Jeremy corbyn

Wednesday

Tom Goodenough

Labour conference, day four: The Spectator guide

Jeremy Corbyn’s conference speech will be the highlight – or lowlight (depending on your perspective) – of the day as the curtain comes down at Labour’s annual conference. The party has largely managed to put on a brave face and display of unity during its annual gathering. But there is still time for that facade to all come crashing down as Corbyn closes the conference. Here’s what on today: Main conference: 9am: Policy seminars 2.15pm: Jeremy Corbyn gives his keynote speech Fringe events: 9am: Labour women’s network – what next for women in the party, politics and public space? Labour women’s network 12.30pm: Securing the future: what will reverse the rise on

Tuesday

Steerpike

Is Seumas Milne about to be shown the back door?

Oh dear. It’s not been a great conference for Seumas Milne. Jeremy Corbyn’s director of comms managed to make himself the story this week after he altered Clive Lewis’s speech on Trident at the last minute. The shadow Defence Secretary was said to be so angry over the changes that he punched a wall after the speech. So, Mr S was curious to hear a rumour swirling around Labour conference this evening. The talk of conference is that Milne’s departure is imminent with suggestions his last day could be as soon as Friday. While sources close to Milne insist to Mr S that this is not the case, several party insiders are

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Man bites dog as Corbyn tells Labour members: I want to win an election

Jeremy Corbyn’s conference speech includes the normally unremarkable but currently remarkable assertion that he wants Labour to win the next election. Given the debate that has raged within the Labour party over the past few months about purity vs power, that the re-elected Labour leader is saying this at all is significant. He will say tomorrow that he expects a general election next year and that ‘we expect all our members to support that effort, and we will be ready whenever it comes’. Some Labour MPs will point out that this will require a dramatic shift from some members who haven’t yet delivered any party leaflets but are still threatening

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Labour is dying. Time to move on

Still enveloped in their bubble of iridescent adolescent phlegm, the Labour Party now stands at 26 per cent in the latest opinion polls. Below the figure achieved under Michael Foot’s leadership in the 1983 general election, usually regarded as the lowest of all low points for the party. And Foot was battling against a Prime Minister who had just won a very popular war, as well as against a credible new party, the SDP. Labour do not know how much trouble they are in, even now. It is very difficult to see a way out for the sensible or fairly sensible Labour members, especially the MPs. Pray that Corbyn fails while desperately

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Labour moderates find a glimmer of conference hope

Labour’s conference has just waved through a raft of reforms which look set to tip the balance of power on the party’s National Executive Committee away from Jeremy Corbyn and towards the moderates. The wording of the changes which caused the trouble is pretty banal: that the leader of the Scottish and Welsh Labour parties will be able to pick someone to sit on the NEC. But while this might sound like a piecemeal change, make no mistake: this is a blow to Corbyn. The change means that Kezia Dugdale or Carwyn Jones can now either take up their seats, or pick someone else to sit on the NEC (Dugdale

Katy Balls 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

Tom Goodenough 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 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

Tom Goodenough 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

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 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

Isabel Hardman 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

Tom Goodenough 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

Sunday

Isabel Hardman

How long will the brittle peace at Labour’s conference survive?

Labour conference is now firmly underway in Liverpool, as is the ‘World Transformed’ festival organised by Corbynite grassroots organisation Momentum. Labour MPs and long-time activists are wandering about in a state of bewilderment at the change forged in their party over the past year, perhaps best embodied by the joyful appearance of former Militant bigwig Derek Hatton in the conference hall. Hatton was wearing a press pass, which will leave Corbynistas bewildered: aren’t they supposed to hate journalists? Everyone is trying to appear to be terribly nice to one another now that Corbyn has his even bigger mandate. Conversations between members of different factions rather resemble the afternoon tea scene

Steerpike Steerpike

WATCH: Tristram Hunt lays into Corbyn at Progress rally

Well that didn’t last long. After Jeremy Corbyn was re-elected as Labour leader on Saturday, Corbyn sceptic MPs appeared to put their differences to one side as they took to the airwaves to claim that Corbyn could be Prime Minister. At tonight’s Progress rally at conference, that facade was lifted. MPs including Liz Kendall and Ian Murray took to the stand to vow that they would not be pushed out of the party as they slammed the threat of deselection. However, it was Tristram Hunt’s speech that caught Mr S’s attention. The MP for Stoke-on-Trent, who wrote this week’s Spectator diary, clearly has no intention of taking Corbyn up on the offer of an

Steerpike Steerpike

Reason for cheer at Momentum’s rival conference

While the mood at Labour Conference is notably low this year, across town at Momentum’s ‘The World Transformed’ festival the crowd can be described as buzzing. Although Mr S’s taxi driver dropped him off while remarking that after the leadership result ‘the Monster Raving Loony party has as much chance of winning power as Labour’, the attendees at the Momentum event are in a jubilant mood now their leader has been returned. Well-to-do socialists are spending the day splashing out on ‘Tories are vermin’ mugs, reading the Morning Star and giving out leaflets explaining that the Jewish Labour Movement has ‘used the charge of anti-Semitism to attack the new movement’.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn’s fresh start doesn’t sound convincing

If Jeremy Corbyn set out in his Marr interview to reassure his critics in the Labour Party that this is the beginning of a new era for the leadership and the wider party, he didn’t do a great job. The Labour leader refused to rule out mandatory reselection of his MPs, saying that most of them would be fine. He ‘wished them well’ and said: ‘Let’s have a democratic discussion and I think the vast majority of MPs will have no problem whatsoever.’ Perhaps to some, that sounded reassuring. But what it actually says to the handful of MPs facing battles in their seats, such as Peter Kyle and Stella

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why there will be no new shadow Cabinet for weeks

Normally, a leadership election is followed by the leader appointing a new top team. But that won’t be happening in this case. Instead, a new shadow Cabinet will have to wait for the Labour party to agree a new set of rules on how it should be selected. The problem is that many of those who resigned from the front bench over Corbyn’s leadership will only return if MPs are allowed to elect a section of the shadow Cabinet; the thinking—as Tristram Hunt writes in this week’s magazine — is that this would allow them ‘to return to work for Corbyn with honour’. But Corbyn isn’t keen on agreeing to

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Bust-up over influence of Scottish Labour

Now that Jeremy Corbyn has won, the fight moves to the jungle of Labour Party rules, regulations and procedures. Whoever controls these controls the party. Last Tuesday, for example, an eight-hour session of the party’s governing National Executive Committee (NEC) concluded that Scotland and Wales should each have their own member on the NEC. This seemed a bizarre, almost trivial outcome: so much argument and such a paltry outcome? The answer is simple: if the Corbynistas want to proceed with a purge of the Labour Party they’ll need a majority on the 33-member NEC. At present, power is balanced – but if there were Scottish and Welsh members then the