Labour Party

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 […]

How did it come to this? We are a moderate nation; most of us stand somewhere around the centre politically. Get on with your life without too much interference from the state, work hard, pay your taxes, be tolerant, do what you can to help those worse off than yourself, create safety nets for the […]

Unite the Union, Labour’s biggest financial donor, is reducing affiliation with the party by about 10% after a vote of its executive. The union’s boss Len McCluskey, an ally of Jeremy Corbyn, has warned Sir Keir Starmer not to move Labour too far from the left, warning of further cuts to the multi-million pound funding if […]

The Labour leader’s first conference speech was light on detail, but in an earlier presentation clear contours of his vision could be made out, says FLORENCE SUTCLIFFE-BRAITHWAITE. Earlier this month, Keir Starmer addressed the Trades Union Congress annual conference for the first time as Labour Party leader. Just over a year earlier, as shadow Brexit […]

Arron Banks’ Leave.EU organisation has been forced to apologise to a Labour MP for calling her a “grooming gang apologist”. The unofficial Brexit campaign continue to have a high profile on social media, with the advisers behind the campaign more recently turning their attention to New Zealand politics. But before they turned their attention elsewhere, […]

Labour activist MARTYN SLOMAN on Keir Starmer’s first party conference speech as leader. As a seasoned and highly professional politician, Keir Starmer will have recognised that not being able to hold the traditional Labour Party Conference had many advantages.  True, it denied him the images of cheering supporters transmitted as the first item on the evening […]

A new poll from YouGov has seen Keir Starmer’s perception with the public rise again with 37% now believing he would make the best prime minister. It is an increase of two points compared to a week ago, whilst Boris Johnson has failed to change opinion this week, remaining static on just 30% of support. The […]

Labour MP Claudia Webbe has been suspended by Keir Starmer after being charged with harassment. Reports suggest that the Labour leader made the decision after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced the charge against the 55-year-old, who represents Leicester East, after being passed a file of evidence by the Metropolitan Police. Webbe is due to appear […]

A new poll has given Labour a three-point lead over the Conservatives for the first time since Boris Johnson took power. Opinium polling found the opposition has increased its share of support by three points to 42% of support, compared to the Tories, which saw a drop in backing by three points. It means the […]

The latest Conservative attack lines over Brexit have backfired, after it tried to accuse Labour of taking the side of “the EU” in parliament by voting against Boris Johnson’s bill. Moments after the Internal Market Bill passed its second reading – designed to override the Withdrawal Agreement bill and international law – the Tories claimed […]

Attorney general Suella Braverman has branded Labour “unpatriotic” for opposing the Internal Market Bill which will break international law. Braverman said Labour’s stance on the bill, which the government admitted broke the law in “a very limited and specific way” was “anything but patriotic”. Labour’s stance on the bill matches that of all living former […]

Research by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) has found student support for Labour has risen during Keir Starmer’s leadership. The new YouthSight data on voting intentions found that Labour was the most popular party among students, with 62% saying they would vote for the party. Labour’s student backers have risen considerably under Starmer, after […]

Few political autobiographies contain actual revelations. The occasional tit-bit, perhaps, a humorous aside from a foreign dignitary. Which is why the one which comes in the memoirs of Carwyn Jones comes as almost a lightning bolt: that, throughout his final year in office, the former Labour first minister of Wales was battling severe clinical depression. […]

Three Labour MPs have lost their junior roles after defying the party whip to oppose a controversial bill, backing Jeremy Corbyn rather than Keir Starmer. The MPs went against instructions to abstain on the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill, which Tory ministers insist is aimed at protecting armed forces personnel from “vexatious prosecutions”, […]

Richard Leonard was elected as Labour’s leader in Scotland in November 2017 with a brief to re-establish his party as a force in Scottish politics. However, he has been unable to do so. Just as before, Scottish Labour have not threatened the SNP’s monopoly on power. Instead, it competes, a diminished force, with the Scottish […]

Sir Keir Starmer will make a televised address to the nation following Boris Johnson’s coronavirus announcement. The Labour leader will get a “right of reply” on Wednesday evening to the prime minister’s address in which he warned tougher restrictions could be imposed if the rate does not fall. Starmer is expected to appear on the […]

Sir Keir Starmer has used his “virtual” party conference speech to declare that Labour is “under new leadership” as he pleads with voters who switched allegiances under Jeremy Corbyn to return to the party. Starmer: Second national lockdown would be sign of governmen In his first set-piece speech since taking the helm, Sir Keir said […]

Back in 2018, I was working on the anti-Semitism section of a book about Jeremy Corbyn. After several emails and phone calls to the leader of the opposition’s office went unanswered, I sent Corbyn’s head of communications and strategy, Seumas Milne, the notes of my briefing from the Board of Deputies of British Jews about […]

TIM WALKER interviews Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, as he tries to remain loyal to Labour’s line on Brexit despite the damage it is causing him politically With the highest personal mandate of any politician in the country when he was elected mayor of London three years ago, Sadiq Khan is undeniably a rock […]

The Labour MP tells Tim Walker that voters won’t forgive politicians who put party politics before the national interest. If there is one individual in Westminster who has not been transfixed by the latest dramatic episode in the Brexit soap opera – David Davis, Boris Johnson and Steve Baker being dramatically written out of the […]

TIM WALKER talks to Labour MP David Lammy about what he expects to happen later this year, when the full force of Brexit hits the UK. The final descent towards Brexit has begun: safety belts are tightened and prudent passengers are in brace position. At some point in the autumn, as David Lammy warns, the […]