Society

Friday

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It was Corbyn wot lost it

At 10:10pm last night, the shadow chancellor began the inevitable firefight against claims that it was Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour leadership itself that lost the party this election. John McDonnell told Andrew Neil: ‘We knew it would be tough because Brexit has dominated this election… As I say, I think this was a Brexit election… I hate to use this expression but I think [the voters] most probably did want to “get it done” and that will be it.’ This has set the tone for the fierce debate that has followed. While prominent pro-Corbyn figures have blamed the media, tactical voters and even global political forces, it is Brexit

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Ken Loach on anti-Semitism ‘campaign’ against Corbyn

Ken Loach is loyal to Jeremy Corbyn to the very end, even after the Labour leader led the party to its disastrous defeat overnight. The ‘Kes’ filmmaker said Corbyn has been the victim of a ‘torrent of abuse that has been off the scale’. Loach said Corbyn was: ‘A man of peace who has been called a terrorist. He’s been arrested against racism, and been called racist.’ Emily Maitlis then quizzed Loach on accusations of anti-Semitism within the Labour ranks. Loach responded by saying this was ‘a campaign that was going to run and run’. He then repeated claims that anti-Semitism was ‘weaponised to undermine the Corbyn Labour party’. Oh dear…

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson promises to ‘unite and level up’ the UK. Can he really achieve that?

Boris Johnson’s victory speech in Downing Street was aimed at the voters unsure about his government, whether they be the voters who backed his party for the first time, or Remainers who didn’t vote Tory. In an acknowledgement of how difficult it will have been for many traditionally Labour voters to turn away from their party, he said: ‘To all those who voted for us, for the first time, all those whose pencils may have wavered over the ballot and who heard the voices of their parents and grandparents whispering anxiously in their ears, I say thank you for the trust you have placed in us and in me and

Boris Johnson

Full transcript: Boris Johnson’s speech on the steps of Downing Street

This morning I went to Buckingham Palace and I am forming a new government. On Monday MPs will arrive at Westminster to form a new parliament and I am proud to say that members of our new ‘One Nation’ government – a people’s government – will set out from constituencies that have never returned a Conservative MP for 100 years. And yes they will have an overwhelming mandate, from this election, to get Brexit done and we will honour that mandate by 31 January. So in this moment of national resolution, I want to speak directly to those who made it possible and to all those who voted for us,

Robert Peston Robert Peston

The three ‘C’s’ that explain Boris’s historic election win

This was an election as important and as divisive for the UK as Margaret Thatcher’s victory in 1979. Vast numbers of British people will never be reconciled to Boris Johnson as prime minister or to Brexit. In fact, a whole nation, Scotland, is already asking permission to leave. My assumption, however, is that Johnson will go Red Tory rather than born-again-Thatcherite. Because he will want to capitalise on the disaffection from Labour of vast numbers of its traditional supporters in the Midlands and north of England. So Labour will have its work cut out to look like a party of government any time soon, even if it finds a more

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‘I will stay here’: Jeremy Corbyn doubles down after Labour defeat

Jeremy Corbyn was roundly defeated in yesterday’s general election, so what lessons have been learned? Not many, if his interview just now on ITV News is anything to go on. The Labour leader defended Momentum, insisted his party’s manifesto was popular and vowed not to walk away from the party for the time being. On Brexit, Corbyn continued to sit on the fence. When asked whether Corbynism was dead, the Islington MP replied ‘There is no such thing as Corbynism’: And the Labour leader also pointed the finger of blame at the media for failing to give him a fair hearing. Here’s his verdict on what unfolded: Interviewer: ‘Quite often,

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‘We will fight them in the streets’: Labour MP reacts to Tory win

You wouldn’t know Labour had suffered a dismal night in the polls from Lloyd Russell-Moyle’s acceptance speech. The arch Corbynista and MP for Brighton Kemptown channelled Winston Churchill as he vowed to take the fight to the Tories. Russell-Moyle launched into an explosive rant as he reacted to news of Boris’s big win: ‘The Conservative party have an aim to break up our country. They aim to destroy our NHS and we will say no. We will fight them in the parliament. We will fight them in the courts. We will fight them in the workplaces and we will fight them in the streets.’ Mr S thinks Labour’s electoral wipeout might

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Boris Johnson has all the power. Here’s what he’ll do with it

Put aside the surprise at the scale of the Tory gains and look at where those gains came, and consider what is now the central question of British politics: how will the Conservatives try to keep their gains at the next general election? Don’t assume that’s in 2024. The Fixed Term Parliaments Act may well not survive this election result. This majority gives Boris Johnson the scope to engage in constitutional reform, though big SNP gains mean the biggest constitutional challenge will be keeping Scotland in the Union. I sadly think we’ll see IndyRef2 in this Parliament and I fear the outcome. The Tories did badly in Scotland, but won

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Jo Swinson only has herself to blame for the Lib Dems’s election disaster

There’s been a lot of criticism about Jeremy Corbyn’s want of humility and refusal to apologise for his errors in the wake of his party’s annihilation in its former safe spaces. But rather less for Jo Swinson about the dismal showing of the Lib Dems in this election. This was epitomised by her own defeat by the SNP in Dunbartonshire (and if I were a Unionist, I wouldn’t be quite so gung ho about the results as most Tories). She went down as she went up, utterly immune to self doubt: “Liberal Democrats will continue to stand up for these values that guide our Liberal movement – openness, fairness, inclusivity.

Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O'Flynn

Boris’s big win is a decisive moment in the battle for Brexit

So in the end Leave voters decided to save Nigel Farage from himself by once again using their strategic nous to herd behind the party that could do most to take us out of the European Union. Which wasn’t the Brexit party. As widely predicted, including by me, the Brexit party did not even come close to winning a single parliamentary seat. In fact, as I write, its final vote share overall is on course to replicate the two per cent achieved by Ukip under Paul Nuttall in 2017. Most heavily-defeated leaders who had spent six weeks predicting swathes of MPs for their party in the Commons might have turned

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Watch: Corbynista insists Labour’s policies ‘are incredibly popular’

Labour has had a dreadful night. The party has lost 59 seats overnight, handing the party its worst result since 1935. But some Corbynistas are taking a different view of what took place at the election. Pro-Corbyn commentator Grace Blakeley insisted that, however badly the party did, Labour’s policies were not at fault. She told Good Morning Britain: ‘Left-wing policies that have been democratically developed and chosen by the Labour party are incredibly popular.’ It fell to Piers Morgan to ask the question on everyone else’s minds:   ‘If the policies were that popular, why has Jeremy Corbyn just taken one of the biggest drubbings in modern political history?’ Blakeley went

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What kind of Prime Minister will Boris Johnson be now?

Boris Johnson has just given a fully-charged victory speech at a rally in London, telling joyful activists that today marks ‘a new dawn and a new government’. The event was emblazoned with a new logo, ‘The People’s Government’ as the Tories claim victory for representing all parts of the country. Johnson echoed this in his speech, saying he was ‘humbled’ by those who had voted for his party for the first time and promising that he would ‘never take your support for granted’. And he told his party that it ‘must change’.  The language was deliberately centrist, Blairite and welcoming rather than sneering. Johnson even remembered something that Theresa May

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

The fall of Labour’s ‘Red Wall’ is a moment to celebrate

The ‘red wall’ has fallen. Brick by brick. Almost every bit of it. Seats held by Labour for decades have been seized by the Tories. To me, this is the most exciting thing in this extraordinary election. It feels almost revolutionary. Working people have smashed years and years of tradition and laid to waste the nauseating, paternalistic idea that they would vote for a donkey so long as it was wearing a red rosette. The ‘red wall’ results are staggering. In Bolsover, held by Dennis Skinner since 1970, the Tories now have a 5,000+ majority. Former mining towns like Bishop Auckland and Sedgefield — Tony Blair’s old seat — fell

The Spectator

‘A huge great stonking mandate’: Boris’s Tory HQ victory speech

Boris Johnson has just addressed Tory HQ following the Tories’s huge election win. Here is the full text of what he had to say: Well this is the most incredible…It is a day that many of us have dreamed of, a day when the Conservative party genuinely speaks for every part of the country. We have won from Workington to Woking, we have won in Bishop Auckland, in Darlington, in seats that Conservatives have not won for 100 years or more. Wrexham! Tony Blair’s old seat in Sedgefield. We have turned Redcar ‘Blue-car’. We have won in Clwyd South, which I first contested 22 years ago and was soundly thrashed.

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Jo Swinson’s election nightmare

The Liberal Democrats have capped off a bad campaign with a disastrous results night. The party is on course for a mere 11 seats. To put that into perspective they won 12 seats in 2017. Jo Swinson started the campaign suggesting she could be prime minister. Instead, she has lost her seat. The Lib Dem leader lost her seat of East Dunbartonshire to the SNP. Meanwhile, high profile defectors from the two main parties failed to win their seats, with Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger and Sam Gymiah all missing out. Long-standing Lib Dems have also suffered. Tom Brake lost his seat of Carshalton and Wallington to the Tories. He has

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris Johnson’s spectacular win heralds a new form of Toryism

Boris Johnson has won one of the most spectacular election victories in recent British political history. He has broken the deadlock that has gripped British politics since the 2017 election, winning a much larger majority than anyone expected. He is, currently, projected to have a majority of 68. This victory means that the UK will leave the EU on the 31st of January. But it also means something else, and something that might turn out to be almost as important to the future of the country. This election has realigned British politics. The Tories have won Leigh, Workington, Wrexham, Ashfield, Bolsover, Darlington and a slew of other working class seats

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Dennis Skinner gets the boot in Bolsover

The Beast of Bolsover is no more. Dennis Skinner has lost his seat to the Tories – winning 16,492 votes to the Tories’ 21,791. The red wall has been demolished overnight.  Skinner has been the MP for Bolsover since 1970, in a constituency which has never elected anyone other than a Labour MP. Tonight, that has changed. Here is the full result from Derbyshire: Goodbye, Dennis. Mr S will miss your Queen’s Speech jokes…

John Connolly John Connolly

Jo Swinson to Laura Pidcock: the seven biggest scalps from election night

It’s been a remarkable election night. The Tories have won a big majority in the House of Commons and stormed the so-called ‘Red Wall’ of Labour seats in the North and Midlands, which have voted red for decades. As expected after such a tumultuous election, there have been some high-profile casualties along the way. Here are the seven biggest names to lose their seats: Jo Swinson Jo Swinson’s loss of her East Dunbartonshire seat will be viewed as the ultimate ‘Portillo moment’ of the 2019 election campaign, made all the more noteworthy because of Swinson’s own grand rhetoric when the election was called. Swinson started the campaign in November saying