Politics Archives

Wednesday

28 Sep 2016

Steerpike

Solidarity for Venezuela at Labour conference

Recent reports on the situation in the socialist haven of Venezuela suggest that not everything is so tickety-boo. With five-hour queues for toilet paper, the prospect of forced labour looming and a mass food shortage, Mercosur — the South American trade bloc — has threatened to expel the country over human rights violations and not complying with trade laws. Despite this, the Labour party continues to show solidarity with the country. Last night, comrades gathered at conference for Cuba and Venezuela: International Solidarity Needed Now More Than Ever!. At the event Labour’s Baroness Angela Smith was joined by the Venezuelan ambassador HE Rocio Maniero as Tony Burke — assistant General

Steerpike

G4S makes a comeback at Labour conference

There was a time when it looked as though this year’s Labour conference might not go ahead as they struggled to find a company to provide security at the event. The party’s usual supplier G4S had been deemed unsuitable after the NEC made a decision to boycott them over its prison contracts and links to Israel. By the time Labour came crawling back to the company to ask for their help, after running short of suitable options, G4S declined — and they opted for OCS. So, conference regulars have been surprised to see a lot of familiar faces from previous years manning the doors at the event. It turns out that around

Tom Goodenough

Labour conference, day four: The Spectator guide

Jeremy Corbyn’s conference speech will be the highlight – or lowlight (depending on your perspective) – of the day as the curtain comes down at Labour’s annual conference. The party has largely managed to put on a brave face and display of unity during its annual gathering. But there is still time for that facade to all come crashing down as Corbyn closes the conference. Here’s what on today: Main conference: 9am: Policy seminars 2.15pm: Jeremy Corbyn gives his keynote speech Fringe events: 9am: Labour women’s network – what next for women in the party, politics and public space? Labour women’s network 12.30pm: Securing the future: what will reverse the rise on

Tuesday

27 Sep 2016

Laura Pitel

How much does Boris Johnson care about free speech in Turkey?

Ankara Shaking hands with Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday must have been one of the most toe-curling moments Boris Johnson has faced so far in his two months as Foreign Secretary. Thanks to The Spectator, the former mayor of London is best-known here in Turkey for a limerick that unforgettably described the country’s president as a ‘wankerer’ from Ankara. To make matters worse, the Vote Leave campaign that he fronted caused deep offence by trying to use Turkey’s hopes of EU membership to scare voters into backing Brexit. Against this backdrop, the three-day visit to Turkey this week could have been a disaster. Mr Erdogan is not known for mincing

Steerpike

Is Seumas Milne about to be shown the back door?

Oh dear. It’s not been a great conference for Seumas Milne. Jeremy Corbyn’s director of comms managed to make himself the story this week after he altered Clive Lewis’s speech on Trident at the last minute. The shadow Defence Secretary was said to be so angry over the changes that he punched a wall after the speech. So, Mr S was curious to hear a rumour swirling around Labour conference this evening. The talk of conference is that Milne’s departure is imminent with suggestions his last day could be as soon as Friday. While sources close to Milne insist to Mr S that this is not the case, several party insiders are

Isabel Hardman

Man bites dog as Corbyn tells Labour members: I want to win an election

Jeremy Corbyn’s conference speech includes the normally unremarkable but currently remarkable assertion that he wants Labour to win the next election. Given the debate that has raged within the Labour party over the past few months about purity vs power, that the re-elected Labour leader is saying this at all is significant. He will say tomorrow that he expects a general election next year and that ‘we expect all our members to support that effort, and we will be ready whenever it comes’. Some Labour MPs will point out that this will require a dramatic shift from some members who haven’t yet delivered any party leaflets but are still threatening

Rod Liddle

Labour is dying. Time to move on

Still enveloped in their bubble of iridescent adolescent phlegm, the Labour Party now stands at 26 per cent in the latest opinion polls. Below the figure achieved under Michael Foot’s leadership in the 1983 general election, usually regarded as the lowest of all low points for the party. And Foot was battling against a Prime Minister who had just won a very popular war, as well as against a credible new party, the SDP. Labour do not know how much trouble they are in, even now. It is very difficult to see a way out for the sensible or fairly sensible Labour members, especially the MPs. Pray that Corbyn fails while desperately

Tom Goodenough

Labour moderates find a glimmer of conference hope

Labour’s conference has just waved through a raft of reforms which look set to tip the balance of power on the party’s National Executive Committee away from Jeremy Corbyn and towards the moderates. The wording of the changes which caused the trouble is pretty banal: that the leader of the Scottish and Welsh Labour parties will be able to pick someone to sit on the NEC. But while this might sound like a piecemeal change, make no mistake: this is a blow to Corbyn. The change means that Kezia Dugdale or Carwyn Jones can now either take up their seats, or pick someone else to sit on the NEC (Dugdale

The Spectator

Full speech: Tom Watson at Labour party conference

Hello, Conference. Thank you for being here in this great city, at this historic gathering of the greatest movement for social change our great country has ever known. It’s a privilege to address you. Thank you. I’d better get the difficult stuff out of the way: Saturday’s result, whatever you think of the man, whatever he’s done, how can Ed Balls be bottom of the leader board on Strictly Come Dancing? Strictly, of course, is a hot bed of media-obsessed prima donnas and harsh critics slating your every move. You’d think after a decade in Parliament Ed would have done better than that. Disappointing, Ed, to be honest. Whereas I

Katy Balls

Watch: Tom Watson defends New Labour’s record in barnstorming speech

Down-hearted moderates at this year’s Labour conference have received a much-needed boost this afternoon from the party’s Deputy Leader. Tom Watson gave a barnstorming speech to congregates as he defended Labour’s record in government and vowed to take the fight to the Tories in the next general election. After months of navel-gazing in the Labour leadership race, Watson turned his ire on the opposition. He described Theresa May as a Lib Dem manifesto pledge — ‘abandoned’ — as he accused her of ‘ducking and diving; humming and hahing’ on everything from the Northern powerhouse to the Single Market. As for the Liberal Democrats’ claim that they are the real opposition, Watson

Steerpike

Watch: Andrew Neil grills Shami Chakrabarti over her peerage

Although David Cameron faced flak over his resignation honours list, it was Jeremy Corbyn’s decision to give the chair of his anti-Semitism inquiry a peerage that attracted the most criticism. Today Shami Chakrabarti — now Baroness Chakrabarti of Kennington — appeared on the Daily Politics where Andrew Neil. While she freely admitted that her findings were yet to be ‘fully implemented’, she also praised Corbyn’s ‘greater ever mandate’. When it was put to her that quite a lot of members and Jewish groups had suggested her report was a whitewash, she replied that she was sorry not ‘everyone’ agreed with ‘everything’ she said. However, it was Neil’s questions regarding the

Tom Goodenough

Sadiq Khan’s power ballad to Jeremy Corbyn

Sadiq Khan’s speech to Labour conference just now could be summed up in a single word: power. He repeated it so much – 38 times in total – you’d be forgiven for thinking he could do with a thesaurus. But there was nothing accidental about him banging on about power. This was a clear dig at Jeremy Corbyn. Khan’s big idea isn’t real that big at all. He told his party that Labour out of power ‘will never, ever be good enough’, while his finishing plea was that: ‘It’s time to put Labour back into power, it’s time for a Labour Government. A Labour Prime Minister in Downing Street.’ It might seem

The Spectator

Full speech: Sadiq Khan at Labour conference

Labour in power. Not just talking the talk, but walking the walk too. Never sacrificing or selling out on our ideals, but putting them in action every single day. Not a revolution overnight, but real and meaningful change that makes life easier for the people who need it most. Conference, after the election this summer the leadership of our party has now been decided and I congratulate Jeremy on his clear victory. Now it’s time for us all to work together towards the greatest prize: getting Labour back into power. Conference, with Labour in power your home and your commute get more affordable, the air you breathe gets less polluted,

Fraser Nelson

Parliamentarians vs Corbynistas – two tribes at war in the Labour Party conference

Quite extraordinary scenes here at the Labour Party conference. I’m typing this in the main conference hall and have just watched Mike Katz of the Jewish Labour Movement give a short speech against anti-Semitism. This ought to be utterly uncontroversial, but it has become a wedge issue between the two tribes who now make up the Labour Party. Between those who were members before May 2015, and those who joined after. There have two very different outlooks, and are at war with each other. Katz’s speech was cheered effusively, like a rallying call, by about a third of the hall. And, amazingly, heckled by other members. When Katz said: ‘We

Steerpike

Boris Johnson refuses to apologise for his President Erdogan poem

Back in May, Boris Johnson was awarded first prize in the Spectator’s ‘President Erdogan Offensive Poetry competition’, for the following poem: There was a young fellow from Ankara Who was a terrific wankerer Till he sowed his wild oats With the help of a goat But he didn’t even stop to thankera. Fast forward a few months, and Boris – as Foreign Secretary – now finds himself in Turkey, on a diplomatic mission. And given that President Erdogan isn’t exactly renowned for his sense of humour – or his love of a free press – Mr S did wonder whether the Foreign Secretary might be coming under diplomatic pressure to renounce his poem. Thankfully,

Steerpike

John Woodcock has the last laugh on Trident

On Monday, it was the shadow Defence Secretary rather than the shadow Chancellor who made the biggest splash with their speech. Alas it was for the wrong reason — Clive Lewis had his speech changed at last minute by Seumas Milne to remove a pledge that Labour ‘would not seek to change’ its support for the renewal of Trident. Since then there has been much confusion over who in the party thinks what. While Corbyn’s office changed the speech — leading Lewis to allegedly punch a wall — the shadow Defence Secretary has since told the Guardian that he ‘won’t be coming back to conference between now and the next

Tom Goodenough

Labour conference, day three: The Spectator guide

Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, and Sadiq Khan, the Labour politician with the largest mandate to his name, both take to the stage today on the third day of Labour’s conference in Liverpool. Watson described the leadership contest as a ‘very bruising summer’ for the party and insisted the focus now was on ‘rebuilding trust’ among voters after Corbyn was re-elected leader on Saturday. He’s likely to make a similar pitch in his keynote speech today. While Khan will tell the Labour conference (in a veiled dig at Corbyn) that the party can only make a difference if it manages to win power. Elsewhere, Corbyn’s defeated rival in the leadership race

Monday

26 Sep 2016

Peter Stothard

Lessons for the Prime Minister’s speech-writer

To a new Prime Minister’s speech-writer the party conference approaches like a bullet train. If my friend, Sir Ronald Millar, were still alive he would be working flat out on Theresa May’s speech by now. With the date of delivery advancing and the drafts on her desk ever more undeliverable, the need for ‘Ronnification’ must be overwhelming. It always was. Ronnie is best known today as the playwright who wrote ‘U-turn if you want to: the lady’s not for turning’ for Margaret Thatcher in 1980, and gave this paper’s former editor, Charles Moore the title for the second volume of his great biography. But Ronnie, a classicist as well as

Steerpike

Watch: John McDonnell’s disastrous Newsnight interview

It’s been a long day for John McDonnell. On top of making his conference speech, the Shadow Chancellor has spoken at fringe events and given several interviews. So, perhaps that’s why his appearance on Monday’s Newsnight didn’t go quite to plan. In the interview with Evan Davis, McDonnell failed to shine as he put forward a rather confused vision for his party. Although he insisted that Labour were ready to govern, he also admitted that the party was not in a position to share its policy on tax — instead saying it should remain ‘roughly the same as it is’ — immigration or Trident. When it was pointed out to McDonnell

Isabel Hardman

Labour moderates split over whether to serve on Corbyn’s frontbench

Whether or not to serve on Labour’s frontbench is a question of the same order of asking whether the deck chairs on the Titanic should face north or south. But Labour MPs do have to work out what’s best to do while their ship is being captained by Jeremy Corbyn – and we’re starting to see signs of splits within the moderate camp on how best to do this. This evening, centrist MP Johnny Reynolds is reported to be returning to the Labour frontbench as City Minister, which may mean Labour actually holds meetings with people in the City as opposed to ignoring them. But it is also a completely