Jeremy corbyn

All political parties are a mess: coalitions of people with different beliefs, stitched together — like Frankenstein’s monster — into a body that can grunt coherently, and perhaps even achieve something. Most of the time, these bodies lumber about reasonably effectively, if a little clumsily. But every so often, as now, when the political system is in turmoil, the suturing starts to bulge and everything seems at risk of coming apart. Such is the case with the Labour party which may soon be torn asunder — or give way to a new grouping called the Co-operative party. There’s a certain degree of logic to this. If Jeremy Corbyn has captured

This morning Jeremy Corbyn has woken up to find his face plastered across the front pages of the Daily Mail and the Times following ‘traingate‘. After Corbyn appeared in a video calling for the railways to be re-nationalised while sitting on the floor of a ‘ram-packed’ Virgin train, the company hit back. On Tuesday, Richard Branson’s team released a press release and CCTV footage which appears to show that Corbyn did have a seat after all. As the media feasted on the footage yesterday, Corbyn’s team first dismissed the claims as a ‘lie’ before offering an alternative account several hours later. Now with the spin machine firmly back in action, the Labour leader’s campaign manager appeared on Today for an

As the internet goes into meltdown over the news that Jeremy Corbyn may have had a seat after all when he filmed a video claiming he did not, it appears that the Labour leader hasn’t done much to help his cause. While his campaign team claim that Virgin Train’s CCTV footage is a ‘lie’, Corbyn can at least take heart that the cameras appear to have been working. Back in 2012, he complained in Parliament about ‘inoperative’ CCTV cameras on the rail network, during a debate on funding for Transport for London: ‘We also do it from the point of view of station safety, because, in the days when not enough staff were at

After Sadiq Khan declared that he would not get involved in the Labour leadership contest, the Mayor of London had a change of heart over the weekend and penned a piece for the Observer endorsing Owen Smith. Corbyn’s supporters have not taken this well — even re-circulating Mr S’s story about Khan attending Rupert Murdoch’s summer drinks party to suggest that he is a wrong’un. Meanwhile at a pro-Corbyn rally in London last night, thousands of supporters took things up a gear as they let their new-found feelings on the Muslim son of a bus driver be known. Despite Khan’s recent election as mayor, attendees started booing at the very mention of his name: Sadiq Khan –

Sadiq Khan’s endorsement of Owen Smith is rather handy for the ailing Labour leadership contender, given Khan is one of the few Labour politicians who has actually won something: that something being the largest personal mandate of any politician. This enormous mandate is rather handy when Jeremy Corbyn starts waving his own huge mandate about, but it may not be attractive enough for Labour members, who largely seem besotted by the idea of Corbyn as leader. Yesterday Labour moderates were infuriated by the Corbyn camp’s email telling Labour members that ‘they’ (a wonderful pronoun that British people use to refer variously to someone in authority who is making things difficult,

It’s tough being a part of the Labour coup. Even though you’ve plotted behind the party leader’s back and are now supporting a challenger, it’s important to remain on civil terms. That must be why Jack Dromey cut an interview short about the need to replace Jeremy Corbyn to… greet Jeremy Corbyn. I'm interviewing @JackDromeyMP at labour leadership hustings and this happens! @ITVCentral @itvnews pic.twitter.com/7qPcEGXpkb — Alison Mackenzie (@Alison1mackITV) August 18, 2016 The smiling pair enjoyed a friendly chat, with Corbyn welcoming Dromey with open arms. Mr S suspects the Corbynistas may have a point when it comes to today’s politicians lacking integrity.

With Labour’s list of all-male mayoral candidates announced last week, there has been some speculation that the potential loss of Andy Burnham to Manchester and Steve Rotheram to Liverpool will spell disaster for the Commons football team. While this of course hinges on both MPs being successful in their efforts, Mr S understands that should victory beckon Corbyn will have a far more pressing matter on his hands. As well as losing the shadow Home Secretary, the Labour leader would have to go without the man who preps him for PMQs. Since Rotherham was appointed as Jeremy Corbyn’s chief aide in September he has taken on a hands-on role assisting with speech writing and — most

Victoria Derbyshire seemed very anxious as Labour’s two-hour-long hustings between Owen Smith and Jeremy Corbyn wore on this morning to move the debate away from the many internal messes that the party is in (Jewish members not feeling safe any more, online abuse, the chasm between the PLP and the membership: you name it, they covered it) and onto policy. At first, it wasn’t entirely clear why the programme’s producers had been so worried about covering policy: there is barely a cigarette paper between Corbyn and Smith, and that’s exactly how the challenging candidate wants it. The only big points of disagreement are on Trident renewal and the odd £0.5bn

Another honours list comes and goes and yet again my name is not on it. I don’t think either the Prime Minister or Jeremy Corbyn realises the hurt that this flagrant oversight engenders, both in myself and of course in my public. For countless years I have tried, selflessly, to make the world a better place, to illuminate the poor and the downtrodden with the light of love. I have endeavoured, wherever I can, in my own way, to bring comfort to the sick — not only those who are physically infirm, but also mentals. And yet — nothing, nix. More pertinently, with regard to the latest honours list from

We are still not entirely sure when the Labour leadership contest will end, but in these dusty days of recess, it is certainly keeping everyone nicely busy. Today Owen Smith received a boost from trade union GMB, which decided to endorse his bid to take over from Jeremy Corbyn. Its members voted 60-40 to endorse Smith, and General Secretary Tim Roache said ‘GMB members cannot afford for Labour to be talking to itself in a bubble for the next five years while the Tories run riot through out rights at work, our public services and our communities’. This drew yet another combative – and slightly curious – response from Team

Isabel Hardman and Lara Prendergast discuss what’s next for Labour: Could Labour hold its autumn conference without a confirmed leader? The party’s QC is to appeal this morning’s High Court decision that it cannot have a six month freeze date for members voting in the leadership contest, and this could delay the contest between Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith. Five new Labour members won their case against the party’s application of a six month freeze on eligibility to vote. If the election is delayed, and Labour has no leader in the autumn, which is when political parties and leaders traditionally fire up their grassroots and show how strong their authority

Thoughtful writing about the Corbyn phenomenon is not just impossible to find, it is impossible to imagine. Admirers live in a land of make believe as closed to the rest of the world as North Korea. They barely know how to explain themselves to outsiders because they cannot imagine any honourable reason for outsiders disagreeing with them. Disputes with ‘Jeremy’  must be the result of ideological contamination – you have become or, perhaps secretly always have been, a ‘Tory’ or ‘Blairite’ – financial corruption  – you have sold out – or racial corruption – you are a ‘Zionist’. My colleague Janice Turner of the Times posted a copy of a

Brits sometimes think that ‘personality politics’ is a bad thing. Jeremy Corbyn has certainly suggested as much; just before he won the Labour leadership last September, he dismissed the concept as juvenile and egoistic. Instead, he said: ‘We are not doing celebrity, personality or abusive politics – this is about hope.’ But although Corbyn has stuck to that belief, he’s wrong – and a big part of his problem is not realising that. While some say the idea of personality politics is an American import, in reality Brits have been doing it for decades. Take Harold Wilson’s advisers planting hecklers at TV hustings so the Labour leader could deploy his best put-down lines. That was in