Category Archives: Labour

Labour: anger, recrimination and bitterness mark fresh battle for party’s soul

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The election was bad, but the aftermath is worse for a divided party

Labour leadership contests are normally traumatic events held in very unhappy times for the party. The election of Ed Miliband in 2010 followed a general election defeat that ended 13 years of Labour government. Five years later Jeremy Corbyn was installed after Miliband failed to return the party to power. Then in the summer of 2016 a revolt against Corbyn by his own MPs sparked another contest, which saw the incumbent win again and take revenge on the mutinous parliamentary party.

Inevitably these contests cause internal ruptures as rival candidates set out opposing visions and their supporters divide into camps. The 2010 campaign had its tragic aspects too, as the Miliband brothers, Ed and David, fell out while fighting each other for the right to succeed Gordon Brown.

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Brexit: MPs voting on withdrawal agreement bill – live news

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MPs vote on the EU withdrawal agreement bill, and Clive Lewis becomes the second Labour MP to enter party’s leadership contest

Brexit secretary Steve Barclay said the general election had delivered a clear instruction to parliament to leave the EU and so MP should respect that decision and back the bill.

This bill is not a victory for one side over the other. The time has come to discard the old labels to move from the past divisions and to come together as one United Kingdom.

Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary who is predicted to run for the Labour leadership, warned Conservative MPs to “be careful”. “Doing things because the government has a majority doesn’t mean those things are right,” he said.

He said that the move to water down commitments to child refugees is an example of that. “That is a moral disgrace,” he said.

I turn to my own benches. We may have lost the general election, but we have not lost our values and our beliefs and we must fight for them – day in, day out – in this parliament and we will.

That doesn’t mean that the deal negotiated by the prime minister is a good deal. It isn’t. It was a bad deal in October when it was signed. It was a bad deal when it was first debated in this House in October. It was a bad deal last Thursday and it’s a bad deal today.

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Labour party staff angry at handling of possible redundancies

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Corbyn aides Seumas Milne and Karie Murphy moved to permanent contracts, unlike others

Labour party staff who are angry that they face losing their jobs while senior aides to Jeremy Corbyn remain on the payroll have been called in to meetings to discuss possible redundancies.

A leaked email sent on Wednesday shows that workers and advisers from the offices of the Labour leader and shadow ministers have been invited to meetings with their line managers following Thursday’s catastrophic election result.

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‘Extra pathos’: belongings of ex- Labour MP who lost seat incinerated

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Commons staff mistakenly destroy some of Graham Jones’s files and favourite outfits

A former Labour whip who lost his seat in the general election has had his clothes and private documents mistakenly incinerated by parliamentary staff.

Graham Jones, the ousted parliamentary candidate for Hyndburn in last Thursday’s general election, returned to Westminster this week to clear his office, which is close to the House of Commons chamber and Strangers bar.

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Emily Thornberry throws her hat into ring for Labour leadership

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Exclusive: shadow foreign secretary says she warned party leaders going to polls would be ‘act of catastrophic political folly’

Emily Thornberry has declared she is entering the race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn, revealing she warned the Labour leadership that backing a Brexit election would be an “act of catastrophic political folly”.

The shadow foreign secretary set out her pitch to be the next Labour leader in an article for the Guardian, arguing she has already “pummelled” Boris Johnson across the dispatch box and knows how to exploit his failings.

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Keir Starmer lays out case for ‘radical Labour government’

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Exclusive: shadow Brexit secretary calls for end to party infighting and return to being a ‘broad church’

Keir Starmer has set out his pitch for the Labour leadership with a call for his party not to lurch to the right as a result of last week’s devastating election result.

While the leadership race has not yet formally been launched, the shadow Brexit secretary confirmed to the Guardian that, as widely expected in Westminster, he was “seriously considering” running to succeed Jeremy Corbyn.

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Cabinet mini-reshuffle under way as Johnson keeps Nicky Morgan as culture secretary – live news

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Simon Hart named new Welsh secretary as prime minister announces that Morgan – who stood down as MP – will get life peerage

Here’s a host more middle and junior-ranking ministerial appointments just announced by No 10:

A mooted plan to merge the department for international development (DfID) and the foreign office (FCO) risks allowing British aid money to be spent on “UK foreign policy, commercial and political objectives”, rather than on helping the world’s poorest people, more than 100 charities warn.

Related: Johnson to tell new Tory MPs they must repay public’s trust

Merging DfID with the FCO would risk dismantling the UK’s leadership on international development and humanitarian aid. It suggests we are turning our backs on the world’s poorest people, as well as some of the greatest global challenges of our time: extreme poverty, climate change and conflict. UK aid risks becoming a vehicle for UK foreign policy, commercial and political objectives, when it first and foremost should be invested to alleviate poverty.

By far the best way to ensure that aid continues to deliver for those who need it the most is by retaining DfID as a separate Whitehall department, with a secretary of state for international development, and by pledging to keep both independent aid scrutiny bodies: the Independent Commission for Aid Impact and the International Development Select Committee.

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Peterborough voters cite ‘Brexit, Brexit, Brexit’ as reason they turned blue

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Labour said to have ‘dug its own grave’ with Corbyn as leader as social change mantra failed to cut through

“I feel excellent,” said David Cliffe as he strode across Peterborough’s Cathedral Square, having contributed to a thumping Conservative majority. “I didn’t want to have a communist regime,” said the 71-year-old retired warehouseman. “The country would have been on its knees.”

Cliffe, who was on his way to book his mother a Christmas holiday in Scarborough, could not stop beaming about Boris Johnson’s Conservative landslide, which he reckoned meant Brexit was all but done.

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What will Boris Johnson’s majority mean for Brexit? | Anand Menon

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We will leave the EU in a few weeks. But it’s far from clear what kind of relationship with the bloc an emboldened PM will seek

Well it is truly remarkable. Not so much the result of the election, which is surprising enough. But, rather, the fact that following the “Brexit election”, one in which traditional party loyalties seem to have been stretched to breaking point by the leave-remain divide, we emerge not knowing what kind of Brexit the prime minister intends to deliver.

In the short term, there is now no doubt that he will be able to “get Brexit done” in the sense of taking the UK out of the EU by the end of January. And no, that does not mean that Brexit will, in fact, be done (on which more in a minute) in a practical sense. But it may – may – be possible for the government to give the impression that it is in a politically persuasive way.

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General election: poll suggests Tory lead narrows as campaign enters last day – live

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Labour and the Conservatives in scramble for votes on the final day of campaigning

Here’s Labour’s campaign ad this morning, invoking the Blitz spirit.

Let's get back on track. pic.twitter.com/nITBAzhJUO

A busy day all round. Johnson will be travelling from Yorkshire to the Midlands, Wales and London.

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The Guardian view on general election 2019: A fleeting chance to stop Boris Johnson in his tracks | Editorial

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The mood may be one of despair, but this election is critical to the country’s future. The best hope lies with Labour, despite its flaws

Britain has not faced a more critical election in decades than the one it faces on Thursday. The country’s future direction, its place in the world and even its territorial integrity are all at stake, primarily because this is a decisive election for Brexit. The choice is stark. The next prime minister is going to be either Boris Johnson, who is focused on “getting Brexit done” whatever the consequences, or Jeremy Corbyn, who with a Labour-led government will try to remodel society with a programme of nationalisation and public spending.

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General election: Labour sets out plan for first 100 days in office – live news

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John McDonnell to outline agenda for Labour government as general election campaign enters its final days

Good morning. We’re here, in the final stretch of the campaign. The country will go to the polls on Thursday, but before that happens, the parties are giving their pitches one final push.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell will outline the party’s plan for the first 100 days of a Labour government, while the party focuses on the benefit of its policies to the bank balances of voters, promising the public that a Labour government would put “money in your pocket”.

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Labour antisemitism row may affect election result, says McDonnell

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Shadow chancellor says sorry to Jewish community, adding party was ‘doing everything possible’ to tackle issue

The shadow chancellor has expressed his concern that the row over antisemitism in Labour may have an effect on the election result, adding that the party had “done everything we can possibly do” to tackle the problem.

In a BBC One interview on Sunday morning, John McDonnell apologised to the Jewish community for “the suffering we’ve inflicted on them”. He added: “I say to them, we’re doing everything possible and we are going to learn more lessons and we want to be the shining example of anti-racism that the Labour party should be.”

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Calls grow to stop Boris Johnson with tactical voting as race tightens

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Eleventh-hour appeal to anti-Tory voters as poll shows Conservative majority halved

A cross-party alliance of opposition politicians has launched an 11th-hour appeal to anti-Tory voters to consider switching allegiance in Thursday’s general election, amid signs that a late surge of tactical voting in a few swing seats could deprive Boris Johnson of a majority in parliament.

The calls from senior Labour, Liberal Democrat and SNP figures come as a major poll suggests Johnson’s likely majority has been cut in half in the last two weeks – from 82 a fortnight ago to just 40 with four days to polling day.

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BBC debate: Corbyn hits out at Johnson’s ‘racist remarks’

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Labour and Conservative party leaders clash over racism and NHS in final before polling day

Jeremy Corbyn accused Boris Johnson of having made “racist remarks” as the pair clashed over Islamophobia and antisemitism in their parties in a crucial head-to-head debate less than a week before polling day.

Corbyn made the allegation during the BBC One leaders’ debate on Friday as he defended himself against Johnson’s charge that his handling of antisemitism complaints within Labour was a “failure of leadership”.

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Corbyn apologises for antisemitism in Labour party

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Labour leader says: ‘Obviously I’m very sorry for what has happened’

Jeremy Corbyn has apologised to the Jewish community for antisemitic incidents involving Labour party members and said he was dealing with the issue.

The Labour leader said: “Obviously I’m very sorry for what has happened,” after being asked to apologise directly by presenter Philip Schofield, in an interview on ITV’s This Morning.

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Academic quits C of E body over chief rabbi’s Labour antisemitism comments

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Gus John lambasts Justin Welby’s support amid church’s ‘woeful’ record on racism

A leading campaigner against racism has resigned from a Church of England advisory body in protest at the archbishop of Canterbury’s support for the chief rabbi’s comments last week on antisemitism in the Labour party.

Gus John, a respected author and academic, said: “As a matter of principle, I cannot continue to work with the Anglican church … after the archbishop of Canterbury’s disgraceful endorsement of the chief rabbi’s unjust condemnation of Jeremy Corbyn and the entire Labour party.”

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Trump denies interest in NHS even if it was handed to US ‘on a silver platter’ – video

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Donald Trump has said he would not be interested in putting Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) on the table during trade talks with the UK even if it was ‘handed on a silver platter’.

Trump, who is in London for a Nato summit, said: ‘We have absolutely nothing to do with [the NHS], and we wouldn’t want to. If you handed it to us on a silver platter, we’d want nothing to do with it’

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Leaked NHS papers ‘put online by posters using Russian methods’

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Questions about dissemination of documents do not mean they are fake, but poses new puzzle

Leaked documents said by Labour to prove that the NHS was “on the table” in trade talks with the US were initially disseminated online by anonymous posters operating in a way similar to a Russian information operation known as Secondary Infektion, according to a social media research firm.

A 19-page report published on Monday by the consultancy Graphika said that while it could not conclusively prove a Russian origin to the leak, the early distribution of the cache of files via Reddit, three German-language websites and an anonymous Twitter account reflected a method of operation seen repeatedly over recent years.

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General election: Swinson condemns Johnson over Trump friendship ahead of London visit – live

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Lib Dem leader said leaders should be ‘very careful’ about relationship with US president, ahead of his arrival for Nato

Morning, Amy Walker here, I’ll be taking over the politics liveblog for the next hour or so.

The former head of the parole board, Nick Hardwick, has criticised government changes to the criminal justice system after London Bridge attacker Usman Khan was released from prison under licence.

PA Media reports a vigil will be held to pay tribute to the victims killed in the London Bridge terror attack and to honour the emergency services and members of the public who responded to the incident.

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