Jeremy corbyn

Friday

Tom Goodenough

‘Labour at war’: Papers make miserable reading for Corbyn as Ken row rumbles on

The Labour party knew that the row over Ken Livingstone’s suspension was not going to disappear overnight. And this morning’s papers show that this story will be bubbling along for some time. All of this comes at a dreadful time for Labour with just days to go until Britain goes to the polls. In particular, it will be interesting to see how these front pages could have an impact on London’s mayoral race. Sadiq Khan has acted swiftly to distance himself from what happened. But with this very public row not likely to go anywhere any time soon, whether this undermining of Labour’s credibility affects Khan remains to be seen.

Thursday

Douglas Murray

Labour’s anti-Semitism problem stems from its grassroots

If I were the Conservative party I’d be getting worried: Labour’s implosion is happening too fast. At this rate they could fall apart and regroup in time to go into the next election with a respectable leader. Everybody knows the latest developments. Naz Shah MP was found to have said some anti-Semitic things on social media. After some bitter internal wrangling she was suspended from the party. Fellow MP Rupa Huq tried to come to her defence and compared anti-Semitism to any old mishap. And then Ken Livingstone smoothed it all over by talking about which of Hitler’s policies he thinks Zionists agree with. The low-point today was probably the

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Today in audio: Ken’s day to forget

Ken Livingstone has been suspended by the Labour party after plonking himself firmly at the centre of the anti-Semitism row by once again stepping in to defend Naz Shah. The former London mayor said the Labour MP’s remarks were ‘over-the-top but they were not anti-Semitic’. During his interview with Vanessa Feltz, he added: ‘Let’s remember when Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism and this was before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews.’ Next up for Ken was the Daily Politics show, in which he tried again to defend his remarks. Ken

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Ken Livingstone suspended by Labour

Ken Livingstone has been suspended by Labour after wading in to defend Naz Shah in the anti-Semitism row. Labour officials finally stepped in following comments made by Ken on the BBC earlier today in which he declared that saying the ‘Jews are rallying’ was not an anti-Semitic remark. A spokesman for Labour said: ‘Ken Livingstone has been suspended by the Labour party, pending an investigation, for bringing the party into disrepute.’ Instead of keeping a low profile following his blundering appearance on the Vanessa Feltz show, Ken spent the morning touring the studios, acting in the words of Labour MP Wes Streeting ‘like a political arsonist’. It’s hard to disagree

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Labour’s halfwits have revealed their anti-Semitic side

My guess is that the people who voted for Naz Shah at the last election think she did not go anywhere near far enough in her comments about transporting Jews. Ms Shah is, somehow, still the MP for Bradford West, a seat she yanked from under the feet of someone we had all assumed had the votes of anti-Semites in the constituency sewn up. This is problem number one, for Labour. The loathing of Israel, and concomitant anti-Semitism, among its core Muslim vote is implacable. But problem number two is that Labour’s white middle-class metro liberal halfwits, of which Jeremy Corbyn is undoubtedly a member, are also disposed towards anti-Semitism. They

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Jeremy Corbyn must now confront Labour’s anti-Semitism problem

What is being said by senior figures in the Labour party about anti-Semitism at the moment is as depressing as it is jaw dropping. On the Today programme this morning, the Labour MP Rupa Huq—who went to Cambridge University—tried to play down the whole Naz Shah issue. She argued that sharing these kind of vile posts on Facebook was no big deal and not much different from her mocking Boris on Twitter for getting stuck on a zip-wire. She said that Shah had been subject to ‘trial by Twitter’. If this was not bad enough, Ken Livingstone then went on BBC London to say that declaring that the ‘Jews are

Steerpike Steerpike

Tommy Corbyn pays a visit to ‘Corbyn the musical’

This week there have been two rival Corbyn dramas being played out across London. In Westminster, the Labour leader struggles to get a grip on the anti-Semitism crisis taking over his party, while over in Waterloo Corbyn faces a nuclear dilemma. While both seem fantastical, unfortunately only one is make believe. Corbyn the Musical: the Motorcycle Diaries — written by Rupert Myers and Bobby Friedman — imagines Corbyn facing a nuclear crisis, and also offers a take on what may have gone on when Corbyn and Diane Abbott are said to have gone on a motorcycle holiday in the 1970s. Despite much media interest, Corbyn is yet to attend the show. However, Mr S can disclose that one

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

The Spectator podcast: When the right goes wrong

To subscribe to The Spectator’s weekly podcast, for free, visit the iTunes store or click here for our RSS feed. Alternatively, you can follow us on SoundCloud. Is crazy all the rage in today’s politics and are conservatives going a little bit mad? That’s the topic for this week’s Spectator cover piece in which Freddy Gray argues that in America and in Britain, the right is tearing itself apart. Whilst Brits might be busy pointing and laughing at Donald Trump, all over the world conservatism is having a nervous breakdown, says Freddy. And the EU referendum is starting to prove that British Conservatives can be as barmy as everyone else.

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Jeremy Corbyn’s reluctance to suspend Naz Shah was revealing

Naz Shah has now been suspended by the Labour party over the anti-Semitic comments she made before she became an MP. The statement from the Labour party says that Shah has been suspended by ‘mutual agreement’ between her and Corbyn. This comes just after Buzzfeed alleged that Shah’s apology for her remarks had been toned down by the Labour party, with references to the problem of anti-Semitism on the left removed. Shah’s comments reveal just how alarmingly widespread anti-Semitic views now are. Jeremy Corbyn’s initial refusal to suspend her indicated that he was not prepared to take this problem as seriously as he should, This suspension by ‘mutual agreement’, which has

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour accused of editing Naz Shah’s apology to remove references to anti-Semitism

It’s finally happened. Over 24 hours after news first broke of Naz Shah sharing anti-Semitic posts online, the Labour MP has been suspended. While Labour say this is by ‘mutual agreement’, the move comes after several apologies from Shah — and quite a long silence from Corbyn. However, the use of the term ‘mutual agreement’ is of particular intrigue in light of revelations from Buzzfeed. The website reports that Shah had her personal apology diluted after her team sent it to party officials to be approved. In Shah’s original draft, she is said to have written: ‘I helped promote anti-Semitic tropes. This was totally wrong’. However, this along with another mention of anti-Semitism was

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

PMQs Sketch: The high horse comes out cantering

PMQs kicked off with a big fuss about improvements to our world-beating education system. To academise or not to academise? Corbo wants to let good-or-outstanding schools be good-or-outstanding. Cameron says good-or-outstanding schools can become even more good-or-outstanding. Both leaders prefer to ignore Ofsted’s lower grades, ‘inadequate’, and ‘requires improvement’. Rightly so. No one else recognises these cold and impersonal classifications. The average citizen uses a system based on the sight of a uniformed teenager on the street. ‘Safe to ignore’, ‘pass with caution’, ‘armed and feral’ or ‘requires imprisonment’. Today’s exchanges were marked by moral panic and an outbreak of high-horse fever. Cameron started it with a premeditated dig at

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

Labour’s Lisa Nandy suggests that Naz Shah should be suspended from the party

Labour’s Lisa Nandy has just been on the Daily Politics, where she suggested that Naz Shah should be suspended from the party. When asked about Bradford West MP Naz Shah’s comments about Israel,  Nandy told Jo Coburn that the Labour party should ‘suspend anybody who makes anti-Semitic comments in line with our policy and investigate it’. She said: ‘We have a policy that people who make anti-Semitic remarks are suspended and an investigation carried out…and the policy ought to be followed without any exception.’ ‘There has to be a suspension and an investigation when something like this occurs because it is so serious and it does have a knock-on effect

Friday

Steerpike

Julian Fellowes on ‘class hatred’ and Corbyn’s Labour

Although Julian Fellowes recently promised to take a backseat in the EU debate after growing tired of celebrities telling people what to do, he is still able to grace us with his thoughts on Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour. In an interview with BA High Life, the Conservative peer — and Downton Abbey writer — discusses the current state of the Labour party. The Conservative peer says he is upset by the ‘real seething jealousy’ at the heart of politics today: ‘It strikes me that as long as people are reasonably responsible in trying to do their best in terms of their own lives, there’s no reason for this permanent encouragement to class hatred.’

Thursday

Steerpike

Watch: Jeremy Corbyn suggests the Queen is a secret Gooner

Although Jeremy Corbyn’s aides refused to confirm whether he would give a tribute to the Queen on her 90th birthday, the Labour leader did manage to put his republican tendencies to one side today in order to mark the happy occasion. After wishing Her Majesty a happy birthday, he went on to give his football team Arsenal a plug. Corbyn said that many locals believe that Her Majesty is actually a secret Gooner — pointing to the fact that the Queen’s coronation drive went through Islington, key Arsenal territory ‘Now we know the Queen is absolutely above politics. She may be above football too. But many locals harbour this quiet secret view

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

The Jezza effect

Corbyn the Musical feels like it comes from the heart. Did the writers live through the 1970s when the hard-left was full of hope and confidence? Socialists then genuinely believed they could see off capitalism (which seemed in its death throes anyway) and replace it with a happier and more equal world. The show takes that objective seriously and attacks it with style, wit and affection. Young Jezza is portrayed as a sweet-natured bumbler entranced by an ideology he barely understands. He expresses his political dreams in terms of manhole covers and allotment vegetables. With his racy girlfriend, Diane Abbott, he sets off on a motorbike tour of East Germany,

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

PMQs Sketch: The Tories have redefined the term ‘manifesto’

Does Cameron care any more? Insouciance is a more attractive quality than earnestness in a leader but Cameron is taking his demob-happiness to extremes. He dismisses every crisis with a bored eye-roll and a wave of the hand. Doctors strike? No big deal. Backbench revolt over education? Been there before. Dodgy dossier on Brexit? All forgotten by the summer. Tax evasion scandal? A scrap of signed paperwork will sort it. Corbyn attacked Tory plans to academise schools against their will. This is the same freedom-at-gunpoint policy that worked so well in Iraq and transformed a malign dictatorship into a thrusting modern democracy. Cameron believes that cattle-prodding schools into accepting autonomy

James Forsyth James Forsyth

PMQs: David Cameron brings up Sadiq Khan’s extremist links

Today’s PMQs was a reminder that the old fashioned approach of detailed, forensic questioning on a single topic works best. Jeremy Corbyn delivered his best performance as leader of the opposition today, questioning David Cameron on why all schools will have to become academies. He skilfully exploited Tory splits over the issue. The relative silence from the Tory benches did nothing to shake the impression that this is a policy in trouble; which is a pity given that too many local authorities continue to exert a negative influence on education. But the most heated moment of the session came later when Cameron started talking about Sadiq Khan having shared a platform

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: David Cameron wades into Labour’s McDonald’s row – ‘I’m lovin’ it’

This week Jeremy Corbyn has faced an MPs’ revolt over the Labour party’s decision to ban McDonald’s from having a stall at its party conference. A number of MPs have accused the Labour leader of snobbery, while Corbyn’s spokesman has had to admit that he does not know what the vegetarian Labour leader could even eat at the popular fast food chain. Happily one person is at least enjoying the ongoing row. David Cameron brought up Labour’s misfortune at PMQs. He explained that he had at first thought the party were banning John McDonnell from Labour conference, before realising it was something much worse. He added that he was “lovin'” the row, in

Tuesday

Mathieu Vaillancourt

Jeremy Corbyn’s McDonald’s boycott shows he’s a terrible snob

What has Jeremy Corbyn got against McDonald’s? He wants to block the fast-food chain from having an outlet at the Labour party conference, a position which has been blasted by quite a few MPs in his party, who presumably enjoy a Big Mac every now and then. It raises a more serious question though. According to their website, McDonald’s employ about 85,000 people in the UK. Most of these workers are voters. Add to that the number of British people who dine at McDonald’s – which must be in the millions – and you start to see why Corbyn’s McBoycott has gone down badly. Is snobbism behind it? Possibly. McDonald’s working conditions may not be the best in the labour market, but are they really

Steerpike Steerpike

Did Zac Goldsmith pick up some tips on tackling extremism from Yvette Cooper?

During last night’s BBC mayoral debate, Zac Goldsmith was asked whether he had run a racist campaign against Sadiq Khan — following negative press surrounding the Labour candidate’s links to extremists. After Khan found himself under fire for sharing platforms with characters like Suliman Gani, as well as for his work for Louis Farrakhan — the man who claimed Hitler was a ‘very great man’ — Labour’s Yvette Cooper complained that the Tories’ mayoral campaign amounts to racism: ‘It’s time to call it out for what it really is before it gets worse. What started as a subtle dog-whistle is becoming a full-blown racist scream.’ However, Cooper hasn’t always appeared to hold such strong views when it comes