Jeremy corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn’s cut and paste job

You have a tight deadline and if you miss it there will be trouble. Only it’s a Friday and you’ve got plans so you do a slapdash job and copy and paste from a previous piece of work hoping no-one will notice. This at least appears to be what happened to Jeremy Corbyn on Friday. After a week of tawdry allegations of anti-Semitism, the Labour leader attempted to stem the anger growing at his handling of the situation by penning an article for the Guardian. Only readers were quick to point out that it bears a striking resemblance to the last article on anti-Semitism he wrote for the Evening Standard.

Corbyn breaks his silence on anti-Semitism row – will it make any difference?

After a tawdry week for Labour which saw a flurry of fresh allegations of anti-Semitism in the party’s upper ranks, Jeremy Corbyn has finally broken his silence. Writing an op-ed for the Guardian, the Labour leader admits that there is a ‘real problem’ – and says the party has been too slow in tackling anti-Semitism within its ranks. He promises that things will change: ‘I want Jewish people to feel at home in the Labour party and be able to play their full part in our work to take our country forward. And I appreciate that this cannot happen while anti-Semitic attitudes still surface within Labour, and while trust between

Bigots of the world, unite!

If Jews would get out of Israel and also stop drinking the blood of gentile children, perhaps the rest of the world would like them a little more. That seems to be the fairly broad view among the Hamas groupies on the white British left as well as throughout almost the entire Islamic world. But in particular within the left of the Labour party, which has imbibed this foul ideology for a long while (dating back to the Cold War). A member of the party’s National Executive Committee, Peter Willsman, has blamed Jewish supporters of Donald Trump for fabricating claims of anti-Semitism against Labour. Willsman then asked fellow members if

Watch: Jeremy Corbyn dodges questions on anti-Semitism

Labour’s anti-Semitism problem isn’t going away. But it seems Jeremy Corbyn is hoping it will do. When the Labour leader was asked whether he was the man to patch things up between the Jewish community and the party, Corbyn was somewhat lost for words: Reporter: ‘Are relations between the Labour leadership and the British Jewish community broken beyond repair? …Can you fix the relationship, Mr Corbyn?’ Jeremy Corbyn: ‘Good morning, nice to see you. Goodbye…Can you close the window please.’ Mr S. thinks this is hardly the best way for Corbyn to reassure people that he is taking the problem seriously…

Has Jeremy Corbyn got anything he wants to tell us?

Labour’s anti-Semitism row reached boiling point this week thanks to a leaked recording from a meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee. In it, Corbyn ally Peter Willsman suggests that Jewish ‘Trump fanatics’ are behind ‘duff’ accusations of Labour anti-Semitism and warned that ‘they can falsify social media very easily’. This comes at a particularly bad time for Jeremy Corbyn as Willsman is currently standing for re-election on to the NEC and is one of nine Momentum-backed candidates, known as the #JC9 (see Mr Steerpike’s guide to the candidates here). Moderate Labour MPs – including deputy leader Tom Watson – have been quick to condemn the comments along with a

Labour members must pick a side in the fight against anti-Semitism

Snap. It was a long time coming but it was always coming. Jeremy Corbyn, who has traded on an image of saintly anti-racism for his entire career, was finally confronted by someone who sees through it. Yesterday, Labour’s national executive committee adopted a new policy that rejected the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism. Rabbis from across the spectrum had urged Labour to accept this definition; Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis warned that failing to do so would send an unprecedented ‘message of contempt to the Jewish community’. Of course, that was the point. Labour does not like Jews very much; some within its ranks downright hate them; and

Anti-Brexit protesters turn on Labour leader: ‘Where’s Jeremy Corbyn?’

This time last year, Jeremy Corbyn was standing on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury to adoring chants of ‘Oh-Jeremy-Corbyn’. Last weekend, Corbyn-mania attempting a resurgence at JezFest – Labour’s very own music festival – but failed to deliver the Labour leader another Glastonbury moment – with only faint chants to be heard. Happily, Corbyn can take heart that his name was chanted en masse this weekend. Only it wasn’t for the reason that his supporters had in mind. At the anti-Brexit People’s Vote march in London, protesters angrily chanted ‘where’s Jeremy Corbyn?’ “Where’s Jeremy Corbyn?” “Where’s Jeremy Corbyn?” “Where’s Jeremy Corbyn?” “Where’s Jeremy Corbyn?” “Where’s Jeremy Corbyn?” #PeoplesVoteMarch pic.twitter.com/5YdMW1B0AO — Jack

Brexit exposes the limits of Jeremy Corbyn’s radicalism

The left middle class is filled with anger as it sees the right, and, in its terms, the far right, triumph. Every time I write about Brexit I feel its fury pulsating around me. Brexit threatens the left’s core beliefs in international cooperation and anti-racism, while making its dream of ending austerity by reviving the economy unattainable. It must be resisted. Yet in a classic struggle against nationalist conservatism, Jeremy Corbyn, supposedly the most left-wing Labour leader ever, is at best an irrelevance and at worst an enemy when it comes to Brexit. His supporters sound like supporters of Tony Blair in the 1990s as they say Labour members must

Labour Live will cost the party more than money

The farce that is Labour Live rumbles on. With the Jezfest set to take place this weekend, the organisers are still struggling to shift tickets to the musical bonanza – which bills The Magic Numbers and Kate Osamor among its headliners. The Times today reports that ‘sales’ are still said to be stuck at around the 3,000 mark despite the venue – White Hart Lane Rec – having a 15,000 capacity. Labour MPs are growing increasingly concerned about the whole affair and asking Jenny Formby, the general secretary, who is currently footing the estimated £1million cost of the event. She has kept tight-lipped. But even if it is the Labour party

Why is Corbyn cosying up to Northern Ireland’s unionists?

How serious are Jeremy Corbyn and the Corbynites about winning power? Deadly serious, if the remarkable tactical flexibility he displayed on his first official visit to Belfast as leader of the Labour Party is anything to go by. Corbyn took care to genuflect not just to nationalist idols such as Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness and John Hume, but also to three Unionist big beasts – Arlene Foster, Ian Paisley Sr and David Trimble. The Labour leader has not suddenly become a “revisionist” in the affairs of Northern Ireland, which to this day remains one of his longest-lasting and deepest ideological commitments. He has engaged in no “agonising reappraisal “ of

The zeal of a pro-Corbyn Jewish convert

When Jeremy Corbyn attended a Passover dinner hosted by Jewdas, it was the first that many Jews had even heard of this fringe outfit. But the meeting proved to some of Corbyn’s supporters that concerns about anti-Semitism within the Labour party were overblown. After all, Jews at the event were happily speaking up for Jeremy Corbyn, so what was all the fuss about? One of those who attended the dinner and was keen to defend Corbyn was Charlotte Nichols, a 27-year-old Young Labour committee member. Nichols’ impassioned defence of Corbyn’s presence at the event in which she argued that ‘it is not for non-Jewish people, in criticising Corbyn’s attendance, to determine what is and

The Tories need to get over Thatcher

A lot of attention has been given to the new think tank, Onward, that claims it will win back Britain for the Conservative Party by targeting disaffected Blairites and young people. There is, however, one part of society conspicuously missing from its remit: the poorest. The group’s founder, Neil O’Brien MP, claims that Corbyn is ‘crackers’ and his policies, including nationalisation of infrastructure ‘need deleting’. At no point does Onward – or any of the other right-wing think tanks that have launched – seem to question why Corbyn’s policies are so popular throughout the country. Nor do they wonder whether any Conservative government has made them work before. Has anyone

Watch: Rod Liddle’s dog reacts to party leaders

This week Rod Liddle took over the London Palladium for one night only. Mr S’s colleague and comrade spoke to a sold out audience about his approach to writing and politics – as well as his managerial style at the BBC (clue: not legal). For those readers unable to bag a ticket, Mr S is pleased to share one of the highlights from the evening. In a video, Liddle revealed his dog Jessie’s feelings toward various politicians – and there’s one in particular that caused a strong reaction: Well, let it never be said that Corbyn’s Labour is going to the dogs…

Stop boiling over about gammon

I was disappointed by the reaction of my fellow conservatives to gammon-gate. For those who haven’t been following this mini-scandal, it concerns the use of the word ‘gammons’ by those on the Corbyn-ite left to describe middle-aged, red-faced, pro-Brexit white men who vote Tory. According to the snowflakes of the right, this is a deeply offensive epithet that manages to be both racist and ageist. ‘This is a term based on skin colour and age — stereotyping by colour or age is wrong no matter what race, age or community,’ tweeted the DUP MP Emma Little-Pengelly. Hard to disagree with that — and she could have thrown in snobbery for

Gammon vs Prosciutto: learn to speak like a Corbynista

Are you considering a career in Labour politics but fear you may be left behind amid all the exciting changes the party is undergoing? Maybe you want to be a part of the Jez revolution but can’t get your head around the ever-developing terminology. Perhaps you are eyeing up a safe seat but aren’t sure which paramilitary cell’s endorsement would most impress the selection panel.  Help is at hand with this guide that takes you through the key terms of Corbynspeak.  Gammon: Self-righteous middle-aged man who voted Leave, thinks everything was better back in the Seventies, and doesn’t get along with ethnic minorities. Deployed, boldly, by fans of Jeremy Corbyn. Prosciutto: Blairite

The ‘Gammon’ insult is typical of Corbynista intolerance

Imagine referring to a whole section of society as meat. As mere flesh, bereft of sentience. It used to be hardcore racists who did that, to black people. Now it’s Corbynistas who do it, to that swarm of people they despise more than any other: lower middle-class or working-class white men, usually of middle age, probably lacking university education, and possessed of points of view that make the well-connected haughty youths of the Corbyn machine dry-heave in horror. These men from the lower-down parts of society are ‘gammons’, according to Corbynistas. Nothing better captures the lack of self-awareness of the largely bourgeois youths who make up the Corbyn crew than

Jeremy Corbyn had a bad night – but the Tories still have much to fear from the left

It’s a bit mean to accuse the Tories of cynical expectations management, as Jeremy Corbyn has just done. Their panic was quite genuine. I’ve spoken to a great many Tories over the last few weeks, and none would have been so bold as to predict today’s results. Rallings & Thrasher had expected the Tories to lose 75 seats in aggregate, and so far they’re about flat. Given the awful time that Theresa May has had recently, it’s not a bad result. It was, as Tory chairman Brandon Lewis has said, a ‘reasonable’ night. But the fact that such a close result is described as ‘reasonable’ shows how far things have

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn attacks Tory local election spin

If you want to know how last night was for the Labour Party, you need to look no further than the statement that Jeremy Corbyn has just released on the results. It is not a celebratory comment on Labour’s spectacular night, but a defensive one, describing the local elections as a ‘solid set of results’. He adds: ‘In a sign of how worried they are about Labour’s advance, the Tories talked up our chances to unrealistic levels, especially in London. The results show they’re right to be worried – we came within a whisker of winning Wandsworth for the first time in over 40 years.’ Corbyn is right, by the

London shows that the more voters get to know Corbyn, the less they like him

It was always possible, I wrote a month ago, that the London elections would show voters baulking for the first time at the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn in power, especially after the protests in Westminster against anti-Semitism. That hasn’t quite happened: it seems there has been a slight swing to Labour in the capital, unlike the rest of the country. But fears of a Tory bloodbath in London – of Corbynistas and Sadiq Khan supporters painting the town red – were misplaced. The Tories have kept hold of their crown jewel boroughs: Westminster, Wandsworth, Kensington and Chelsea. Remarkably, they have even taken back control of Barnet, in north London, which

The Maybot returns at PMQs

Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions saw the Maybot reactivated. Jeremy Corbyn decided to lead the session on the fallout from the Windrush row, widening out his questions to the flaws in the hostile environment policy on illegal immigration, and on who was to blame for these flaws being apparent but not fixed for so long. The exchanges very swiftly became a ding-dong between May and Corbyn as to whose fault the creation of a hostile environment policy actually was. Corbyn wanted to pin the policy on May, but also demanded that Amber Rudd resign for aiming to harden the policy. His questions were decent, but it was May herself who created