Jeremy corbyn

First things first: there is no force in Heaven or on Earth that could induce me to vote for Jeremy Corbyn and his sad brand of sixth-former state socialism. In fact, as someone who believes in freedom and growth, the idea of ever giving my beloved ballot to the illiberal, eco-miserabilist Labour Party, regardless of who’s leading it, fills me with horror. Or is it mirth? It’s one or the other. And yet, despite my Corbynphobia, and my humane desire to see dying Labourism put out of its misery, I increasingly find myself shaking my head in something like fury at Corbyn’s Labour critics. They accuse him of destroying their

Tomorrow, Labour will try out something curious during the Commons debate on airstrikes in Syria. The opposition side of the debate will be opened by Jeremy Corbyn, who will argue against airstrikes, and later closed by Hilary Benn, who will make the case for them. This may sound all very dynamic and different but there is a simple and important question ordinary folks will be wondering: what is Labour’s policy on Syrian airstrikes? On the Today programme, the shadow foreign secretary said he is in favour of the strikes because ‘there is a clear and present threat from Isil Daesh’ and called for respect from the opposing sides within Labour – possibly in response

On Saturday evening, the Eastern Pavilion Banqueting Hall was taken over by Momentum for a curry after a cold and very wet day of campaigning for the Oldham West and Royton by-election. Momentum is a political activist group, founded in the wake of Jeremy Corbyn’s rise to the Labour leadership. As with most things under his watch, it has received a bad press. Critics in and outside of the Labour party say Momentum is trying to be a party within a party — an effort by hard-left activists to infiltrate Labour as Militant did in the 1980s and make it their own. Everyone I spoke in the Eastern Pavilion vigorously denied

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

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

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.