Jeremy corbyn

Downing Street has waded into the dispute over Sir Nicholas Houghton’s comments regarding Jeremy Corbyn and his position on Trident. After Houghton, the Chief of the Defence Staff, told Andrew Marr yesterday that the prospect of Prime Minister Corbyn would ‘worry’ him, the Labour leader complained of constructional meddling and asked the Defence Secretary to investigate the comments. Michael Fallon has yet to respond but No.10 has meanwhile defended Houghton’s remarks. At today’s lobby briefing, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said his points were valid and appropriate (quotes via The Guardian): ‘He was asked about deterrence. He made the point about the credibility of the deterrent. As the principal military adviser to the government, it

Jeremy Corbyn is at odds with the military for the second time. On the Andrew Marr Show this morning, General Sir Nicholas Houghton, the Chief of the Defence Staff, expressed concerns about the Labour leader’s position on Trident — in particular that he would never press the button. ‘Well it would worry me if that thought was translated into power as it were,’ Houghton said, also noting ‘there’s a couple of hurdles to cross before we get to that’. Although Houghton’s remarks may appear a little sinister, he explained his concerns about Corbyn were not personal. Instead, his aim is to ensure Britain has an effective nuclear deterrent: ‘But the reason I say this – and it’s not based

Labour is having the sort of day that Ukip used to offer up on a reasonably regular basis. Jeremy Corbyn’s head of policy Andrew Fisher has been suspended and faces an investigation by the party for urging voters in his constituency to back the Class War candidate over the Labour one. But Jeremy Corbyn has backed his head of policy, saying he hopes the matter can be resolved quickly. Corbyn said this afternoon: ‘I have full confidence in Andrew Fisher and his work. I respect the integrity of the General Secretary’s office and trust that this matter will be settled as quickly as possible.’ These sorts of stories are the

Today’s session of Prime Minister’s Questions was pointless. Describing any session as pointless is in itself a little pointless, as it takes you into the sort of territory where, like the author of Ecclesiastes, you end up declaring everything meaningless. But today really was a pointless session. The most obvious example of pointless behaviour came from the Tory side, with Conservative MPs deciding that they should return to the old days of roaring and jeering just as Jeremy Corbyn was asking questions about cuts to tax credits. David Cameron helped them out by chortling with exasperation as he responded without answering to yet another question from the Labour leader about

How does Labour make its policy? Different factions and frontbenchers are quarrelling about a number of issues such as Trident and action in Syria, but a common theme in each dispute is whose word actually represents official policy. Currently the party has a plethora of different stances on everything. Maria Eagle is having to explain that a Scottish Labour conference vote does not change the party’s official policy on Trident, while her Shadow Cabinet colleague Diane Abbott is explaining that it’s something the UK-wide party really should follow. Hilary Benn is having to explain that Labour won’t consult Stop the War on British involvement in action against so-called Islamic State

The far left controls the Labour leadership because the centre left did not take it seriously until it was too late. For a generation indeed, Labour and much of the rest of liberal-left Britain has lived with the comforting delusion that there was no far left to fight. The left, on this reading, was one family. It may have had its troublesome teenagers. Their youthful high spirits may have made the little scallywags ‘go too far’ on occasion. But everyone was still in one family, still on the same side. The old notion that the far left was the centre left’s enemy died away as the Labour party gave up

When all else fails, I suppose, you can just plead for mercy. That appears to be the message emanating from the Scottish Labour party’s conference in Perth this weekend. The theme, Kezia Dugdale says, is “Take a fresh look” at Labour. OK. [Awkward silence.] Now what? The thing is, you see, that “Take a fresh look” has been the unofficial theme of every meeting of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party since, oh, at least 1997. When you are reduced to pinching lines from the Scottish Tories you are probably in a position similar to the lost traveller seeking directions to Limerick who was told “Well, I wouldn’t start from here”. Here is where Labour

If Labour is ever to clamber out of its cage on the fringe of politics, it will have to convince the 250,000 supporters who voted for Jeremy Corbyn to turn from far-leftists into social democrats. The necessity of persuading them that they made a terrible mistake is so obvious to Labour MPs that they barely need to talk about it. In case it is not obvious to you, let me spell it out. Corbyn exacerbates every fault that kept Labour from power in 2015, and then adds some new ones, just for fun. To the failure to convince the voters that Labour can be trusted with control of the borders