Jeremy corbyn

Monday

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

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Labour’s conference, day one: The Spectator guide

Jeremy Corbyn promised to wipe the slate clean following Labour’s fractious leadership race. Now that he’s officially clinched victory, it’s time for the party to try and do just that at Labour’s annual conference, which kicks off at 11am today. Here, The Spectator has put together a guide of the main events to look out for. This is what’s on today: 11am: Labour’s conference starts The NEC’s chair Paddy Lillis speaks shortly afterwards Fringe events: 5.30pm: The Big Debate: Labour and the economy in Brexit Britain Speakers include: Chuka Umunna; Ed Miliband; Lisa Nandy; Rachel Reeves 6pm: Stop Trident Fringe Meeting Speakers include: Kate Hudson, General Secretary of the CND; John McDonnell; Diane Abbott 6pm:

Philip Collins

What Jeremy Corbyn can learn from Clement Attlee

History teaches no lessons but we insist on trying to learn from it. There is no political party more sentimental than the Labour party. The stone monument of Labour history is Clement Attlee’s 1945–51 administration, so any biography of the great man is, inevitably, an intervention into the present state of the party, even if it comes supported with all the best scholarly apparatus. The last major biography of Attlee was Kenneth Harris’s official work, more than 30 years ago, in 1982. There is a neat symmetry to the fact that Harris was writing during the last occasion that the Labour party decided to join hands and walk off a

Saturday

James Forsyth

Now Corbyn has triumphed, Labour’s real civil war begins

Jeremy Corbyn has never been in a stronger position as Labour leader than he is today. A leadership contest that was meant to topple—or at the least, weaken him—has ended up solidifying his position. His Labour critics came for him, and he defeated them. He garnered 61.8 percent of the vote in this leadership contest, even more than he received last year. He won a majority among full members, something he just failed to do in the first round last time. He can, justifiably, say that the Labour membership have seen the leadership he is offering, and voted for more of it. Corbyn might have said, to his critics, ‘let’s

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Goodbye Labour. For the life of me, I cannot see how you can recover

Those of us on the left can all too easily imagine how our political rivals felt when watching Jeremy Corbyn’s latest victory speech. English Conservatives and Scottish Nationalists do not wake at 3 a.m., drenched in sweat, worrying about how they can defeat him. Like a drunk who punches his own face, Corbyn beats himself, leaving Labour’s rivals free to do what they will. For English leftists, however, trying to salvage what they can from the wreckage of their party, the apparently simple question of how to take on the far left appears impossible to answer. Commentators throw around the ‘far left’ label without stopping to ask what it means. You begin

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn wins the Labour leadership again, with a stronger majority

As expected, Jeremy Corbyn has just beaten Owen Smith in the Labour leadership race with 62pc of the vote, higher last year’s 60pc. So this means he has redoubled his authority – and probably his reach within the structures of the party as moderate members shrug their shoulders and give up. ‘Let’s wipe the slate clean from today,’ he said in his victory speech – something intended to sound emollient, but could have just as easily sounded like a threat. Isabel Hardman and Marcus Roberts discuss Corbyn’s victory on Coffee House shots Overall Corbyn beat Smith in every category, receiving 313,209 votes while his rival amassed just 193,229. Among members, Owen Smith received his highest

James Forsyth James Forsyth

This Labour leadership contest has represented an intellectual surrender to Corbynism

The Labour leadership result isn’t announced until 11.45am today. But whatever the result—and no one seems in much doubt what it will be, this contest has represented an intellectual surrender to Jeremy Corbyn and the ideology he represents. Isabel Hardman and Marcus Roberts discuss Corbyn’s victory on Coffee House shots I argue in The Sun this morning, that his opponents surrendered right at the start of the contest. Owen Smith was offered up as a more competent and media savvy leader rather than as the antidote to Corbynism. Smith himself emphasised that the party owed Corbyn ‘a debt of gratitude for helping Labour rediscover its radical roots’. He stressed, ‘I am

Friday

Isabel Hardman

What will Labour MPs do once Jeremy Corbyn is re-elected?

Tomorrow just before noon, Jeremy Corbyn is set to be crowned leader of the Labour party for a second time, possibly, according to insiders, with an even bigger mandate than the one he’s spent the past year waving at his own party. And after months of resignations, fighting, and a leadership contest where the challenger failed to capture the Labour membership’s imagination, Labour MPs are considering what they should do now. Their options are as follows: 1. Leave the party, either by defecting to another or setting themselves up as an independent Labour MP on the benches in the Commons. There is no suggestion that any MP is seriously considering

Thursday

Tristram Hunt

Diary – 22 September 2016

‘Are you here to seek political asylum?’ asked a clever young student after my lecture at the National University of Singapore. It has certainly not been a great start to the political year: the Boundary Commission abolished my constituency and Jeremy Corbyn’s office declared me a ‘non-person’ by placing me on a list of 13 undesirable MPs deemed to have insulted the Dear Leader. In many ways, Singapore felt a good place to be. Here the role of the Workers’ party is not really to challenge the ruling People’s Action party for power: they play the part of perpetual opposition. Which is eerily close to where Labour is heading. The

Toby Young Toby Young

What’s right about Momentum Kids

Forgive me if I don’t get too worked up about Momentum Kids. For those who haven’t been following Labour’s internal politics too closely, Momentum is a Trotskyist faction within the party that was instrumental in getting Jeremy Corbyn elected last year and, barring an upset, re-elected this weekend. Momentum claims the main purpose of its new kiddie wing, will cater to three-year-olds and upwards, is to offer childcare facilities to women so they can get more involved in campaigning. But it also acknowledges that Momentum Kids will play an ‘educational’ role. ‘Let’s create a space for questioning, curious children where we can listen to them and give them a voice,’

Tim Connolly

Corbyn’s NHS plans reveal why Labour is doomed

The NHS was the defining issue of the Labour leadership campaign because both candidates knew it had the power to get their supporters fired-up. But only Jeremy Corbyn wilfully ignores the differences between his supporters and the wider electorate. His post-election flagship policy, after all, is the removal of private sector involvement in the NHS. And with the thoughtful, dispassionate hand of shadow health secretary Diane Abbott grasping the rudder, Labour’s course appears well and truly set. Unfortunately for the dwindling part of the Labour party still keen on governing, voters – as opposed to Labour activists – don’t actually tend to care whether they are looked after by the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Jeremy Corbyn promises to ‘wipe the slate clean’

Yesterday evening, Jeremy Corbyn released a statement saying that: ‘As far as I am concerned, the slate will be wiped clean this weekend’. He promises, if re-elected, to ‘reach out and work with all Labour MPs to form a broad and effective opposition’. The statement shows how confident the Corbyn camp are of winning, I haven’t found anyone in the last few days who doesn’t think he has won and relatively comfortably. It is fair to say, though, that not all of his critics will take this supposed peace offering at face value. Word is that we shall see some of those who resigned return to the front bench once

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The party’s over

This leadership contest was meant to topple Jeremy Corbyn, or at the very least weaken him. It has ended up strengthening him. The Corbynites will be now emboldened to go after all those who stand in their way, from the general secretary and the deputy leader to party staff and regional organisers. They are tightening their grip over the party from top to bottom, something the Blairites never did. Alarmingly for the moderates, the party could be beyond saving by 2020. Even the Parliamentary Labour Party, a bastion against Corbynism, could be pushed hard to the left at the next election. Candidate selection will enable Momentum and co. to oust some of

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Corbyn has won – again. This could be the end of the Labour party

Those of us on the left should imagine how our political rivals felt when watching Jeremy Corbyn’s latest victory speech. English Conservatives and Scottish Nationalists do not wake at 3 a.m., drenched in sweat, worrying about how they can defeat Jeremy Corbyn. Like a drunk who punches his own face, Corbyn beats himself, leaving Labour’s rivals free to do what they will. For English leftists, however, trying to salvage what they can from the wreckage of their party, the apparently simple question of how to take on the far left appears impossible to answer. Commentators throw around the ‘far left’ label without stopping to ask what it means. You begin to