Labour party

Monday

Sebastian Payne

The Tories aren’t leaving Jeremy Corbyn’s destruction to chance

Jeremy Corbyn has been Labour leader for less than 48 hours and the Conservative party is already managing to set the tone of the debate. In a piece for POLITICO Europe today, I look at how the Tories are feeling about Corbyn’s victory over the weekend and their plans to deal with it. Some MPs feel sad that Labour is no longer a serious party. ‘Saturday was a sad day for our country and the Labour Party — I am not laughing,’ says one influential Tory MP. ‘The party of Ramsay Macdonald, Clement Attlee, Harold Wilson and Tony Blair has now been reduced to Jeremy Corbyn’. But any sorrow however is overwhelmed by jubilation that the next

Steerpike Steerpike

Is Damian McBride angling for a job as Jeremy Corbyn’s spin doctor?

Given that Jeremy Corbyn has been on the receiving end of a barrage of bad press this morning, he could do with the help of an expert spinner. Yet everyone who has cared about the Labour Party over the years is appalled at his triumph; no one is willing to defend him. No one, that is, except the currently ‘freelance’ former king of spin, Damian McBride. The disgraced spin doctor appears to have been on a mission to endear himself to Corbyn ever since he won the leadership election on Saturday. He kicked things off with an editorial in the Mail on Sunday titled ‘Jeremy Corbyn may be the best thing since Clement Attlee’. Yes, seriously. Corbyn,

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Welcome to the era of conspiracy-theory politics

Who argues that a ‘shadow state’ controls Britain? That a gang of faraway, faceless suits ‘orchestrate public life from the shadows’, from their ‘yachts in the Mediterranean’? Who thinks people in ‘the shadows’, who always remain ‘hidden’, exercise a ‘poisonous, secretive influence on public life’? A spotty sixth-former who spends way too much time on the internet, perhaps? Or maybe one of those cranky guys who hangs out in the discussion threads of David Icke’s website, convinced that lizards in suits run the world? Actually it’s Tom Watson, new deputy leader of the Labour Party. All those claims come from his rather bonkers book on the Murdoch empire, where Watson

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour’s campaign genius (finally) meets Jeremy Corbyn

Ahead of the Labour leadership results, Lucy Powell engaged in some gentle bitching online about Jeremy Corbyn’s lack of social interaction with her. Ed Miliband’s former deputy campaign chief told Miliband’s former political secretary Anna Yearley that she had never, ever met the man of the moment. @AnnaYearley I have never, ever met or spoken to him. At PLP, in Chamber, in voting lobbies, tea rooms, library, anywhere … — Lucy Powell MP (@LucyMPowell) August 18, 2015 This led Ukip’s Douglas Carswell to offer to make an introduction. Happily this gesture won’t be needed as the times are a’changin. Seemingly willing to overlook this slight, the newly-elected Corbyn has appointed

Leo McKinstry

The Trade Union Bill must tie up Thatcher’s unfinished business

The People’s Assembly, the self-appointed left-wing pressure group behind the recent anti-austerity demonstrations, portrays itself as the voice of the masses struggling under oppressive Tory rule. It claims that no fewer than 250,000 demonstrators went to its rally in central London in June (a figure dutifully regurgitated by broadcasters). But photographs of the event in London indicate no more than 25,000 attended. The bogusness does not stop there. Despite its demotic name, the People’s Assembly is no spontaneous uprising of the angry British public. On the contrary, the organisation, which counts the comedian Russell Brand and the Guardian columnist Owen Jones among its noisiest advocates, is bankrolled by the trade unions, those wealthy institutions

Sebastian Payne

Jeremy Corbyn’s first shadow cabinet is going to be divisive

Well, Corbyn really has gone for it. Although the new shadow cabinet is not made up entirely of hard-left appointees, the new Labour leader is taking his mandate seriously. Crucially, making John McDonnell shadow chancellor, whose has said some interesting things about the IRA and wants to nationalise the banks, is a bold move by Corbyn and not one that is going down well. On the Today programme, the former home secretary Charles Clarke said he was ‘aghast’ at the appointment of McDonnell and predicted that Labour MPs would end up creating their own economic policy alongside whatever McDonnell does. Even Corbyn’s new shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn failed to

Sunday

Rod Liddle

Please Jezza, don’t tack to the right and be inclusive

The one bright spot, if you are a normal Labour Party supporter rather than a perpetual adolescent anti-austerity arriviste with lime jelly between the ears, was Cristina Kirchner’s message of congratulations to Jeremy Corbyn. Hopefully similar valedictions will arrive soon – from Jihadi John, and whatever addle-brained Islamist thug is leading Hamas, and from Putin and various murderous bog-trotting Feinians. The more, the better. Let the British public know who this idiot’s friends are. Iain Dale’s questions to Corbyn are apposite, as were Tony Parsons’ latest piece in GQ in which he said, having watched the deluded halfwits championing Corbyn’s election: whatever side these people are on, I’m against. Yes,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Meet your Shadow Chancellor: John McDonnell’s greatest hits

Given few knew who Jeremy Corbyn was before the summer, chances are that few will know who John McDonnell is either. Well, here’s your quick guide. He was first elected in 1997, having previously served on the Greater London Council as member for Hayes and Harlington (the constituency he represents in Parliament). He is chair of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs, and worked as a researcher and official for the National Union of Mineworkers and the TUC. And here’s what else you need to know about the new Shadow Chancellor: 1. John McDonnell is quite the Commons performer. He famously grabbed the mace in the Chamber to express

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

John McDonnell is the Shadow Chancellor

These are the latest appointments to Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet: Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Seema Malhotra MP Shadow BIS Angela Eagle MP This tells us two things about Corbyn. One is that he is loyal to his friends. He and McDonnell have worked together for years, with Corbyn focusing on foreign policy while his friend stuck to economic policy. McDonnell wanted to be Shadow Chancellor, even though Angela Eagle clearly also fancied the job – and was a more credible candidate. Corbyn’s friend won. The second thing is that Corbyn is clearly keen to push the party as far left as quickly as

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Burnham and Benn take Shadow Cabinet jobs

In the past few minutes, more details of Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet team have been announced. Andy Burnham is the new Shadow Home Secretary, and is replaced by Heidi Alexander in the Shadow Health Secretary. This is intriguing, as Burnham has quite different views on immigration to Corbyn. Hilary Benn is the Shadow Foreign Secretary: a boost for Corbyn given Europe will be such a big issue in the next few years. Lord Falconer is the Shadow Justice Secretary and Shadow Lord Chancellor, while Yvette Cooper will chair a taskforce on refugees: something she will bring a great deal of passion and expertise to. What these announcements do show is

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How big will Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench be?

It was always obvious from the moment he won that Jeremy Corbyn’s frontbench team would look very different to the one that Labour had last week. What’s more surprising than those stepping back from the Shadow Cabinet, including Chuka Umunna, is who from a different wing of the party to Corbyn agrees to take a frontbench role. Angela Eagle and Andy Burnham are the biggest names likely to work in Corbyn’s team, though Corbyn is struggling with John McDonnell, who wants to be Shadow Chancellor instead of Eagle. Rosie Winterton remains as chief whip: which is a huge boost to Corbyn given how popular she is in the party. Umunna

Sebastian Payne

Tom Watson covers for Jeremy Corbyn in the new Labour leadership’s first outing

24 hours into his leadership and Jeremy Corbyn is already defying the conventions of being an opposition leader. He cancelled a long-scheduled appearance on the Andrew Marr Show — but found time to attend an event in his constituency — leaving it to the party’s new deputy leader Tom Watson explain to the nation what Labour has just done. Watson’s appearance suggested he is not going to be an easily-controlled disciple — he has his own agenda to reform the Labour party. One of Watson’s main areas of concern is to reform the party’s internal structures: ‘I’ve stood on a platform … I’ve got my own mandate to reform the Labour Party. I think the Labour

Steerpike Steerpike

Owen Jones’s election advice falls flat with Alastair Campbell

With Jeremy Corbyn appointed as the new leader of the Labour party, few could be more pleased by the news than the left-wing messiah’s personal cheerleader Owen Jones. In fact the Guardian columnist was one of the first to celebrate the Labour MP’s victory yesterday, praising Corbyn during a string of media appearances. He then moved on to offer some advice to the New Labour wing of the divided party over what they should do to support Corbyn’s election campaign; urging them to ‘turn away from the negativity of your media champions’ and ‘come up with a vision’ as ‘that’s how you win’. Alas these comments did not go down well with Tony Blair’s

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

Labour moderates try to stop the march of the Left after Corbyn victory

Naturally, today is not a good day if you’re a Labour moderate. The Blairites’ troubles have been well publicised, but the old right, or moderate, wing of the party, represented by Labour First, is licking its wounds too. The faction did see Tom Watson elected Deputy Leader (which shows firstly that Watson and Corbyn are not from the same part of the party at all, and secondly that ‘moderate’ is quite a wide term), but it tried to encourage members to fight Corbyn every way they could, particularly by blocking him using second and third preferences. Labour First is now trying to stop the Corbynites taking control of the policymaking

Sebastian Payne

Podcast special: Jeremy Corbyn is Labour’s new leader

Jeremy Corbyn’s momentous victory in the Labour leadership contest is going to have a dramatic effect on British politics. In this View from 22 podcast special, James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and I discuss what Corbyn’s victory means for British politics and the Labour party, as well as what we can expect to happen over the next few days. We also look at Tom Watson’s victory in the deputy leadership contest and how he will work with the new leader. You can subscribe to the View from 22 through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer every week, or you can use the player below:

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Jeremy Corbyn’s boiler plate victory speech was no move to the centre

No one in the hall was in any doubt about the result, the only thing in question was the scale of Jeremy Corbyn’s victory. In the end it was overwhelming, 59.5 per cent on the first round. Corbyn led in every single section and the scale of his triumph will make it very hard for the Parliamentary Labour Party to move against him even in the medium term. Though, large numbers of the Labour figures here today are making no effort to hide their dismay at the result. Corbyn’s victory speech, delivered without a tie, was no move to the centre. It did contain some unifying themes, his tribute to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Jeremy Corbyn has arrived — here’s what happens next

It has happened. Labour has elected Jeremy Corbyn as its leader. The party hasn’t just lurched to the left, but dived headlong in that direction. Never, in the history of the universal franchise, has a leader of one of the two main parties been so far from the political centre. Just because something is absurd doesn’t mean it can’t happen. This is the lesson of Jeremy Corbyn’s victory in the Labour leadership contest. At first, the prospect of Corbyn leading Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition was seen to be so ridiculous that bookmakers put the chances of it at 200 to 1. Labour MPs were prepared to nominate him to broaden

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour leadership results due shortly

We will get the Labour leadership result rather shortly. The candidates know already and their teams have gone into lockdown with their phones confiscated.I am hearing that Jeremy Corbyn has won and there is a strong chance he has won on the first round, which would be extraordinary and reinforce his mandate as he tries to move his party to the left.We will bring you full results and analysis as soon as we know.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Jez, he did – Jeremy Corbyn is the new leader of the Labour Party

Jeremy Corbyn has won the Labour leadership in the first round with an extraordinary 59.5 per cent of the vote. Andy Burnham came second. This is the result everyone was expecting: or at least what they had come to expect after initially expecting Corbyn to be at worst the joke candidate and at best the figure who enabled a debate about the ideas of the Left. We are not surprised today that a backbencher from Islington has won the party leadership, but the party is still trying to work out how it has changed this much, and how its conventional leaders in waiting failed to inspire the membership in the

Friday

Isabel Hardman

How Labour’s left can push out centrist MPs without mandatory reselection

A number of backroom staff in the Labour party have been in touch today to say goodbye ahead of an exodus of frontbenchers and staffers who disagree with Jeremy Corbyn. Most expect him to win the leadership contest, and know that their bosses won’t serve in his Shadow Cabinet, or suspect that they will struggle to last very long in an HQ under his leadership. The Sun reports a clear-out in the whips office. Corbyn himself has been very careful to talk about the party coming back together, and has denied that he will bring back mandatory reselection of Labour MPs: something the Left deployed in the 1980s to threaten