised Corbyn’s ‘greater ever mandate’. When it was put to her that quite a lot of members and Jewish groups had suggested her report was a whitewash, she replied that she was sorry not ‘everyone’ agreed with ‘everything’ she said. However, it was Neil’s questions regarding the

Tom Goodenough

Sadiq Khan’s power ballad to Jeremy Corbyn

Sadiq Khan’s speech to Labour conference just now could be summed up in a single word: power. He repeated it so much – 38 times in total – you’d be forgiven for thinking he could do with a thesaurus. But there was nothing accidental about him banging on about power. This was a clear dig at Jeremy Corbyn. Khan’s big idea isn’t real that big at all. He told his party that Labour out of power ‘will never, ever be good enough’, while his finishing plea was that: ‘It’s time to put Labour back into power, it’s time for a Labour Government. A Labour Prime Minister in Downing Street.’ It might seem

The Spectator

Full speech: Sadiq Khan at Labour conference

Labour in power. Not just talking the talk, but walking the walk too. Never sacrificing or selling out on our ideals, but putting them in action every single day. Not a revolution overnight, but real and meaningful change that makes life easier for the people who need it most. Conference, after the election this summer the leadership of our party has now been decided and I congratulate Jeremy on his clear victory. Now it’s time for us all to work together towards the greatest prize: getting Labour back into power. Conference, with Labour in power your home and your commute get more affordable, the air you breathe gets less polluted,

Fraser Nelson

Parliamentarians vs Corbynistas – two tribes at war in the Labour Party conference

Quite extraordinary scenes here at the Labour Party conference. I’m typing this in the main conference hall and have just watched Mike Katz of the Jewish Labour Movement give a short speech against anti-Semitism. This ought to be utterly uncontroversial, but it has become a wedge issue between the two tribes who now make up the Labour Party. Between those who were members before May 2015, and those who joined after. There have two very different outlooks, and are at war with each other. Katz’s speech was cheered effusively, like a rallying call, by about a third of the hall. And, amazingly, heckled by other members. When Katz said: ‘We

Steerpike

Boris Johnson refuses to apologise for his President Erdogan poem

Back in May, Boris Johnson was awarded first prize in the Spectator’s ‘President Erdogan Offensive Poetry competition’, for the following poem: There was a young fellow from Ankara Who was a terrific wankerer Till he sowed his wild oats With the help of a goat But he didn’t even stop to thankera. Fast forward a few months, and Boris – as Foreign Secretary – now finds himself in Turkey, on a diplomatic mission. And given that President Erdogan isn’t exactly renowned for his sense of humour – or his love of a free press – Mr S did wonder whether the Foreign Secretary might be coming under diplomatic pressure to renounce his poem. Thankfully,

Steerpike

John Woodcock has the last laugh on Trident

On Monday, it was the shadow Defence Secretary rather than the shadow Chancellor who made the biggest splash with their speech. Alas it was for the wrong reason — Clive Lewis had his speech changed at last minute by Seumas Milne to remove a pledge that Labour ‘would not seek to change’ its support for the renewal of Trident. Since then there has been much confusion over who in the party thinks what. While Corbyn’s office changed the speech — leading Lewis to allegedly punch a wall — the shadow Defence Secretary has since told the Guardian that he ‘won’t be coming back to conference between now and the next

Tom Goodenough

Labour conference, day three: The Spectator guide

Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, and Sadiq Khan, the Labour politician with the largest mandate to his name, both take to the stage today on the third day of Labour’s conference in Liverpool. Watson described the leadership contest as a ‘very bruising summer’ for the party and insisted the focus now was on ‘rebuilding trust’ among voters after Corbyn was re-elected leader on Saturday. He’s likely to make a similar pitch in his keynote speech today. While Khan will tell the Labour conference (in a veiled dig at Corbyn) that the party can only make a difference if it manages to win power. Elsewhere, Corbyn’s defeated rival in the leadership race

Monday

26 Sep 2016

Peter Stothard

Lessons for the Prime Minister’s speech-writer

To a new Prime Minister’s speech-writer the party conference approaches like a bullet train. If my friend, Sir Ronald Millar, were still alive he would be working flat out on Theresa May’s speech by now. With the date of delivery advancing and the drafts on her desk ever more undeliverable, the need for ‘Ronnification’ must be overwhelming. It always was. Ronnie is best known today as the playwright who wrote ‘U-turn if you want to: the lady’s not for turning’ for Margaret Thatcher in 1980, and gave this paper’s former editor, Charles Moore the title for the second volume of his great biography. But Ronnie, a classicist as well as

Steerpike

Watch: John McDonnell’s disastrous Newsnight interview

It’s been a long day for John McDonnell. On top of making his conference speech, the Shadow Chancellor has spoken at fringe events and given several interviews. So, perhaps that’s why his appearance on Monday’s Newsnight didn’t go quite to plan. In the interview with Evan Davis, McDonnell failed to shine as he put forward a rather confused vision for his party. Although he insisted that Labour were ready to govern, he also admitted that the party was not in a position to share its policy on tax — instead saying it should remain ‘roughly the same as it is’ — immigration or Trident. When it was pointed out to McDonnell

Isabel Hardman

Labour moderates split over whether to serve on Corbyn’s frontbench

Whether or not to serve on Labour’s frontbench is a question of the same order of asking whether the deck chairs on the Titanic should face north or south. But Labour MPs do have to work out what’s best to do while their ship is being captained by Jeremy Corbyn – and we’re starting to see signs of splits within the moderate camp on how best to do this. This evening, centrist MP Johnny Reynolds is reported to be returning to the Labour frontbench as City Minister, which may mean Labour actually holds meetings with people in the City as opposed to ignoring them. But it is also a completely

Steerpike

Falkland Islands’ pitch to Jeremy Corbyn falls on deaf ears

In a crowded field, one of Jeremy Corbyn’s more controversial suggestions during his time as Labour leader has been putting forward the idea of a ‘power sharing deal’ with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. That plan was called a ‘repugnant surrender’ by war hero Simon Weston, while Michael Fallon said Corbyn posed a bigger threat to the Falklands than the Argentine navy. Yet that hasn’t put off the Falkland Islands Government from turning up at Labour’s party conference this year with a stall. Alas, it seems, the Falkland Island Government’s hopes of speaking to Corbyn have so far fallen on deaf ears. Mr S hears from a Falkland Islander working on the

Tom Goodenough

John McDonnell sends taxpayers running for the hills

John McDonnell’s speech was a chance to win over voters. But while his pitch went down well in the hall and was greeted by raptures of wild applause from (some of) the party faithful, there was little on offer to entice those on the fence to come over to Labour. If anything, this looked to be business as usual for a party that voters just don’t trust on the economy (the latest YouGov poll puts Labour nine points behind the Tories). McDonnell talked about sharing the burden, investing and ‘calling a halt to austerity’. He said: ‘We will rewrite the rules to the benefit of working people on taxes, investment

The Spectator

Full speech: John McDonnell at Labour conference

Now the leadership election is over, I tell you, we have to become a government in waiting. An election could come at any time. Theresa May has said that she will not be calling an early election, but when could anyone trust a Tory leader? We have to prepare ourselves not just for fighting an election but for moving into Government. To do that successfully we have to have the policies and the plans for their detailed implementation on the shelf, in place for when we enter government whenever that election comes. Everybody in the Party, at every level and in every role, needs to appreciate the sense of urgency

Isabel Hardman

Labour members’ stand-off with MPs shows things can only get more bitter

Jeremy Corbyn might have wanted to wipe the slate clean and start over with his MPs after the summer’s leadership contest. But the mood on the Labour conference fringe shows that this is going to be extremely difficult in practice, even if the Labour leader does everything that his MPs ask of him (which he won’t). Many members are furious with the MPs for orchestrating a coup against their leader and forcing a leadership contest; many MPs are utterly defiant about the importance of said coup, even though it failed, and aren’t prepared to fall meekly behind the leader, no matter how much members tell them to. Indeed, if the

Katy Balls

Corbyn’s team clash over Trident

Today Clive Lewis, the shadow Defence Secretary, used his conference speech to say that Labour has a clear policy in favour of renewing Trident and would sign up to the Nato target of spending 2pc on defence. While this is Labour policy, given that Lewis is viewed by many as a fully signed-up Corbynite there had been an expectation that he would take on an anti-Trident stance. Following his comments, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament issued a press release expressing their ‘huge disappointment at this U-turn’. Now it’s transpired that Lewis had meant to go further. The talk of conference is that Lewis had planned to say he would not

Steerpike

Matt Hancock struggles to play it straight with radio speech

As Labour MPs and members alike turn on one another at their annual conference, the Conservatives get on with their work. So, spare a thought for Matt Hancock who was attempting to do just this at today’s Radio Festival when he encountered and unusual — if eye-catching — obstacle. While giving a speech at the event, the culture minister faced a screen malfunction. Rather than have his speech appear on the autocue, two words appeared before him: ‘cock gobbler’ https://twitter.com/patrickfoster2/status/780366802316656640 While Hancock managed to get through the speech, he then cracked and revealed to the audience the view before him. Mr S suspects that one staffer at the event will be laughing very

Isabel Hardman

Labour must hold the Tories to account on Brexit

John McDonnell is now speaking at the Labour conference, and will pledge to match the regional funding that communities will lose as a result of Brexit. This has been billed as ‘one of the Labour Party’s biggest policy statements since the Brexit vote’, which is another way of saying ‘one of the Labour Party’s only policy statements since the Brexit vote’. The turmoil in the party since that vote and its dismal performance in the polls (which, despite urban legend, was the case before the attempted coup against Corbyn) means that it’s largely pointless to evaluate this policy statement as though it might actually happen. Labour isn’t going to be

Tom Goodenough

Coffee House Shots: Labour conference’s uneasy peace

Labour’s conference is well underway but the mood so far is far from lively. Rather than rallying around their newly re-elected leader, for many who have gathered at the party’s annual conference the atmosphere is somewhat gloomy. So whilst Jeremy Corbyn promised to ‘wipe the slate clean’ following his re-election, can the Labour party learn to forgive and forget? Isabel Hardman says on this Coffee House Shots episode that so far an uneasy peace is prevailing. But only just…: ‘I was sort of expecting it to be this bitter bunfight where people were shouting at each other and that hasn’t happened so far. But we’ve only had one night where people have