Jeremy corbyn

The strange death of left-wing Euroscepticism

Jeremy Corbyn’s eye-swivelling about-face on the EU – he once wanted to leave, now he wants to stay – has become a source of mirth for Eurosceptics and a sign of hope for Europhiles. To the anti-EU lobby, the fact that Corbyn voted against staying in the common market in the 1975 referendum and against EU treaties as an MP, yet now wants us all to vote to stay in, shows what a slippery character he is. For the Brussels-loving brigade it confirms that even the most heathen of EU haters can see the light. The ‘sinner who repents’ – actual words used in the Guardian‘s editorial on the newly

Referendum camps try to enthuse voters as official campaign starts

Rather like the 2015 General Election campaign, the EU referendum campaign feels as though it has been going on rather a long time. And yet today is in fact only the start of the official ten-week campaign. There may be some in Westminster who are filled with great excitement at the thought of another ten weeks of bickering about who has the most negative campaign. But the campaigns do have the difficult challenge of motivating those who back them to get out and vote on the day, and endless fighting and negativity about negativity won’t quite do the trick. So today Boris Johnson is giving a speech in Salford in

Tax returns to boast about

As Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell whinge away about how rich David Cameron’s family is, they might consider that in the last six years he has funded schools ’n’ hospitals to the tune of £402,283. How much have they put in? Since wealthy ancient Athenians loved to boast about the vast sums they contributed via property taxes to the public benefit, they would have been amazed that Cameron did not long to reveal how rich he was. The 5th-century BC thinker Democritus argued that there was nothing like the rich giving to the poor to produce concord that strengthened the community. The Greek orator Hyperides (389–322 BC) pointed out that Athenians allowed statesmen

Hugo Rifkind

Cameron and Mugabe: spot the difference

It is not what Robert Mugabe would do. Calm down. These are ‘spiv Robert Mugabe antics’, said the Tory backbencher Nigel Evans, of the government’s alleged £9 million mailshot making the case for staying in the European Union. But no. They aren’t. If David Cameron was behaving like Robert Mugabe, then he wouldn’t just be sending a leaflet to your house. He’d be sending a gang of thugs to your house, who all claimed to have fought in the second world war and yet had an average age of about 22, and then they’d come into your house and make you leave your house, and say it was their house. And

PMQs Sketch: Cameron’s far-sighted statesmanship

A vandal smashing a window and calling it air conditioning. A mother marrying her son and declaring it a lesson in advanced sexual morality. A shoplifter caught with a chicken up his jumper and congratulating the store detectives on their commitment to property rights. That’s how David Cameron ducked the tax-abuse row at PMQs today. He basked in hypocrisy. He wallowed in smugness. He luxuriated in panic measures and called them far-sighted statesmanship. He chose to posture as the brilliant leader of a brilliant government whose brilliant new policy is to rip down the cloaks of secrecy that protect Britain’s tax-dodge paradises overseas. And he contrasted his zeal with the

James Forsyth

PMQs: Cameron mocks Corbyn for his late tax return

This time last week, you would have expected PMQs to be rowdy and extremely difficult for David Cameron. After all, he was on the back foot on tax and steel. But today’s session was actually remarkably dry as Jeremy Corbyn asked worthy and technical questions on tax and Britain’s overseas territories. Strikingly, Cameron felt confident enough to repeatedly mock Corbyn over his tax return, which was submitted late. Cameron will, I suspect, be relieved that the tax debate is now one of policy detail. Not only does it take the personal sting out of the issue, but it makes it harder for it to continue to command public attention—I feel

Today in audio: PM branded ‘dodgy Dave’ as tax row rumbles on

David Cameron has been defending himself in the Commons following the publication of his tax return. He said he found some of the comments about his father ‘deeply hurtful’. He also held his hands up for not responding to criticism sooner following last week’s Panama papers controversy: One of the more personal jibes thrown at him in the chamber came from Dennis Skinner, who branded the PM ‘dodgy Dave’ in a remark which got him booted out of the Commons: Jeremy Corbyn was more measured in his response to David Cameron, but he still used the debate to say there was ‘one rule for the super-rich and another for the

Tom Goodenough

Osborne and Corbyn publish their tax returns – but are they any more interesting than the PMs?

George Osborne and Jeremy Corbyn have now both followed in the Prime Minister’s footsteps by publishing details of their tax returns. As James Forsyth said on our Spectator podcast earlier today, it was just a matter of time before the Chancellor and Labour leader bowed down to pressure. But what do the two documents actually tell us? The simple answer is that Osborne and Corbyn’s tax returns make for even less interesting reading than David Cameron’s. Properly speaking, Osborne’s isn’t even a tax return at all but rather a summary of the main bits. It shows his earnings as Chancellor; it also appears to show that he isn’t putting any

Steerpike

Has Jeremy Corbyn lost his tax return?

Oh dear. Although Jeremy Corbyn spent the best part of last week calling on David Cameron to publish his tax return, the Labour leader appears to be struggling to follow his own advice. Despite Corbyn promising to publish his tax return last Tuesday, the document is yet to see the light of day. Rather than a tax evasion conspiracy, it’s thought that Corbyn simply can’t find it; with some outlets reporting that he has had to ask HMRC to send him a copy.  However, the Leader’s Office dispute this — they insist that it will be published soon. So as things stand, we have a Prime Minister for whom the Panama Papers have turned into

Steerpike

Liz Kendall hits out at ‘old-fashioned misogyny’ on the hard left

Although Liz Kendall insists that she gets on well with her former Labour leadership rival Jeremy Corbyn on a personal level, she is less fond of some of his supporters. While it’s well known that Kendall is on the opposite end of the spectrum to Corbyn when it comes to their political views within Labour, the Blairite says that it is the  ‘old-fashioned misogyny’ of the hard left that she takes issue with. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Kendall says that many members of the hard left targeted her with misogynistic abuse just because she held opposing political views: ‘There’s a lot of old-fashioned misogyny on the hard left; you’ve only got

Labour’s war on the media rumbles on: Corbyn tells off hacks outside his home

As David Cameron finds himself in hot water over his admission that he once owned shares in an offshore fund, today ought to be a walk in the park for Labour. In fact, all Jeremy Corbyn need do is give the press a few soundbites on the Tories’ troubles and then sit back and relax. Alas this is Corbyn we’re talking about so things were never going to be that simple. Instead the Labour leader has managed to become the story after he was filmed scolding an LBC journalist outside his home after she attempted to ask for his thoughts on Cameron’s admission. Rather than answer, Corbyn told her that he

Labour secures the full fruits of Clause IV

During the Labour leadership election, Jeremy Corbyn found himself in hot water after he appeared to claim in an interview with the Independent on Sunday that he wanted to reinstate clause IV of the Labour party constitution. The clause — which Tony Blair scrapped — commits the party to nationalising industry: ‘To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service.’ Corbyn’s apparent desire

Tom Goodenough

The Spectator podcast: Ex Labour advisor calls on Corbyn’s enemies to act

Jeremy Corbyn’s enemies within the Labour party are known to be dreaming about a time after his leadership. But why aren’t his opponents doing anything about getting rid of him? According to former Labour party advisor John McTernan, they should do it sooner rather than later. Speaking on the Spectator podcast this week, McTernan said: ‘If you’re going to assassinate someone, you chop off their head, you then chop them into pieces and bury them around the town. You don’t argue to yourself about the who right candidate is and when the right time is. He is the cause of his own assassination. No other cause is required. If you

Isabel Hardman

Do the Tories want to lose London?

The Labour plotters who dream of ousting Jeremy Corbyn had high hopes for the local elections on 5 May. They envisaged a moment of humiliation for their leader in Scotland, Wales and England; a moment that would prove beyond doubt that the party’s leftwards lurch had narrowed its appeal and consigned it to the electoral wilderness. A good time, in other words, to stage a coup. Corbyn’s loyalists, for their part, had been preparing to blame the rebels and their constant sniping. Neither side imagined what now looks likely: that Labour might soon be celebrating a stunning victory in London. The party is expecting a sharp decline in its total

Jeremy Corbyn is the John Terry of British politics

Jeremy Corbyn has launched Labour’s local election campaign today with the promise that his party will stand up to the government, and the claim that it is being effective in doing so. He said: ‘Now, being in Opposition is never easy, I think we all know that. But Labour in Westminster has proved you can still have influence and you can still make a difference. it was by speaking out and standing up with people with disabilities that we shamed the government into abandoning their disgraceful cuts to personal independence payments. ‘But we’re not done yet. We will continue the campaign to stop the cuts to disabled people’s ESA that

Why I’m uneasy about academies for all

As someone who believes in limited government, I feel conflicted about universal academisation. I’m a fan of the academies policy because it reduces the involvement of politicians and bureaucrats in taxpayer-funded education, but there’s something a little Stalinist about the state forcing all local-authority schools to become academies. It’s using socialist methods to bring about a conservative goal. It reminds me of that paradox first-year philosophy students struggle with — is it right to force a slave to be free? Jeremy Corbyn and the teaching unions have decided that this is a good issue for them and are planning a national campaign against ‘forced academisation’. But the emphasis on the

Tanya Gold

Send in the Alsatians

Islington is a bellwether, and also a joke: the most unequal borough in London, where social housing leans against £4 million terraces (for now, loyal Conservative voters, only for now), and also the holy font of Blairism as it appears in ‘It’s Grim Up North London’. Here, it is said, they sang the Blairite version of the Red Flag: ‘The People’s flag is deepest pink/ It’s not as red as people think/ So raise the scarlet banner high/ The college song, the old school tie.’ No more; the jokes are dust, and Blair, it is rumoured, is living on a jet full time, flying away from himself or, as I

Steerpike

Labour’s ‘prince across the water’ hints at a return to Blighty

During Ed Miliband’s time as Labour leader, he was subject to opposition from MPs in his own party as those in other parties. In fact, Miliband couldn’t even rely on his own family for unconditional support, with his brother David — who had lost out to Ed in the Labour leadership election — seldom praising his performance. Still, at least Ed can take heart that he’s not the only Labour leader that his brother has little positive to say about. In an interview with ES Magazine, the former Foreign Secretary — who quit UK politics to head up International Rescue in New York — is scant on praise for Jeremy Corbyn: ‘He’s won his majority and the

Jeremy Corbyn’s brother backs Brexit: ‘the EU is the tool of big corporations and asset strippers’

The upcoming EU referendum has proved to be a divisive issue for families as well as politicians. With Boris Johnson the lone Out-er among his siblings, another famous family are now to take different sides in the great debate. Although Jeremy Corbyn is known to have held Eurosceptic views in the past — recently deleting articles scathing of Brussels from his website, the Labour leader insists that he is backing Remain. However, Mr S understands that his brother Piers is to get behind the Leave campaign. In a series of tweets, Corbyn’s older brother has begun to make the left-wing case for leaving the EU: What’s more, Piers — a climate change sceptic — is