Lunchtime summary
- Chris Mullin, the former Labour minister, has said Labour should form an electoral pact with the Lib Dems and the Greens. Echoing an argument made by Tim Farron in his Lib Dem conference speech yesterday, Mullin says in his new memoir, Hinterland, that Labour needs a Lib Dem revival to deprive the Tories of power at the next election. (See 2.19pm.)
- Jeremy Corbyn’s first wife, Jane Chapman, has said that Corbyn’s leadership has been “a bit chaotic” and that she voted for Owen Smith. (See 11.08am.)
- Theresa May has vowed to oppose what she described as an “industry of vexatious allegations” against British troops during the Iraq war. As Jessica Elgot reports, the prime minister told reporters in New York all allegations would be investigated but said steps had been taken to tackle abuse of the system.More than 1,500 allegations of murder, abuse and torture by British troops are being handled by the government-established Iraq historic allegations team (Ihat), which May said would be completed by the end of 2019, after a review of the system by the former director of public prosecutions Sir David Calvert-Smith.
- Businesses across the UK are scaling back investment plans and imposing freezes on recruitment as the uncertainty surrounding the Brexit vote reverberates through the British economy. As Phillip Inman reports, the Bank of England’s summary of business conditions, based on reports from regional agents, said “investment intentions had fallen since the EU referendum” and pointed to “broadly flat business investment over the next year”.
- The Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams, has denied he sanctioned the murder of a British spy inside the IRA. As Henry McDonald reports, Adams rejected allegations aired on BBC television on Tuesday night that he directly ordered the killing of Denis Donaldson at his remote cottage in the Irish Republic a decade ago.Donaldson worked as a British agent while operating as a senior IRA member and Sinn Féin official in the Stormont parliament.An informer named only as “Martin” told the BBC Northern Ireland Spotlight programme that Adams had ordered the Donaldson murder.
That’s all from me for today. I need to wrap up early this afternoon.
Thanks for the comments.
Labour should form electoral pact with Lib Dems and Greens, says ex-minister Chris Mullin
In his keynote speech to the Lib Dem conference yesterday Tim Farron claimed that the Lib Dems were the only party that could stop the Conservatives getting another majority at the next election. That was because it is hard to imagine Labour gaining seats from the Tories at the moment, and there is only one Tory seat left in Scotland that the SNP could gain, Farron argued. So if the Tories are going to lose seats, they will lose them to the Lib Dems, he told his conference.
Conveniently for the Lib Dems, Chris Mullin, the former Labour minister, is making exactly the same argument. He has just published Hinterland, a memoir, and in it he says Labour needs a Lib Dem revival because “they can win seats in places we can never hope to hold.”
More significantly, Mullin, a leftwinger and former minister, calls for an electoral pact with the Lib Dems and the Greens. Here is an extract from his book.
Although the Tories have by historical standards only a small overall majority, the political realities are stark. Labour is between a rock and a hard place. Too left-wing for the southern middle classes, not left-wing enough for Scotland. Given that Scotland is not likely to return to the Labour fold any time soon, I see only one way forward - an electoral pact with the Liberal Democrats and the Greens designed to ensure that in, say, a hundred of the most marginal seats the Tories face a united opposition. Tribalists on all sides will throw their hands up in horror at the prospect, but the truth is that Labour badly needs a Liberal Democrat revival because they can win seats in places we can never hope to hold. One should never say never in politics, but the alternative is an indefinite period of Tory rule. Think about it.
Even Farron did not go quite this far. But there is increasing interest in the idea of some kind of progressive alliance on the left. The Labour MP Lisa Nandy has co-edited a new book that explores the idea. Paddy Ashdown, the former Lib Dem leader, is supporting a separate initiative promoting cross-party progressive cooperation. And the Green party, under their new co-leaders Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley, are actively pushing the progressive alliance theme. In a recent post I listed four of the options being discussed in Green circles for what this might look like.
I haven’t read Mullin’s book in full yet but I’m looking forward to doing so, because his diaries were outstanding. My colleague Andy Beckett has reviewed it for the Guardian here.
Updated
The Lib Dems gained a seat in a council byelection last night. According to the Press Association, this means they have now gained 14 seats in council byelections since May.
Liberal Democrats heading home from their party conference in Brighton have been given a boost with news of another council byelection victory for the party.
Lib Dems have celebrated a string of wins in local contests since the May elections.
The latest, in which they defeated Labour to take a seat on Cardiff Council, brings to 14 the number of council seats they have gained in byelections. The party has also held six seats and lost none in this period.
Voting in the poll in the Plasnewydd division following the death of a Labour councillor was: LD 1,258, Lab 910, Plaid Cymru 177, C 115, Green 93, Ukip 62. Turnout was 23.1%.
The swing from Labour to Lib Dem was 9.3%.
Updated
A Labour NEC reading list
Here are three blogs about last night’s meeting of Labour’s national executive committee that are worth reading.
The point is that no one but Corbyn really knows - and perhaps even he doesn’t either - whether we are about to see serious negotiations on bringing MPs back into Corbyn’s fold, on bringing some kind of fragile stability and unity to this bitterly divided party, with a view to submitting a resolution to conference on changing how the front bench is chosen.
Or was Corbyn just trying to seem emollient, and in fact has zero intention of being rushed into a deal which would presumably constrain his power to set direction and policies for Labour?
If recent history is a guide, you would bet peace and love is not about to break out in the parliamentary Labour Party - though my goodness the MPs I’ve been chatting with are desperate for it.
The recent NEC elections, in which left-wing candidates won all six constituency positions, led some to suggest that Corbyn had achieved “control” of the NEC. But even before last night’s decision, the Labour leader lacked a majority for many of the radical rule changes floated by his allies. The left, an NEC member told me, had no majority for mandatory reselection of MPs, a reduced leadership nomination threshold (from 15 per cent to 5 per cent) or for “purging party staff”. For Corbyn, Labour’s ruling body remains an obstacle, rather than an aid, to the remaking of the party.
Corbyn last weekend refused to deny that McNicol’s future had been discussed at a summit of his advisers in Surrey in August.
But McNicol is now seen as “unsackable”, one Labour source told HuffPost, after the ruling National Executive Committee expanded its membership to create a narrow ‘anti-Corbyn’ majority.
Jeremy Corbyn has thanked all those who voted in the Labour leadership contest.
Voting has closed. Thanks to all who took part. It has been a good debate. Our job now is to unite as a party & hold the Tories to account pic.twitter.com/X2SpjNNXMo
— Jeremy Corbyn MP (@jeremycorbyn) September 21, 2016
Thanks to all who helped organise #LabourLeadership events, and to the tens of thousands who turned up to listen to myself & @OwenSmith_MP pic.twitter.com/rPYGnGyxp5
— Jeremy Corbyn MP (@jeremycorbyn) September 21, 2016
The film maker Ken Loach has made a film about Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign. The hour-long programme is now up on YouTube, and you can watch it here. Loach said:
I approached Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign because I wanted to meet longstanding party members who are inspired by Jeremy, members who have rejoined the party and those who have joined Labour for the first time.
Over two days travelling to events and meetings with Jeremy I documented the sense of optimism and hope that explains why so many are ready to fight for the new settlement that Jeremy Corbyn offers - a vision for our country which in government can implement a shift in wealth and power to ordinary people.
My colleague Jamie Grierson wrote about the project on Monday.
Updated
Majority of Britons think MPs should relocate out of London while parliament repaired, says poll
The majority of Britons think Parliament should move outside London while repairs are carried out on the Palace of Westminster, a poll has found. This is from the Press Association.
A report by a parliamentary committee has warned the neo-Gothic building is at growing risk of a “catastrophic event” unless urgent repairs are carried out.
The Palace is infested with mice, the plumbing often fails, the roofs leak, and some parts have not undergone any restoration since it was built in 1834.
Proposals have been drawn up to move the House of Commons and Lords to buildings nearby in Westminster while the overhaul, estimated to cost £4bn and last six years, is carried out.
But a survey of 1,732 people by pollsters YouGov found that 54% think parliament should leave London, while 46% think it should stay in the capital.
Among those who think it should leave, the biggest proportion, 37%, say it should relocate either to the North or the Midlands. Other parts of the UK attracted less than 10%.
The majority of people living in London, the South and the East of England think parliament should stay in London.
Londoners are particularly fervent, with 70% saying it should stay in the capital.
But the majority in all other parts of England want parliament to leave the South, although there is no consensus on where it should move to.
People in Wales and Scotland - which have their own devolved assemblies - were much more likely to prefer that parliament stays in London, with 41% and 35% respectively, rather than come to them, which was preferred by 20% and 19% respectively.
The majority of the public think that Parliament should leave London https://t.co/rst1crUJeS pic.twitter.com/z6z956VsQj
— YouGov (@YouGov) September 21, 2016
Voters have become more 'realistic' about potential benefits of Brexit, says polling expert
People have become more “realistic” about the impact of Brexit since the EU referendum, the polling expert Prof John Curtice told a briefing at King’s College London this morning.
He said fewer people now expected Brexit to lead to immigration levels falling.
Some of the expectations about the consequences of Brexit for the level of immigration have been somewhat toned down. Before the referendum, over half the public expected the level of immigration to fall as a consequence of Brexit. Now, however, that number has fallen to around 45%. So there are perhaps, somewhat realistic expectations of the consequences of Brexit.
Curtice also said that before the referendum 40% of voters believed Brexit would have a positive impact on the NHS but that this has since dropped to 26%. “Most people just don’t think it is going to make a difference,” he said.
Despite this, Curtice said the polls suggest there is little evidence of “buyer’s remorse” amongst voters. He said that only around one third of voters want a second referendum and that “virtually all of them” are remain voters.
“Not much evidence of buyer’s remorse,” Curtice said. “That means the UK is still divided pretty much down the middle over the arguments over the referendum.”
Radio 5 Live have released more quotes from Emma Barnett’s inteview with Jane Chapman, Jeremy Corbyn’s first wife. (See 11.08am.) This is what Chapman said when she was asked if she thought Corbyn wanted to become prime minister.
I think he may be pressured to stay on until an obvious successor that has policies that are acceptable to Momentum and the left emerges with a chance of actually continuing.
My heart and soul is still very much with what he stands for … But one of things about Jeremy is that he hasn’t actually changed that much politically. That is what a lot of people admire, but that begs the question: Are the politics of the 1970s relevant to the 21st century, and to post-Brexit Britain? And the case has to be made for that in parliament.
Owen Smith has put out a statement to mark the closing of the ballot in the Labour leadership contest. He said:
I’m incredibly grateful to all of the Labour members, supporters and trade unionists who have voted for me in this election.
I’m particularly honoured that over 5,000 people have donated their time and efforts to this campaign.
As a team we’ve spoken to over 300,000 fellow Labour supporters. Setting out a vision for Labour’s future, to end austerity, invest in our NHS, build the 300,000 new homes a year we need to end our housing crisis, boosting workers’ rights and pay through a real living wage. I’m incredibly proud of the work we’ve already done and will continue to do for the Labour party and the people we seek to serve.
Corbyn's leadership has been 'a bit chaotic', says his first wife
Here is more on what Jane Chapman, Jeremy Corbyn’s first wife (they split up in 1979) told Radio 5 Live about why she was not backing Corbyn in the Labour leadership contest. (See 10.56am.)
- Chapman said that she backed Corbyn last year, but now preferred Owen Smith.
I voted for Owen Smith. Last time I voted for Jeremy out of personal loyalty, but I’ve been so saddened and really upset by some of the things. This last year that I just feel that Owen’s policies are also radical and that’s good.
So I don’t think there’s more difference in policies. But there’s more difference in flexibility, media ability and I think the ability to unite the party and to have a longer term post-Brexit vision.
- She said Corbyn’s leadership had been “a bit chaotic”. The problem was not his policies but his leadership skills, she said. Asked if he could improve, she replied:
I think he could develop it but it’s been a bit slow and it’s been a bit chaotic. And I think we’re running out of time, because the longer he takes to develop it and his team, the more Labour is losing in the polls. That’s the reality of it.
- She said Corbyn had not “changed much politically” since the 1970s. She went on: “That begs the question, are the politics of the 1970s relevant to the 21st century and to post-Brexit Britain?”
I’ve taken the quotes from PoliticsHome.
Updated
Corbyn's first wife she says backing Owen Smith
Jeremy Corbyn’s first wife, Jane Chapman, has been on Radio 5 Live this morning. She says she’s voting for Owen Smith. These are from the BBC’s Norman Smith and the Daily Mirror’s Jack Blanchard.
Jeremy Corbyn's first wife Jane Chapman tells @bbc5live she's voting for @OwenSmith_MP
— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) September 21, 2016
@OwenSmith_MP is better with the media, can unite the party and has a long term vision says Corbyn's first wife Jane Chapman @bbc5live
— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) September 21, 2016
Corbyn's politics haven't changed since the 1970s says first wife Jane Chapman @bbc5live
— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) September 21, 2016
Brutal interview with Corbyn's ex-wife Jane Chapman on Radio 5. Labour a "painful sideshow" under his "chaotic" leadership. She voted Smith.
— Jack Blanchard (@Jack_Blanchard_) September 21, 2016
Jane Chapman criticises ex-hubbie Corbyn for lack of leadership skills & media failings. She voted for him last year - but now backs Smith
— Jack Blanchard (@Jack_Blanchard_) September 21, 2016
To be fair, ex-partners are not always known for being supportive; there’s a reason for them being an ex. But Chapman did back Corbyn in the Labour leadership contest last year. She revealed that in a Mail on Sunday interview in which she revealed her marriage to Corbyn ended because she did not share his single-minded dedication to politics.
You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.
As for the rest of the papers, here is the Politics Home list of top 10 must reads, and here is the ConservativeHome round-up of today’s political stories.
And here are four articles I found particularly interesting.
Labour won a slim majority of 37 seats out of 70 in May, while the party’s Marvin Rees won the mayoralty from George Ferguson of Bristol First.
But the suspension of two councillors this week over a “breach of party rules” — and one at the start of September — leaves Labour on 34 seats.
The three suspended councillors — Harriet Bradley, who represents Brislington West, Mike Langley, of Brislington East, and Hibaq Jama, of Lawrence Hill — have been vocal supporters of Mr Corbyn.
Labour’s national office confirmed that the council group whip has been withdrawn but the reasons behind the individual suspensions are not clear.
Ms Smeeth – who was targeted by sick gallows death threats from a diehard Corbyn supporter – told The Sun: “I will have someone with me.
“I haven’t felt the need to do this before, but it is a sensible security precaution for obvious reasons at the moment.
“But I’ve been to conference every year since 1999, and I’m not going to stop going now”.
Another senior female Labour MP who wanted to remain anonymous told The Sun: “Nobody is looking forward to going to Liverpool, it’s going to be totally horrendous”.
Also Tony Blair’s former strategic director of communications, Mr Wegg-Prosser loaned Labour Tomorrow Ltd £10,000 on 27 June – at the same time as MPs resigned en masse from the shadow cabinet in the so-called “coup”.
Widely regarded as hostile to Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Tomorrow’s website says it “raises, coordinates and distributes funds for moderate centre-left organisations which are committed to rebuilding a consensus for a Labour government”.
The first page of a draft had Farron making a reference to the Ukip leader’s skinny dip in the Channel last week, suggesting that the water was so cold it turned Farage from a Great Briton into a Little Englander. Not a bad joke, as conference speeches go, but wise heads prevailed and the line was castrated.
Government borrowing in August higher than expected
Government borrowing figures are out this morning, and they are worse than expected. This is from the Press Association.
Government borrowing was higher than expected in August after a disappointing surplus a month earlier.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said public sector net borrowing, which does not include public sector banks, dropped by £900m to £10.5bn year on year, against economists’ forecasts for £10bn.
Government borrowing for the fiscal year to date - the period from April to August - decreased by £4.9bn to £33.8bn, compared with the same period last year.
Alan Clarke, head of European fixed income strategy at Scotiabank, said. “It is a case of so far so good for the public finances this fiscal year. It is far, far too soon to expect to see any hint of a Brexit effect.”
It comes after a lower-than-expected surplus of £1bn in July, which was down £200m on the same month last year, and lower than forecasts of £1.6bn.
July figures are usually higher as self-employed people pay their income tax and businesses settle corporation tax bills.
In June, government borrowing fell to its lowest level since 2007 at £7.8bn.
The ONS said public sector net debt excluding banks climbed to £1.6 trillion, equivalent to 83.6% of gross domestic product (GDP).
My colleague Graeme Wearden has more on his business live blog.
I’ve already quoted what John McDonnell told Jeremy Corbyn supporters in Clapham last night about Corbyn finding it “really tough” to win by as large a margin as he did in 2015. (See 9.05am.) Here are some more lines from the speech.
- McDonnell said the decision by Labour’s national executive committee to exclude people who joined the party after January from voting was “disgraceful”.
The ruling out of 130,000 members was a disgrace, to be honest, an absolute disgrace. And the way it was done was even more disgraceful. At the end of an NEC, when people had left, a paper laid round and a decision taken on a vote of 14/14. And it was carried on the basis of a recommendation. So it was 14 people basically preventing 140,000 [sic] people having a vote.
Although people who joined after January were able to vote if they paid £25 to become a registered supporter, McDonnell said many people could not afford that. He said many of those excluded were Corbyn supporters.
So we lost, I think, a large group of people who were Jeremy Corbyn supporters. I think never again should we allow that to happen.
- He criticised the proposal from Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, that was debated at the NEC yesterday to change the leadership election rules and reintroduce an electoral college. McDonnell said:
One thing about our party now is it’s based on one person one vote. I don’t want to go back to some of the proposals that have come forward today [for] electoral colleges. Because what that would mean, as it was before ... the parliamentary Labour party gets a third of the votes. It will mean for every individual MP, their vote will mean 3,000 or 4,00 of ours. That is unacceptable.
- He criticised the way Labour has applied rules banning some members from taking part in the election. People were being suspended “for the bizarrest of reasons”, he said. He said he know one woman who was suspended for tweeting that she supported the Greens; but she was talking about a team from her child’s primary school, not the Green party. McDonnell said the decision to include “traitor” as a word that could lead to people being suspended if used on social media was questionable, because it features in the Red Flag, sung by all members at conference. On that basis, everyone should be excluded, he said. He also complained that the list of unacceptable words had been drawn up retrospectively.
Updated
Finally the Labour leadership contest is coming to an end. The ballot closes at 12pm today, and the winner will be announced in Liverpool on Saturday, just before the start of the party’s annual conference.
Jeremy Corbyn has always been the favourite to be re-elected and, since a YouGov poll at the end of last month gave him a 24-point lead over his challenger, Owen Smith, the result has been seen as a foregone conclusion.
Last night John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor and Corbyn’s closest ally, told supporters that he also expected a Corbyn victory.
I think we’re going to win.
But, in a speech in Clapham, he also claimed that it would be “really tough” for Corbyn to do as well as he did in 2015, not least because so many of his supporters have been excluded from the contest. But McDonnell insisted that, even if Corbyn got a lower share of the vote than the 59.5% he got last time, that would not weaken his mandate. McDonnell said:
I think it’s going to be really tough to get the 59.5% that we got last time around because of the numbers that have been prevented from voting. Some will argue if we dip below the 59.9% that somehow Jeremy’s mandate has lessened. If we win, no matter what, his mandate is still in place.
There is a full report of what he said here, on Huffington Post.
McDonnell’s comment may reflect what the Corbyn team have picked up from their telephone canvassing. But equally he might just be engaged in expectation management - an almost universal pre-election strategy, designed to ensure that any result looks better on the day than people were predicting.
I will post more on McDonnell’s comment soon.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10am: The OECD launches its interim Economic Outlook report.
12pm: The ballot closes in the Labour leadership contest.
As usual, I will be covering the breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I will post a summary at lunchtime and then I will be wrapping up early because I have a meeting in the afternoon.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on@AndrewSparrow.
I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time. Alternatively you could post a question to me on Twitter.
