Politics Archives

Tuesday

1 Dec 2015

Tom Watson asks Cameron to delay Syria vote

The biggest problem with Labour’s furious and seemingly endless infighting is that it is preventing the party from doing its job of scrutinising the government. The Shadow Cabinet are largely scrutinising their leader and one another, which makes it easier for David Cameron to be vague about certain aspects of his case for war. But today, Tom Watson has written to the Prime Minister demanding a delay in the vote and clarity on two key points. They are: 1. The detail behind Cameron’s claim that there are ‘approximately 70,000 opposition figures on the ground who do not belong to extremist groups’. 2. A timeline for peace and arrangements for a

Brendan O’Neill

Jeremy Corbyn isn’t destroying Labour: backstabbing is

First things first: there is no force in Heaven or on Earth that could induce me to vote for Jeremy Corbyn and his sad brand of sixth-former state socialism. In fact, as someone who believes in freedom and growth, the idea of ever giving my beloved ballot to the illiberal, eco-miserabilist Labour Party, regardless of who’s leading it, fills me with horror. Or is it mirth? It’s one or the other. And yet, despite my Corbynphobia, and my humane desire to see dying Labourism put out of its misery, I increasingly find myself shaking my head in something like fury at Corbyn’s Labour critics. They accuse him of destroying their

Sebastian Payne

Hilary Benn on Labour’s Syria split: ‘People of principle can reach different decisions’

Tomorrow, Labour will try out something curious during the Commons debate on airstrikes in Syria. The opposition side of the debate will be opened by Jeremy Corbyn, who will argue against airstrikes, and later closed by Hilary Benn, who will make the case for them. This may sound all very dynamic and different but there is a simple and important question ordinary folks will be wondering: what is Labour’s policy on Syrian airstrikes? On the Today programme, the shadow foreign secretary said he is in favour of the strikes because ‘there is a clear and present threat from Isil Daesh’ and called for respect from the opposing sides within Labour – possibly in response

Sebastian Payne

Behind the scenes with Momentum: what are they up to?

On Saturday evening, the Eastern Pavilion Banqueting Hall was taken over by Momentum for a curry after a cold and very wet day of campaigning for the Oldham West and Royton by-election. Momentum is a political activist group, founded in the wake of Jeremy Corbyn’s rise to the Labour leadership. As with most things under his watch, it has received a bad press. Critics in and outside of the Labour party say Momentum is trying to be a party within a party — an effort by hard-left activists to infiltrate Labour as Militant did in the 1980s and make it their own. Everyone I spoke in the Eastern Pavilion vigorously denied

Steerpike

David Cameron brings festive cheer to Scotland

Of all the places across the United Kingdom where David Cameron can expect a lukewarm welcome, north of the border must be one of the least likely. So Mr S was happy to hear that Cameron is at least now proving popular at one Scottish joint. Just as the Prime Minister may think Piggate is well and truly behind him, one bright spark has come up with a way to revisit the story just in time to cash in on the festive season. Cornelius Beer — the Edinburgh-based drinks outlet — have made their own special brew entitled FigPucker in tribute to the — unsubstantiated — claim in Lord Aschcroft’s David Cameron

Monday

30 Nov 2015

James Forsyth

Cameron says that the Commons will debate Syria strikes on Wednesday

David Cameron has just said that the Commons will debate extending air strikes against Islamic State to Syria on Wednesday. Given that Cameron has repeatedly made clear that he wouldn’t bring the issue back to the Commons unless he was confident he could win a vote with a clear majority, this must mean that he calculates that Labour granting its MPs a free vote means that he now has the numbers he needs. Speaking from the Cabinet Room, Cameron argued that this ‘was the right thing to do’ as the UK’s allies had asked for this country’s help and because Islamic State does not respect the Iraqi / Syrian border,

Isabel Hardman

Corbyn survives ‘balanced’/‘ferocious’ meeting of Labour party

Tonight’s meeting of the parliamentary Labour party could have been a lot worse. It was full of very concerned MPs, many of whom had complaints they wanted to air. A senior Labourite did say it was the most ‘uplifting’ meeting he had attended because of the ‘ferocity’ of attacks on Corbyn. Jack Dromey gave an angry speech about Ken Livingstone’s comments about the 7/7 bombers, which colleagues leaving said was ‘brilliant’, while others expressed concerns about Corbynite grassroots group Momentum, arguing it was going to divide the party. David Winnick described the group as a ‘party within a party’. Afterwards, a senior Labour source said there was a ‘wide debate,

Isabel Hardman

Corbyn free vote decision calms Labour frontbench – for now

Jeremy Corbyn seems to have left Shadow Cabinet meeting with a reasonable result, given the warfare in the Labour party over the past few days. It was what one frontbencher describes as ‘rather lively’ and others felt was ‘totally embarrassing’, but the agreed position is that there will be a free vote, a call for a two day debate and that official party policy will be that set out by the Labour party conference. This is the statement on the matter: ‘Today’s Shadow Cabinet agreed to back Jeremy Corbyn’s recommendation of a free vote on the Government’s proposal to authorise UK bombing in Syria. ‘The Shadow Cabinet decided to support

Steerpike

Seumas Milne causes problems for the Guardian

Covering the upcoming Syria vote is proving to be a challenge for hacks at the Guardian. Steerpike understands that the paper is having a difficult time deciding its editorial line on the issue which is currently undermining Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. Meanwhile, the little fact that Corbyn’s head of comms Seumas Milne — the Guardian columnist and associate editor — is on leave from the paper only complicates matters further. Now the New Statesman‘s George Eaton reports that the Guardian are even having issues when it comes to their insider briefings. Today’s shadow cabinet meeting over the party’s plan on Syria hit a bum note when seven minutes into the meeting, a number of attendees received an update from

Sebastian Payne

CCHQ announces independent inquiry into Elliott Johnson

The board of the Conservative party met this afternoon and finally agreed to hold a fully independent investigation into circumstances around the death of RoadTrip activist Elliott Johnson and the allegations of bullying by Mark Clarke. CCHQ has said the investigation will be ‘timely, objective, and comprehensive and independent from the Chairman, CCHQ staff and Party volunteers’. In a statement, the Conservative party said: From tomorrow (1 December), the investigation will be conducted in its entirety by the law firm Clifford Chance LLP. This will include taking witness statements and the collation and review of all written evidence. Clifford Chance LLP will review all interviews already conducted and give those

Isabel Hardman

Is Hilary Benn about to become Labour’s very own Aung San Suu Kyi?

Labour’s shadow cabinet meeting is now over, with members scuttling past a hungry pack of journalists in Portcullis House without comment. Frontbencher sources seem to think that Corbyn told his shadow ministers that they could take their own line but not speak in the Commons about that line if it contradicted the party line (confused? Welcome to the Straight Talking Honest New Politics). This would potentially mean that Hilary Benn can’t speak in the Commons as shadow foreign secretary if he decides that what he said last week was a ‘compelling’ case worth supporting. Party sources suggest that this would make him the Aung San Suu Kyi of Labour, which

Alex Massie

A free vote on military action in Syria is the least bad option available for everyone

Well, this is another fine mess, isn’t it? Jeremy Corbyn opposes (surprise!) extending the UK’s anti-ISIS mission from Iraq to Syria and this, we are told, is the Labour party’s official position. Nevertheless, Labour MPs will not be whipped whenever the matter is eventually put to a vote in the House of Commons. They will be free to vote as their conscience, and their calculation of the national interest, demands. By virtue of discovering that all his other options were unsustainable, Corbyn has blundered into the only choice that was feasible all along. Truly, another memorable profile in leadership. Now you may object that the whole rigmarole is unnecessary in the

Steerpike

Corbyn’s Stop the War comrade: are Zionists at the heart of the Tory bullying scandal?

As details have emerged regarding the Mark Clarke bullying scandal that is currently engulfing the Tory party, allegations of blackmail, revenge porn and drug-taking have come to light. As a result, the Tory party is currently under pressure to explain why allegations of bullying were not looked into sooner by members of Tory HQ. With Grant Shapps resigning from his ministerial post over the weekend as a result of these damaging allegations, others are beginning to ask: why was there such a toxic atmosphere among young Tory activists in the first place? As for Jeremy Corbyn’s Stop The War comrade Yvonne Ridley? Well for Ridley — the journalist who converted to Islam after

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn grants Labour MPs a free vote on Syria

The Shadow Cabinet is now holding its (delayed) meeting on Labour’s stance on Syria, and members have been told that they will get a free vote on the matter. Sources say that Jeremy Corbyn will also ask David Cameron to delay the vote, which is expected on Wednesday, in order to respond to MPs’ concerns, and that the party will still take a position that frontbenchers won’t necessarily have to follow. This is a way of avoiding the mass resignations and fury that Shadow Cabinet members were threatening. But it is also a sign that Labour as a party no longer falls within the accepted definition of a political party.

James Forsyth

Feldman’s defenders weigh in

Friends of Andrew Feldman have launched a vigorous defence of the party chairman ahead of this afternoon’s board meeting. A long-serving member of the party board, a Cabinet Minister and a senior Number 10 source have been phoning around offering their backing to him. They argue that when Shapps and Feldman were co-chairmen, there was a clear division of labour with Shapps involved in the ground campaign and Feldman taking charge of the money and administrative matters. So, it should be Shapps—not Feldman—who takes responsibility for what went wrong with Road Trip 2015. One Cabinet Minister tells me that because Lynton Crosby had taken over so much of the traditional role

Isabel Hardman

Labour claims 75 per cent of members oppose air strikes in Syria

Just minutes before the crunch Shadow Cabinet meeting about the Labour stance on air strikes in Syria, the party has released figures showing an overwhelming majority oppose UK bombing in Syria. This is the statement: 75 per cent of Labour Party members responding to weekend consultation oppose UK bombing in Syria A sample of this weekend’s consultation of Labour Party members, carried out in response to an email from Jeremy Corbyn, issued Friday 27th November, has shown that 75 per cent of Labour party members who have responded oppose UK bombing in Syria. 107,875 responses were received of which 64,771 were confirmed as full individual Labour Party members. The remainder

Isabel Hardman

Mark Clarke and the safe seat myth

How did those accused of bullying in the Conservative party’s youth wing get away with it? The central party, which appears to be slowly waking up to the fact that it can’t mark its own homework with an internal investigation into the events preceding Elliott Johnson’s death, may have been so desperate for help ferrying its limited number of young activists around the country that it jumped at the offer from Mark Clarke (who denies all the allegations put to him over the past few weeks). But those unhappy at the state of affairs seem to have been held back from complaining by something else: the threat to their careers. Account

Sebastian Payne

Can Lord Feldman survive as Tory chairman?

The murky story of Mark Clarke, Elliott Johnson and allegations of bullying in the ranks of Conservative Future is pointing towards another scalp: Lord Feldman. Following the resignation of Grant Shapps this weekend, MPs are now calling for the Conservative party’s current chairman to resign — given that he was at the top of Conservative HQ when Clarke was kicked off the candidates list and later brought back in. He was also chairman when Johnson died too. Shapps has been described as the ‘fall guy’ for this situation — he had already left CCHQ after May’s general election and has been serving as the international development minister. But he tweeted

Sunday

29 Nov 2015

Nick Robinson

The debate about Syrian airstrikes already feels hackneyed

Two years ago, just a few days after the Commons opposed airstrikes on Syria, I read another memorable phrase to David Cameron. It was what President Putin’s spokesman had been saying about Britain in private — ‘a small island no one pays attention to’. I have had the sense ever since that the Prime Minister has been haunted by the remark. I expect MPs will change that next week when they back RAF attacks on IS targets in Syria. However, so much else in this debate already feels wearily familiar. Backers of airstrikes will call opponents of them ‘appeasers’. They will respond by labelling their opponents ‘warmongers’, while armchair generals will head

Sebastian Payne

John McDonnell: Ukip is ‘an evil force within our society’

John McDonnell spoke at a Momentum curry dinner in Oldham yesterday evening, following a day on the doorstep ahead of Thursday’s by-election. I was lurking at the back and there weren’t many other journalists there. The shadow chancellor raised expectations for Labour holding onto the seat, as well as telling Momentum activists that the party has to defeat Ukip, who are seen as the most likely challengers, because it is an ‘evil force within our society’: WATCH 1/3 John McDonnell at Momentum curry dinner: #Ukip is “an evil force within our society” https://t.co/H8qzcmrQ1S — Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) November 29, 2015 ‘There are some within the party, and in the media in particular, who are