Labour party

A question for Labour’s moderates, however we define the term and assuming they are still sizeable enough to merit the plural: Do you want to see Jeremy Corbyn become Prime Minister? Specifically, do you think he possesses the character and temperament of a national leader? Does the prospect of a Corbyn-led Labour government fill you with hope? I’m not asking how you’d feel finally to be rid of this hopeless government, with its prodigious incompetences and petty cruelties. I’m not asking about the Labour Party in your heart but about the one out here, in the world, standing before the voters. That is Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party and it is

This week, Jeremy Corbyn said he was ‘sincerely sorry’ for the pain that had been caused to the Jewish community by anti-Semitism in ‘pockets’ within the Labour Party. Alas, his apology wasn’t enough to stop protesters – including some of his party colleagues – gathering in Parliament Square on Monday to voice their concerns. Nor were Corbyn’s comments enough to dissuade some of his more loyal supporters that allegations of anti-Semitism aren’t always an MSM smear designed to keep the Tories in No 10. So that readers can make up their own mind as to the size of those ‘pockets’, below is a list which has been compiled detailing alleged incidents

One of the mistakes Theresa May made in calling an early election was not anticipating the effect it would have on the Labour party. Up until April 2017, Labour had been noisily divided between the parliamentary party — the vast majority of whom had no confidence in its leadership — and Jeremy Corbyn whom they couldn’t remove because he had the backing of the membership. But the snap election changed this dynamic. Corbyn’s internal opponents nearly all went quiet once the campaign was announced. This wasn’t just tribal loyalty asserting itself. They wanted to make sure that Corbyn failed on his own terms — that there could be no stab-in-the-back

We may be witnessing a #MeToo moment in Labour anti-Semitism. Britain’s Jews, so damn accommodating and willing to extend the benefit of the doubt, have finally snapped and said ‘enough is enough’. At 5.30pm tonight they will gather in Westminster to protest in the most British way imaginable by handing the Labour Party a strongly-worded letter. The letter calls Jeremy Corbyn a ‘figurehead for an anti-Semitic political culture’ and says he has repeatedly ‘sided with anti-Semites rather than Jews’. If anything, it goes a little easy on him.  The spark was Corbyn’s defence of, and dissembling over, an anti-Semitic mural in east London but the frustrations have been building up

Jeremy Corbyn this evening said he was ‘sincerely sorry’ for the pain caused by ‘pockets of anti-semitism’ in his party, and is arranging to meet representatives of the Jewish community this week. Tonight the Labour leader has had something of a preview of how that meeting might go, with the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council publishing a furious letter in which they accuse him of ignoring the ‘mainstream majority of British Jews’. The letter, entitled ‘enough is enough’, says Corbyn personifies the form of politics that repeatedly fails to take antisemitism seriously, and says that ‘again and again, Jeremy Corbyn has sided with antisemites

In the past few minutes, Owen Smith has been sacked from Labour’s Shadow Cabinet after he wrote an article calling for a second referendum and continuing single market membership. The party this evening released a statement from Jeremy Corbyn which did not thank Smith for his work but instead praised the record of his successor as Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, Tony Lloyd: ‘Tony is a highly experienced former Government Minister who is committed to ensuring that peace in Northern Ireland is maintained and helping to steer the devolution deal back on track.’ This is an interesting time of the day to put out a statement about a sacking. It’s also

Privately educated. Mother of Len McCluskey’s child. Close ally of Jeremy Corbyn. Jennie Formby’s appointment as Labour general secretary is a heartwarming tale of how one woman managed to overcome all her connections to make it to the top. More than that, it is confirmation that The Corbynite Takeover Of The Labour Party Is Now Complete (TCTOTLPINC). There seems to be another TCTOTLPINC moment every few weeks and, in all honesty, the authentic one was probably summer 2016 when Corbyn was able to cling on despite mass resignations and a vote of no confidence. That was the point Labour ceased functioning as a political party and went into the personality

The Electoral Commission has released details of the different parties’ spending on the snap election and it doesn’t make pretty reading for the Conservatives. Not only did they manage to lose their majority in that disastrous election, they also managed to spend the most money of any party in the process. The Tories spent a record £18.5million on their campaign, while Labour spent just over £11million and the Lib Dems around £6.8million. It’s already well documented that the Conservatives misallocated their resources and spent money in seats they wanted to win (and didn’t) when they should have been focussing on a defensive campaign in seats like Kensington, which they lost by

Will Russia disrupt the local elections? That’s the question being asked in Westminster. But rather than worries over Russian meddling and subterfuge, the issue at hand is whether Jeremy Corbyn’s questionable response to the attempted murder of a former Russian double agent on British soil will help boost the Conservative vote come May. Those local elections are expected to be a blood bath for the Tories, with Labour predicted to win big – particularly in the capital. The Conservatives are so worried about the vote that the managing expectations operations includes suggesting that it would be a disappointing night for Labour if the party didn’t win every London council. But in

Jeremy Corbyn’s reaction this week to the poisoning of a former Russian double agent on British soil has re-opened old wounds within the Labour party. The Labour leader’s apparent refusal to condemn Moscow involvement was made worse when his spokesman Seumas Milne appeared to cast doubt on the analysis by British intelligence agencies – suggesting that ‘there’s a history in relation to WMD and intelligence which is problematic to put it mildly’. Since then, key Corbyn ally Chris Williamson has branded Labour MPs who back Theresa May’s stance on Russia – rather than Corbyn’s – as ‘political enemies’. So who’s saying what and which MPs are considering a break with Corbyn? Some

Just in case you had grown confused, the big international story at the moment is actually about Theresa May’s response to Russia’s involvement in the Salisbury attack, not the internal war in the Labour Party. It’s not actually all about Labour, though Jeremy Corbyn and his allies are doing their damnedest to make sure that they get a disproportionate share of the attention. This evening, Corbyn has backed his spokesman’s line on Russia, writing a piece in the Guardian which repeats the post-PMQs claim that British intelligence on chemical weapons has been ‘problematic’. The Labour leader writes: ‘There can and should be the basis for a common political response to

Jeremy Corbyn has been criticised once again for failing to condemn Russia over the Salisbury spy attack. But while some Labour MPs have turned on their leader, Corbyn can still count on the support of one old friend. Ken Livingstone has just popped up on Russia Today – where else? – taking Corbyn’s line that more evidence is needed before Britain points the finger at Russia. Here’s what he said: ‘I would find it very odd to think the president of Russia is sitting in his office deciding who to kill. I would have guessed that Mr Putin has more important things to do than that’ At least Ken isn’t

Labour’s Executive Director for Governance, Membership and Party Services Emilie Oldknow has announced she is leaving, just weeks after Iain McNicol was ousted as General Secretary. At the time, Corbynite insiders had told me that Oldknow was the ‘power behind the throne’ and had been responsible for the real running of HQ as McNicol was increasingly sidelined by the party leadership. Now, that power behind the throne has left too. In a letter to party staff, she says ‘I will be leaving in the summer to pursue some new and exciting opportunities’. Oldknow was a moderate, and had also been sidelined: I understand that she only found out about McNicol’s

The moment that has defined my approach to politics came when my mother told me the proudest moment of her life: buying her council house.  Growing up in Consett, a former steel town in the north east, that house seemed to be like any of the other identikit terraced properties in the area. But to my mother, it was an asset she now owned and was able to pass on to me and my siblings. Later in life, I realised that Right to Buy had opened up new avenues for my mother, beyond having a roof over her head: it gave her choice, security, and a sense of achievement and