Politics Archives

Monday

30 Nov 2015

Steerpike

Seumas Milne causes problems for the Guardian

Covering the upcoming Syria vote is proving to be a challenge for hacks at the Guardian. Steerpike understands that the paper is having a difficult time deciding its editorial line on the issue which is currently undermining Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. Meanwhile, the little fact that Corbyn’s head of comms Seumas Milne — the Guardian columnist and associate editor — is on leave from the paper only complicates matters further. Now the New Statesman‘s George Eaton reports that the Guardian are even having issues when it comes to their insider briefings. Today’s shadow cabinet meeting over the party’s plan on Syria hit a bum note when seven minutes into the meeting, a number of attendees received an update from

Sebastian Payne

CCHQ announces independent inquiry into Elliott Johnson

The board of the Conservative party met this afternoon and finally agreed to hold a fully independent investigation into circumstances around the death of RoadTrip activist Elliott Johnson and the allegations of bullying by Mark Clarke. CCHQ has said the investigation will be ‘timely, objective, and comprehensive and independent from the Chairman, CCHQ staff and Party volunteers’. In a statement, the Conservative party said: From tomorrow (1 December), the investigation will be conducted in its entirety by the law firm Clifford Chance LLP. This will include taking witness statements and the collation and review of all written evidence. Clifford Chance LLP will review all interviews already conducted and give those

Isabel Hardman

Is Hilary Benn about to become Labour’s very own Aung San Suu Kyi?

Labour’s shadow cabinet meeting is now over, with members scuttling past a hungry pack of journalists in Portcullis House without comment. Frontbencher sources seem to think that Corbyn told his shadow ministers that they could take their own line but not speak in the Commons about that line if it contradicted the party line (confused? Welcome to the Straight Talking Honest New Politics). This would potentially mean that Hilary Benn can’t speak in the Commons as shadow foreign secretary if he decides that what he said last week was a ‘compelling’ case worth supporting. Party sources suggest that this would make him the Aung San Suu Kyi of Labour, which

Alex Massie

A free vote on military action in Syria is the least bad option available for everyone

Well, this is another fine mess, isn’t it? Jeremy Corbyn opposes (surprise!) extending the UK’s anti-ISIS mission from Iraq to Syria and this, we are told, is the Labour party’s official position. Nevertheless, Labour MPs will not be whipped whenever the matter is eventually put to a vote in the House of Commons. They will be free to vote as their conscience, and their calculation of the national interest, demands. By virtue of discovering that all his other options were unsustainable, Corbyn has blundered into the only choice that was feasible all along. Truly, another memorable profile in leadership. Now you may object that the whole rigmarole is unnecessary in the

Steerpike

Corbyn’s Stop the War comrade: are Zionists at the heart of the Tory bullying scandal?

As details have emerged regarding the Mark Clarke bullying scandal that is currently engulfing the Tory party, allegations of blackmail, revenge porn and drug-taking have come to light. As a result, the Tory party is currently under pressure to explain why allegations of bullying were not looked into sooner by members of Tory HQ. With Grant Shapps resigning from his ministerial post over the weekend as a result of these damaging allegations, others are beginning to ask: why was there such a toxic atmosphere among young Tory activists in the first place? As for Jeremy Corbyn’s Stop The War comrade Yvonne Ridley? Well for Ridley — the journalist who converted to Islam after

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn grants Labour MPs a free vote on Syria

The Shadow Cabinet is now holding its (delayed) meeting on Labour’s stance on Syria, and members have been told that they will get a free vote on the matter. Sources say that Jeremy Corbyn will also ask David Cameron to delay the vote, which is expected on Wednesday, in order to respond to MPs’ concerns, and that the party will still take a position that frontbenchers won’t necessarily have to follow. This is a way of avoiding the mass resignations and fury that Shadow Cabinet members were threatening. But it is also a sign that Labour as a party no longer falls within the accepted definition of a political party.

James Forsyth

Feldman’s defenders weigh in

Friends of Andrew Feldman have launched a vigorous defence of the party chairman ahead of this afternoon’s board meeting. A long-serving member of the party board, a Cabinet Minister and a senior Number 10 source have been phoning around offering their backing to him. They argue that when Shapps and Feldman were co-chairmen, there was a clear division of labour with Shapps involved in the ground campaign and Feldman taking charge of the money and administrative matters. So, it should be Shapps—not Feldman—who takes responsibility for what went wrong with Road Trip 2015. One Cabinet Minister tells me that because Lynton Crosby had taken over so much of the traditional role

Isabel Hardman

Labour claims 75 per cent of members oppose air strikes in Syria

Just minutes before the crunch Shadow Cabinet meeting about the Labour stance on air strikes in Syria, the party has released figures showing an overwhelming majority oppose UK bombing in Syria. This is the statement: 75 per cent of Labour Party members responding to weekend consultation oppose UK bombing in Syria A sample of this weekend’s consultation of Labour Party members, carried out in response to an email from Jeremy Corbyn, issued Friday 27th November, has shown that 75 per cent of Labour party members who have responded oppose UK bombing in Syria. 107,875 responses were received of which 64,771 were confirmed as full individual Labour Party members. The remainder

Isabel Hardman

Mark Clarke and the safe seat myth

How did those accused of bullying in the Conservative party’s youth wing get away with it? The central party, which appears to be slowly waking up to the fact that it can’t mark its own homework with an internal investigation into the events preceding Elliott Johnson’s death, may have been so desperate for help ferrying its limited number of young activists around the country that it jumped at the offer from Mark Clarke (who denies all the allegations put to him over the past few weeks). But those unhappy at the state of affairs seem to have been held back from complaining by something else: the threat to their careers. Account

Sebastian Payne

Can Lord Feldman survive as Tory chairman?

The murky story of Mark Clarke, Elliott Johnson and allegations of bullying in the ranks of Conservative Future is pointing towards another scalp: Lord Feldman. Following the resignation of Grant Shapps this weekend, MPs are now calling for the Conservative party’s current chairman to resign — given that he was at the top of Conservative HQ when Clarke was kicked off the candidates list and later brought back in. He was also chairman when Johnson died too. Shapps has been described as the ‘fall guy’ for this situation — he had already left CCHQ after May’s general election and has been serving as the international development minister. But he tweeted

Sunday

29 Nov 2015

Nick Robinson

The debate about Syrian airstrikes already feels hackneyed

Two years ago, just a few days after the Commons opposed airstrikes on Syria, I read another memorable phrase to David Cameron. It was what President Putin’s spokesman had been saying about Britain in private — ‘a small island no one pays attention to’. I have had the sense ever since that the Prime Minister has been haunted by the remark. I expect MPs will change that next week when they back RAF attacks on IS targets in Syria. However, so much else in this debate already feels wearily familiar. Backers of airstrikes will call opponents of them ‘appeasers’. They will respond by labelling their opponents ‘warmongers’, while armchair generals will head

Sebastian Payne

John McDonnell: Ukip is ‘an evil force within our society’

John McDonnell spoke at a Momentum curry dinner in Oldham yesterday evening, following a day on the doorstep ahead of Thursday’s by-election. I was lurking at the back and there weren’t many other journalists there. The shadow chancellor raised expectations for Labour holding onto the seat, as well as telling Momentum activists that the party has to defeat Ukip, who are seen as the most likely challengers, because it is an ‘evil force within our society’: WATCH 1/3 John McDonnell at Momentum curry dinner: #Ukip is “an evil force within our society” https://t.co/H8qzcmrQ1S — Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) November 29, 2015 ‘There are some within the party, and in the media in particular, who are

Saturday

28 Nov 2015

Ed West

There’s nothing ‘conservative’ about supporting foreign intervention

These are the Arab countries the Foreign Office currently advises it is safe to visit: Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Oman and Jordan. Call this list A. These are the Arab countries the Foreign Office currently advises avoiding travel to, or to some regions at least: Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, the Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. Call this list B. Anyone notice a pattern here? Answer at the end. I have to admit to not having a clue whether we should be getting involved in Syria. For the first time yesterday morning I listened to Radio 4 and felt there to be a sort of right-wing bias to it,

James Forsyth

The EU renegotiation is now the biggest obstacle to Osborne making it to Number 10

At the start of this week, everyone was wondering how George Osborne was going to get out of trouble on tax credits, avoid a deeply damaging row over police cuts, all while still keeping to his surplus target. But thanks to the Office for Budget Responsibility upgrading its forecasts, Osborne was able to scrap the tax credit changes, protect the police budget and maintain his plan for a £10 billion surplus by the end of the parliament. But now, an even bigger challenge awaits Osborne: the EU renegotiation. I argue in my Sun column today that it is now the biggest threat to his chances of becoming Prime Minister. Boris

Friday

27 Nov 2015

Brendan O’Neill

It’s time to smash the whole welfare system

George Osborne’s Autumn Statement, with its backtracking on the slashing of tax credits, leaves a huge question hanging over 21st-century Britain: who has the cojones to do something about the destructive culture of welfarism? Anybody? It seems not. Both the supposedly small-state right and the apparently pro-work left have become bizarrely reluctant to address the spread of the autonomy-sapping welfare state into more people’s lives. Look, the tax credits thing is definitely complicated. It would have been dodgy to cut them without first putting meaningful pressure on business to pay people a proper wage. It is, however, weird and wrong that the state effectively tops up people’s pay packets, so

Steerpike

David Icke comes to Jeremy Corbyn’s defence

Jeremy Corbyn is not having a good day. A large number of Labour MPs are uniting against him over his stance on Syria, while the news that the Labour party has lifted its suspension of his aide Andrew Fisher has been met with hostility by Caroline Flint and Siobhain McDonagh. With the knives out for the Labour leader, happily Corbyn can at least rely on the support of one man at this testing time. Step forward David Icke. Yes, the purple-tracksuit-wearing-lizard-conspiracist has tweeted his support for Corbyn, sharing a charming clip art picture urging him to ‘stand by your principles’. pic.twitter.com/eXGn8fTz4w — David Icke (@davidicke) November 27, 2015 While Corbyn needs all the

Sebastian Payne

Labour MPs furious at NEC’s decision to let off Corbyn aide

The Labour Party has lifted its suspension of Andrew Fisher, a political aide to Jeremy Corbyn, following an investigation into some controversial comments. Prior to his employment with Corbyn, Fisher encouraged voters not to back Labour in Croydon South during May’s general election — which would normally result in an expulsion from the party — as well as describing Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell as ‘scumbags’ and Jack Straw a ‘vile git’. After an investigation into these remarks, Labour’s National Executive Committee has let Fisher off with a warning. This isn’t a surprise, given that NEC member Peter Willsman blogged earlier this week that the Fisher matter would be ‘satisfactorily resolved very shortly’. This decision has unsurprisingly gone down

Douglas Murray

It’s all over for the ‘decent left’, and they have only themselves to blame

Two weeks after Paris we finally have some clarity from the political left. The current stance of their leadership (as expressed in the Parliamentary Labour party) is that while there is no justification for bombing ISIS, there are many reasons to bomb London. On the same evening that Jeremy Corbyn told his party that he could not support airstrikes on ISIS his old comrade (and head of the Labour party’s new ‘defence review’) Ken Livingstone shared his view on Question Time that the 7/7 bombers ‘gave their lives’ in an act of supremely selfless objection to the 2nd Iraq War. Now I know that there are a few people still

Alex Massie

Death of a political party: Jeremy Corbyn has killed Labour

It’s all over. In fact, it was over before it ever really began. I knew it, you knew it, and even many of the poor fish who voted for Jeremy Corbyn knew it. And now everyone knows, as Morrissey put it, That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore. The Labour party, it should now be obvious to everyone, no longer exists as a functional political organisation. Order has disintegrated and it’s every man – and woman – for themselves. Save what you can while you can because things are going to get worse – a lot worse – before they get any better. It is a shambles; a once great party reduced to

Sebastian Payne

What’s really driving Labour’s row over Syria?

Is Labour working through its policy differences on bombing Syria or is the shadow cabinet genuinely split? The New Politics dictates that public debate and consultations should be encouraged, so the Corbynites don’t see a problem with the current situation. John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, tweeted this morning to ask everyone to ‘calm down’ because Labour is going through the process of deciding its position on Syria: On Syria, can everyone calm down.We're all simply working through the issues & coming to final decision.Don't mistake democracy for division — John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) November 27, 2015 Diane Abbott, the shadow international development secretary and another key Corbyn ally, has told