Jeremy corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn is currently conducting his reshuffle, with a group of journalists huddled at a discreet distance from the Labour leader’s office. So far, not much has happened, other than Corbyn asking the journalists not to stand outside his office, and Barry Gardiner emerging with a smile on his face. But still the briefings around the reshuffle and the anticipation of it have dominated the news agenda. This must be intensely frustrating for Sadiq Khan, who had planned to spend today getting lots of attention for his campaign on train fares. Labour members and staffers were up long before dawn handing out leaflets publicising the four-year fare freeze promised by

Back in August — after much anticipation — Jeremy Corbyn finally revealed some of his economic policies to the world. His policies — also known as ‘Corbynomics’ — took inspiration from the tax expert Richard Murphy’s blog. While several of the ideas — which included reclaiming the £120bn ‘tax gap’ and quantitative easing — were described as ‘starry-eyed, hard left’ policies by Labour’s Chris Leslie, Corbyn was not put off. The Labour leader invited Murphy — who is not a party member — to Labour conference. In fact, Murphy even thought at one point that he was in line for a role in the Labour Treasury team. Alas the dream appears to have come to an

Nick Cohen’s cover piece in the Spectator on the demise of the Labour party – and of his own support for it – is the 4th most-read magazine piece of 2015. ‘Tory, Tory, Tory. You’re a Tory.’ The level of hatred directed by the Corbyn left at Labour people who have fought Tories all their lives is as menacing as it is ridiculous. If you are a woman, you face misogyny. Kate Godfrey, the centrist Labour candidate in Stafford, told the Times she had received death threats and pornographic hate mail after challenging her local left. If you are a man, you are condemned in language not heard since the

In recent months both Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell have defended the Momentum group from criticism. Created as a result of Corbyn’s leadership campaign, the grassroots movement aims to organise activists in towns and cities in order to create a mass movement for the Labour leader. Despite this, the far-left group has repeatedly been accused of being linked to deselection threats against centre-left Labour MPs. However, it seems that Momentum’s biggest problem may actually be learning to control its supporters. As the Sunday papers report that Corbyn is to sack Benn from his shadow cabinet as part of a new year reshuffle, it now appears that the shadow Foreign Secretary has also won the attention of Momentum activists. Hilary Benn tweeted his followers on Sunday

The loudest cheers to emerge from a PLP meeting since Jeremy Corbyn rose to power came after the Labour MP Jess Phillips called for George Galloway to never be allowed to re-join Labour. The sentiment was later reinforced in an editorial by Dawn Butler — who helped Corbyn get on the ballot slip — where she wrote that Corbyn had told her he was not in favour of letting his old comrade Galloway back in. So Mr S can’t help but wonder whether both Butler and Phillips will be disappointed to read comments made by Corbyn in an interview with the Huffington Post. When asked whether he would like to have Galloway

Like most political journalists, I regard Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party as an unalloyed disaster. But it is, perhaps, time to admit that this view is not so widely shared amongst the public. “Almost a third of Labour supporters do not think that Jeremy Corbyn will lead Labour into the next election,” says today’s Observer. The more striking finding is that most Labour supporters (56pc) do think that Corbyn will stay until 2020. He may be hated by Labour MPs, but his approval rating is high amongst Labour members – even amongst those who voted for Andy Burnham. It’s a thing. Even if Labour MPs were to break the habit of a lifetime

This has been a difficult year for me. For I have been compelled to break a pact I made with myself when I was 18 years old and do something I promised I would never do, something which goes against every cell and fibre of my being. I’ve defended a leader of the Labour Party. I can’t tell you how alien this feels. Imagine if Princess Diana had become press officer for a landmines factory, or if the Pope started moonlighting for Marie Stopes. Now you know how it feels for me to say vaguely nice things about Labour, a party whose paternalism, illiberalism, killjoyism and cretinism have been rubbing

MPs have done their best this year to make their Christmas cards stand out. To do this, Nigel Evans opted to make himself the centre of attention, while Jeremy Corbyn managed to catch the Daily Mail‘s attention with a picture of some snow-covered bicycles. However, one such card has caught Mr S’s attention for a rather different reason than any of the above. Suella Fernandes — the MP for Fareham — has sent out a card which contains an extra message. Only it’s not from the Tory politician — or her staff — instead it’s from the official sponsor of her 2015 Christmas cards! While Mr S is glad to see Fernandes is

Although Owen Jones was once Jeremy Corbyn’s main cheerleader, in recent months his relationship with the Labour leader has cooled as his former Guardian colleague Seumas Milne has usurped him in Corbyn’s trusted circle. Still, Jones is now at least on good terms with other members of the party. Today the Guardian columnist has interviewed the outspoken Corbyn rebel Jess Phillips for his YouTube channel. During the friendly exchange, Phillips — who previously told Diane Abbott to ‘f— off’ after they clashed over Corbyn’s shadow cabinet appointments — discusses Corbyn’s pros and cons. Phillips also promises to ‘knife Jeremy Corbyn in the front’ rather than the back, should it become clear to her that he is not up to