Labour Party

Labour has elected Margaret Beckett as its next National Executive Committee (NEC) chair amid controversy over how the vote was conducted. Members on the left of Labour’s ruling NEC have staged a walk-out in protest at the election of veteran MP Dame Beckett as chair. The members believe Dame Margaret’s election to the role does not […]

Labour’s chief whip has asked Jeremy Corbyn to “unequivocally, unambiguously and without reservation” apologise for claiming that the scale of anti-Semitism in the party was “dramatically overstated for political reasons”. In a letter obtained by the PA news agency, Nick Brown said the former Labour leader’s response to a damning Equality and Human Rights Commission […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on the dilemma facing the Labour Party, if the government secures a Brexit deal with the EU. Greetings from the depression front line. There is a lot if it around. Mine, and, judging by my inbox and random encounters on rare sorties out of the house, plenty of other people’s too. Being out […]

Labour will have to live with its decision on how it votes over a Brexit deal for years to come, says DENIS MacSHANE. Forty nine years ago, 69 brave Labour MPs broke with the party’s conventional wisdom, defied the official whip, and voted to take Britain into Europe. Amongst them was a future party leader, John Smith. The […]

A Labour MP has been rebuked by the speaker in the House of Commons after claiming Boris Johnson’s “foulmouthed-edness has caught up with him”. Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi raised previous comments by the prime minister to point out that his remarks are likely to have made chances of a deal with the president-elect Joe […]

A Labour MP has clashed with a Tory minister after saying Boris Johnson had a “pattern of behaviour” wasting taxpayers’ funds. Shadow housing and communities minister Steve Reed said the prime minister had a track record of spending public funds on projects that were either scrapped or seen as inefficient. Reed also said the Tory party […]

A Labour MP has been left in “shock” following claims by a Tory MP that his party does not have an issue with racism. Labour’s Clive Lewis and Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell exchanged barbs over how each party has reacted to internal issues of racism and ethnic and religious discrimination. The row comes on the back of […]

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is facing pressure to keep his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn out of the parliamentary party after he was reinstated as a member three weeks after being suspended. Sir Keir has yet to decide whether to restore the whip but said the move to readmit Mr Corbyn by the party’s ruling National […]

Jeremy Corbyn has acknowledged anti-Semitism complaints in Labour were not “exaggerated” just weeks after being suspended for saying they were in a move to have the party reinstate him. The former Labour leader had the whip withdrawn and was suspended from the party over his response to a damning Equality and Human Rights Commission which found that […]

With reports of a Brexit deal “days away” and the UK’s chief negotiator claiming there could be an agreement with the European Union in the next week, all eyes turn to parliament to find out how it might vote. David Frost is reported to have told the prime minister there would be a “possible landing zone” […]

Labour has suspended a number of members who passed a motion criticising the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn for his reaction to the damning report into anti-Semitism within the party during his leadership. The group from the Bristol West constituency Labour party (CLP) face disciplinary action over the motion which branded the former leader’s treatment as […]

Roy Jenkins – the man that helped Britain join the European Community. This week sees the 100th anniversary of the birth of Roy Jenkins, one of the outstanding British statesmen of the post-war period. He was one of the greatest reforming home secretaries in history, arguably the most successful chancellor of the exchequer since the […]

A series of Brexiteers in the Labour Party are demanding an apology from Keir Starmer for opposing Brexit when he was in charge of the party’s policy. The former Jeremy Corbyn frontbenchers say that Starmer cannot rebuild trust with “red wall” voters without “settling of accounts” on the issue. Laura Smith, Jon Trickett, and Ian […]

Former Conservative minister Anna Soubry has backed Keir Starmer to be the next prime minister over Boris Johnson. Soubry, who quit the party to lead Change UK in 2019, was comparing two tweets between the Labour and Tory leaders over Joe Biden’s win. While Johnson went for an impersonal approach commenting on the “special relationship” […]

The latest voter intention polling by YouGov shows that Labour has jumped five points ahead of the Conservative Party. A survey by YouGov over November 4 and 5 shows Labour holding 40% of the vote compared to the Tory Party’s 35%. Latest Westminster voting intention (fieldwork 4-5 Nov) Lab – 40%Con – 35%Lib Dem – 7%Brexit […]

Suspended Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn has been spotted flouting coronavirus restrictions on the Isle of Wight. The former Labour leader was seen travelling on a ferry to the Isle despite living in a Tier 2 area in London, where travel to lower-risk areas is discouraged. According to the Sun, he is staying in a four-star […]

A health minister has rebuffed calls for cross-party talks on a mental health package for NHS staff, telling Labour the only way they would sway policy was to “win an election”.  Nadine Dorries, the minister for mental health, said the government had launched a range of initiatives to help people with mental health conditions cope during the […]

Jeremy Corbyn has been advised to “retire” from politics by John Mann – the former Labour MP who resigned to become the government’s anti-Semitism tsar. Mann, who was formerly the MP for Bassetlaw, said that Corbyn was “guilty of a political ideology that allowed this hatred to spread” and said that “he hasn’t got a […]

Longstanding Labour supporter Bonnie Greer has said she felt “sick” after discovering the extent of the party’s anti-Semitism problems in a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Greer, who writes for The New European, gave a stinging assessment of the Labour Party’s failure to tackle the treatment and harassment of Jewish people during an appearance on Question […]

A snap poll has found that most Britons support Labour’s decision to suspend Jeremy Corbyn over anti-Semitism, with more of the party’s voters also thinking it was the right choice rather than a wrong one. The former Labour leader lost the party whip after he said the issue had been “dramatically overstated” by opponents in an […]

The damning report into anti-Semitism under Jeremy Corbyn gave Sir Keir Starmer enough wiggle-room not to further enflame party tensions by taking immediate action against his predecessor. But Corbyn’s refusal to fully accept the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s findings and his insistence that the extent of racism in the party had been “dramatically overstated […]

Labour is demanding an investigation into a leaked dossier which shows hundreds of millions of pounds worth of coronavirus contracts were handed to “VIPs”. Documents leaked by the Good Law Project, an anti-corruption watchdog, allegedly expose special procurement channels that allowed contractors to bid for work without needing to undergo the normal tendering process. The organisation – which has […]

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been suspended from the party over anti-Semitism claims after a report pinned the blame for failures for tackling the discrimination at his door. Keir Starmer made the move after Corbyn rejected the findings of the Equality and Human Rights Commission investigation, saying they were “dramatically overstated”. There had been […]

Jeremy Corbyn has rejected the findings of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s investigation into anti-Semitism in Labour under his leadership. In a post on Facebook, he claimed that the findings were “dramatically overstated” but denounced anti-Semitism. He wrote: “Anti-semitism is absolutely abhorrent, wrong and responsible for some of humanity’s greatest crimes. “As Leader of the […]

There have been calls for Jeremy Corbyn to resign as a Labour MP after the publication of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s 130-page report on the investigation into anti-Semitism in Labour under his leadership. It said they found “specific examples of harassment, discrimination and political interference”, but also noted “a lack of leadership within […]

A political commentator has pointed out that Andy Burnham could have been halfway through his tenure as prime minister right now if Labour had not elected Jeremy Corbyn, and could have even stopped Brexit in the process. Burnham was beaten to the job of Labour leader by Jeremy Corbyn in 2015 after Ed Miliband resigned […]

A peer told of the “mounting panic” his family had faced ahead of school holidays when he was a child as he shared his experiences of receiving free meals, as he slammed the “Etonians” in parliament who would not recognise that feeling. Labour’s Lord Griffiths of Burry Port told the House of Lords: “I was […]

As the election results came in from New Zealand I was lucky enough to be able to celebrate with a small (fewer than six!) group of Kiwis, close friends and former colleagues of victorious Jacinda Ardern. With so much bad news around, it was great to be able to enjoy a stunning Labour victory; a […]

Diane Abbott has accused Sir Keir Starmer of plotting to become Labour leader while he was Brexit minister in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, and suggested the new leader had used the Remain platform to achieve his goal. The former shadow home secretary said Sir Keir’s ambitions were “fairly apparent” and accused him of running “a project of […]

Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi said she has been admitted to hospital with pneumonia after testing positive for Covid-19. In a Facebook statement, the shadow international development minister said: “Two weeks ago, I began to feel unwell. I then tested positive for Covid-19, so my family and I immediately self-isolated at home. I have not travelled […]

Sir Keir Starmer faced a series of resignations as he suffered a major rebellion over the so-called “spy cops” law. The Labour leader ordered his MPs to abstain on the third reading of the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) Bill. But 34 decided to oppose the legislation, including former leader Jeremy Corbyn, ex-shadow chancellor John […]

Labour leader Keir Starmer is to hold his first televised press conference in response to Monday’s Downing Street press briefing. Whilst Johnson fronted this week’s event alongside chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chancellor Rishi Sunak, he is not expected to front the new ‘White House’ style press briefings starting soon. Johnson has hired former journalist […]