Jeremy corbyn

Tuesday

Ross Clark

Is Jeremy Corbyn really out to help the poor?

Is Jeremy Corbyn really out to help the poor – or just to entice the middle classes into his big socialist tent? I ask because the more you examine the manifesto he keeps waving before the television cameras, the more it seems to be designed around giving benefits to the better-off. These won’t come without cost, of course – the better-off will also be paying for the benefits which Corbyn is dangling before their eyes, in the form of higher income taxes, and possibly new wealth taxes, too. But for the moment, it seems to be the potential handouts which are making Labour headlines rather than the prospect of higher

Monday

Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn’s resignation U-turn

Although it’s Theresa May who has earned a reputation for performing U-turns, today Jeremy Corbyn has given the Prime Minister a run for her money. The Labour leader kicked off the day by boldly claiming that May ought to resign over cuts to police numbers, in light of recent terror attacks. Given that there’s an election in just three days, it was a peculiar statement from the man hoping to be prime minister come Friday. Perhaps that’s why Jeremy has since had a change of heart. In a tetchy interview with Sky News, Corbyn said he did not think May should resign three days before an election: Sky: Do you

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Jeremy Corbyn has transformed into a ruthless political operator

Jeremy Corbyn says that if he was Prime Minister, he would authorise the police to use ‘whatever force is necessary’ against terrorists. Is that true? Is he really ready to go back on decades of suspicion of the police, of hostility to the security forces of an imperialist British state? How can this be reconciled with the man who was so obviously unwilling to back the use of lethal force in that interview with Laura Kuenssberg that’s doing the rounds again. Jeremy Corbyn opposes ‘shoot to kill’ policy. Does he mean it? I have no idea. But the comment confirms that Mr Corbyn’s newfound political ruthlessness is the story of this

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

This election will be remembered as a triumph for the wealthy

This dismal, unnecessary election, conducted between the scream of police sirens and the murders of civilians, will be remembered for one thing only: the dementia tax. In years to come, political pros will shake their heads at the naivety of Theresa May. She appeared invincible, they will say. All she had to do was to keep quiet, turn up and she would win a landslide victory. Then she faced one of the great questions of the day. Everyone says they want politicians to do that. Who has not exclaimed that they must stop listening to focus groups and be brave? May was, and see how she has suffered. The PM

Sunday

Stephen Daisley

Jeremy Corbyn has just given the best speech of the election campaign so far

Campaigning starts again tomorrow, but in his speech in Carlisle today Jeremy Corbyn made what is – for any Labour leader – a fairly obvious point: ‘You cannot protect the public on the cheap. The police and security services must get the resources they need not 20,000 police cuts. Theresa May was warned by the Police Federation but she accused them of “crying wolf”.’ In a radical departure for Corbyn, that is exactly what happened. In her now-famous lecture to the Police Federation conference in 2015, the then Home Secretary told an extremely hostile room: ‘I have to tell you that this kind of scaremongering does nobody any good – it doesn’t serve you,

Saturday

Carola Binney

Corbyn supporters are peddling ‘fake economics’

Labour have been up-in-arms this weekend about a viral Conservative campaign video, which used some dubious editing to suggest that Corbyn said ‘No’ when asked whether he would condemn the IRA. In fact, he said ‘No, I think what you have to say is all bombing has to be condemned and you have to bring about a peace process.’ This still doesn’t sound like a full-bodied condemnation, but, that aside, the Tory video still has far fewer views than a similarly dubious one by a Labour supporting group. The clip, entitled ‘We’re all in it together’ was uploaded by The People For Jeremy Corbyn, a grassroots organisation, last weekend. It features a

Hugo Rifkind Hugo Rifkind

Jeremy Corbyn’s one true virtue | 3 June 2017

Enough of all these vital, apocalyptic, existential elections. They don’t half wear you out. The Scottish referendum was vital and apocalyptic, so they said, because the wrong decision would have seen Britain crack like a plate, and Scotland spiral off into insane debt, and residual Britain fade in geopolitical importance. Or, on other side, Tory rule for a millennium, which no Scot could ever want. Hmmm. Then the 2015 election was vital and apocalyptic, too, because Ed Miliband… Ed Miliband… Hang on. What was the big problem with Ed Miliband? There definitely was one. Ah yes, his dad hated Britain. Also he was incompetent. Didn’t even know how many kitchens

Chris Mullin

Corbyn for PM? | 3 June 2017

‘The news that Harry Perkins was to become prime minister went down very badly in the Athenaeum.’ Thus begins my novel A Very British Coup, written 35 years ago and, with the narrowing gap in the opinion polls, suddenly topical again. Since Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader it has been reprinted twice and, earlier this year, an e-book promotion sold 2,500 copies in a single day. The hero of my novel, Harry Perkins, is a former Sheffield steel worker who was brought to life in a subsequent TV adaptation by that wonderful actor Ray McAnally. The platform on which he was elected was more radical than Corbyn’s, although some of

Friday

Katy Balls

Jeremy Corbyn hammered on defence in Question Time special

Tonight Jeremy Corbyn faced his toughest media appearance of the campaign as he took questions from a live studio audience in the Question Time Leaders Special. Although the audience appeared more favourable to him than Theresa May at first (with the Labour leader receiving a loud whoop as he entered the stage), the format actually ended up working against him. With audience members asking the questions rather than a presenter, Corbyn struggled to change the subject on uncomfortable topics and appeared rattled when pressed on his views on small businesses, Trident and the IRA. He also failed to alleviate Labour’s credibility problem when a voter asked him if Labour’s manifesto

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Corbyn bursts through 40 per cent in latest Ipsos Mori poll

Only a few weeks ago, the polls brought nothing but joy for the Tories. With just six days to go until election day, that’s no longer the case. An Ipsos MORI survey out today cuts the Conservative lead down to just five points. Labour’s support has burst through the 40 per cent mark – rising by six points since Ipsos MORI’s last poll on May 18th. The poll comes off the back of this week’s shock YouGov estimate, which suggested we could be heading for a hung Parliament. And YouGov’s updated election model for today doesn’t bring any better news for the Tories: it suggests that Theresa May will now fall

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Are we heading for a coalition of chaos?

Theresa May’s warnings about a ‘coalition of chaos’ used to sound like empty threats. Not any longer. Since the publication of this week’s YouGov poll which suggested we could be heading for a hung Parliament, the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn making it to No.10 suddenly seems less unbelievable than before. But if May does lose her majority, Corbyn would not be able to govern alone. Make no mistake, says the Sun: ‘Labour could not govern without a coalition with the SNP’. So whatever Jeremy Corbyn might say about his plan for governing – and Brexit-  there’s little doubt that it would be the Scots who ‘would call the shots’. The

Thursday

The Spectator

May’s mistakes

On the eve of the US presidential election, experts at Princeton university decided that Donald Trump had a 1 per cent chance of being elected. Before the last general election, Populus, the opinion poll firm, gave David Cameron a 0.5 per cent chance of winning a majority. Much is made of the need to look at ‘the data’ when considering political arguments, but so often it is a wildly inaccurate guess with a decimal point at the end to give an aura of scientific specificity. So when we read that Jeremy Corbyn has just a 17 per cent chance of becoming prime minister, this does not mean that the election is in

Stephen Bullivant

Labour’s abortion stance is the final straw

Well, that didn’t last long: in April, I rejoined the Labour Party. Last Sunday, I cancelled my subscription and cut up my membership card. Being part of the official opposition to a Tory Government, my conscience can live with; being the official opposition to the unborn, it cannot. I’ve always leaned towards backing Labour. And while my radicalism may have mellowed somewhat in my old age, I would certainly have voted for Jeremy Corbyn in the first leadership contest. So when the snap election was called, it seemed like an obvious move to put my money where my ballot is. But the first sign of trouble came almost immediately afterwards, when Labour’s

Nick Hilton Nick Hilton

The Spectator Podcast: General shambles

On this week’s episode we look ahead to the General Election, now just days away, and ask whether Theresa May might conceivably have blown her chances, or if Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister is still as unlikely as ever. And, for some light relief, we also be consider the role that handwriting plays in our digital society. First, the British public will be heading to the polls in just a week’s time, so we took a moment to reflect on the campaign so far. In his cover piece this week, James Forsyth decries the state of this election, saying that it has left Theresa May, particularly, in a weakened state. James joins

Julie Burchill Julie Burchill

Did Jeremy Corbyn forget to unlock Diane Abbott’s talent?

Reading Jeremy Corbyn’s latest election document on the perennially hot potato of race, it was hard to know whether to shudder or snigger. Hearing that only Corbyn ‘can be trusted to unlock the talent of black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people’, my dirty mind was irresistibly drawn to the story told in the recent biography of the Glorious Leader of how he ‘showed off’ a naked Diane Abbott to the rest of Chess Club – sorry, his comrades in the socialist struggle – way back in the street-fighting, free-loving 1970s. According to a helpful nark in Rosa Prince’s book Comrade Corbyn: ‘One Sunday autumn morning…we were out leafleting. And for

Patrick West

Sticking up a ‘Vote Labour’ placard is an exercise in virtue signalling

To judge by the number of Labour placards outside people’s houses at the moment, you’d be forgiven for thinking the party is heading for a romping victory. Sure, you will see some ‘Vote Conservative’ placards dotted about here and there. But for the most part, putting up political posters is now predominately a left-wing pastime. This is certainly the case in the urban heartlands of England’s three big cities, London, Birmingham and Manchester, where the rare Conservative posters that have made an appearance are often defaced or torn down. Perhaps surprisingly, ‘Vote Labour’ posters are most conspicuous in the wealthier parts of our cities. In Crouch End, a prosperous part of North London, you can’t

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Ignore all the bluster, the Tories will still win

This is the first general election since 1997 where I have not primarily been employed as a journalist, covering the story of the campaign and its participants. Of course, I’ve still been writing about it, but from a certain distance. I miss some of the peculiar entertainments of the political circus, and some of the freaks and wild animals that provide those entertainments. But by and large, it’s rather nice to be watching things from a little way off. Especially because that distance allows me to say things like this: a lot of journalists, and a lot of politicians (especially Conservative ones) have gone stark raving mad and are talking

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Should the Tories be panicking?

A YouGov poll suggesting we could be heading for a hung parliament caused a furore in Westminster yesterday – but should we believe it? The Times defends the estimate in its leader this morning, saying that while it’s right to treat the poll with ‘scepticism’, it says ‘the figures are based on interviews with many thousands of people and (uses) sophisticated statistical techniques’. The results might be ‘surprising’, the paper concedes, but that’s ‘precisely why they need to be scrutinised’. Admittedly, there are a few ‘caveats’: ‘the model takes only a snapshot’ – and voters ‘can still change their minds’. But one thing is clear: ‘the direction of travel’. The

Bruce Anderson

Rosé-tinted glasses

It was a typical bank holiday. Usual English weather: glorious, until you leave home without a brolly. Then fickleness supervenes — just like the opinion polls. I was pressed by anxious enquiries. ‘You’re supposed to know about these things. There’s no chance of Corbyn winning, surely?’ On the assumption that enough of the sovereign people are still in their right wits, I was able to sound reassuring. But as I did so, a memory came back: Quintin Hogg in 1964, proclaiming that anyone who voted Labour was stark, staring bonkers. These days, that would be called a gaffe. The once and future Lord Hailsham was famous for gaffes. As he

Chris Mullin

Corbyn for PM?

‘The news that Harry Perkins was to become prime minister went down very badly in the Athenaeum.’ Thus begins my novel A Very British Coup, written 35 years ago and, with the narrowing gap in the opinion polls, suddenly topical again. Since Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader it has been reprinted twice and, earlier this year, an e-book promotion sold 2,500 copies in a single day. The hero of my novel, Harry Perkins, is a former Sheffield steel worker who was brought to life in a subsequent TV adaptation by that wonderful actor Ray McAnally. The platform on which he was elected was more radical than Corbyn’s, although some of