Jeremy corbyn

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

Did a Momentum activist suggest Chuka Umunna wasn’t ‘politically black’?

It’s been a bad week for the Tories, but it hasn’t exactly been a great week for Labour. After a list categorising Labour MPs as ‘supportive’ or ‘hostile’ towards Jeremy Corbyn was leaked, things seem to have taken a turn for the worse, because it appears that Corbynistas are now ranking MPs in terms of how ‘politically black’ they are. The Evening Standard reports that during a speech given by Marlene Ellis – a Momentum activist and member of Chuka Umunna’s local party – she claims that her local Labour party branch in Lambeth is ‘very, very right-wing’. In a recording passed to the Standard, she is reported to claim that she

Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn at the British Kebab Awards: ‘hands up those kebab shops that don’t sell falafel’

As the leader of the Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn is a busy man these days. So busy in fact that he was unable to attend last week’s Scottish Labour conference. Happily, Corbyn did manage to find time, however, to attend last night’s British Kebab Awards. Politicians, kebab shop owners and meat-lovers alike gathered in the Westminster Plaza hotel for the annual awards which celebrate the best of the British kebab industry. While David Cameron was unable to make the Just Eat event — instead opting to send a message of support, Corbyn managed to make history. As his Labour comrade Keith Vaz — who is classed as ‘core group negative’ in the leaked Corbynista list

PMQs Sketch: A bemused Corbyn struggles against Cameron’s mockery

Corbyn had an open goal at PMQs. Cameron is weaker than he’s ever been. His favoured successor is toast. His party are restive and mutinous. Three months from now the retirement committee may gather around the PM with tense smiles and whetted blades. All Corbo had to do was kick straight. But asking the Labour leader to bang the ball into an undefended net is like asking a fish to sing ‘Heroes’. Up he got, looking a little bemused, like an elderly patient called unexpectedly to his hearing-aid appointment, and he set about his flat-battery attack. It hardly helped that he’d been greeted by a tinkling silence from his own

James Forsyth

PMQs unifies Tory MPs and weakens Jeremy Corbyn

On Sunday at noon, few would have predicted that Tory MPs would have come out of PMQs cheered and unified. But thanks to The Times’ Sam Coates revealing this morning that the Labour leader’s office have ranked their MPs from core group to hostile, David Cameron won this session hands down and cheered up Tory MPs in the process. Jeremy Corbyn had plenty of material of his own to work with, Iain Duncan Smith’s resignation letter should be a rich seam for Labour. But when Cameron started quoting the rankings at every turn, Corbyn — remarkably, given that his team had had all morning to come up with one — had

Steerpike

Corbyn’s PMQ performance receives a ‘hostile’ verdict from Labour MP: ‘f—ing disaster’

Today’s PMQs ought to have been a walk in the park for Jeremy Corbyn following days of in-fighting and rebellion in the Conservative party. However, a secret document changed all that, with the Times today publishing a spreadsheet which categorises all the Labour MPs in terms of their loyalty — or lack there of — towards Corbyn. John Woodcock — who is on the ‘hostile’ list — was left unimpressed when Cameron was able to ridicule the party over the list at PMQs: ‘Mr Speaker there are five categories. We’ve got “core support” — I think you can include me in that lot. We’ve got “core plus”, the Chief Whip’s being

Rod Liddle

Could a yoghurt defeat David Cameron?

I do not know if it has officially been measured, but my guess is that Christine Shawcroft, a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee, has an IQ of somewhere in the region of six. This would put her, in the global hierarchy of intelligence, directly between one of those Activia yoghurts women eat to relieve constipation and some moss. I’m sure Christine would argue, perhaps forcibly, that intelligence is an overrated, elitist concept and that no store should be put by it. Judging people by whether they are too thick to breathe in and out fairly regularly is discriminatory. The views of an imbecile, or, say, a Jerusalem artichoke, are

Why isn’t Jeremy Corbyn kicking the government while it’s down?

The government is in a mess, with the Chancellor having to go underground while a row rages in the Conservative party about whether or not the central mission of the Prime Minister to lead a compassionate Conservative party is really happening in practice. David Cameron had to use his statement on the European Council this afternoon to defend the government’s record on social justice, and praise the work of Iain Duncan Smith in an attempt to get things back on track. And yet Jeremy Corbyn saw today’s open goal yawning before him, and decided to kick the ball into a hedge. The Labour leader managed to mention the fact he’d

Steerpike

Sadiq Khan’s pledge to tackle Labour anti-Semitism hits a bump in the road

Since Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour leader, the party has been dogged by rumours of anti-semitism in certain factions of the party. Matters were only worsened last week with the re-admittance and then re-expulsion of Vicki Kirby, a former Labour parliamentary candidate who has suggested that Isis ought to attack Israel. Now there are concerns that the negative publicity could damage Sadiq Khan’s London mayoral bid. Last week, Jonathan Arkush — the President of the Board of Deputies — claimed that the Labour candidate could struggle to win votes from London’s 180,000 Jews. While Khan has made clear that Labour needs to ditch its ‘anti-Jewish’ image, he may wish to take a closer look

How Jeremy Corbyn may split – and, thereby, destroy – the Conservative Party

‘Why this sudden restlessness, this confusion?’ asked C.P. Cavafy in his poem ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’: Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come. And some who have just returned from the border say there are no barbarians any longer. And now, what’s going to happen to us without barbarians? They were, those people, a kind of solution. All through your and my life the Labour party have been at the gates of Downing Street, and often enough stormed them, only to be beaten back at a subsequent election. What might happen to the Conservative party if those barbarians disappear? At first, Tories rejoiced at the Labour leadership

New YouGov poll puts Labour ahead

When an ICM phone poll this week had Labour level with the Tories for the first time since Jeremy Corbyn became leader, even the pollster cast doubt on the finding. But today, YouGov has Labour ahead by a point—34% to 33%. YouGov’s Anthony Wells says that this suggests ‘something is genuinely afoot’. Now, as the election reminded us polls are not all seeing. It is also doubtful what the value of a poll is this far out from a general election: Ed Miliband was regularly ahead by large margins during the last parliament and still went on to lose the election. One also suspects that if Labour was being covered

Why Trump prevailed

If the Republican party were a company, it would now file for bankruptcy. Donald Trump, arguably the most grotesque candidate ever to have run for the Oval Office, seems certain to be the party’s presidential nominee. The former favourite, Marco Rubio, lost in his home state of Florida on Tuesday and has now bowed out of the race. After seven years of deeply unimpressive government from a divisive and ineffectual Democratic president, American conservatism has been unable to offer voters a convincing alternative. A candidate as flawed as Hillary Clinton should be easy to beat. But the best the Republicans seem able to do is send a dodgy businessman-cum-reality TV

Matthew Parris

It’s the Labour moderates who need to get real

It has become commonplace to remark that there exists in Britain a mainstream political grouping that seems to be dwelling on another planet. Lost in fantasy, harking back to days long-gone, it lives on illusion. Time and the modern world have passed it by. Fleet Street and fashionable opinion rage against these mulish daydreamers for turning their backs on the voters and depriving Britain of an effective opposition. And all this is true. In only one detail are Fleet Street and fashionable opinion mistaken. They’ve got the wrong grouping in their sights. It is not Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell and their crew who fit this picture: it is the Labour

Full text of Jeremy Corbyn’s Budget speech

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/spectatorpolitics/georgeosbornesbudget-2016/media.mp3″ title=”Fraser Nelson, Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth discuss the Budget”] Listen [/audioplayer]Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. The Budget the Chancellor has just delivered is actually a culmination of six years of failure. This is a recovery built on sand and a Budget built on failure. The Chancellor has failed on the budget deficit failed on debt, failed on investment, failed on productivity, failed on the trade deficit, failed on his own welfare cap and failed to tackle inequality in this country. And today Mr Deputy Speaker, he’s announced growth is revised down. Last year, this year, every year they forecast business investment revised down, government investment revised down. It’s a very