Summary
- Jeremy Corbyn has been speaking to MPs, telling the Guardian that the fightback against the SNP will involve “hard work and dour activities”. (See 2.31pm.)
- Lord Lawson has been told to “shut up” by rival Eurosceptic campaigners as the feud between the two groups hoping to get nominated as the lead out campaign in the EU referendum has intensified. (See 3pm.)
That’s all from me for today.
I’ll be back on Sunday, blogging from the Conservative conference and starting with David Cameron’s interview on the Andrew Marr Show.
Thanks for the comments.
Lawson told to 'shut up' as feud between the two leading EU out campaigns deepens
The Eurosceptic split between Leave.EU (the Ukip-associated out campaign) and the For Britain group (which is more Conservative/business orientated) - see 11.38am - is now getting more ugly.
Earlier Nigel Farage “welcomed” the fact that Lord Lawson was taking over as president of Conservatives for Britain, but said Lawson and his group were too Westminster-focused.
Now Leave.EU, which Farage supports, has criticised Lawson strongly. As Sebastian Payne reports at Coffee House, Leave.EU has issued a statement denouncing Lawson as a “has been” who should “shut up”. Here it is in full.
The announcement that Lord Lawson is ‘leading’ the campaign to leave the EU is wrong. He’s leading ‘a’ campaign that is run by the ‘Westminster bubble’ from SW1. When are these politicians going to learn that this campaign cannot we won from SW1. It has to appeal to the people, not the small clique of Eurosceptic Tories.
It would be better if the Eurosceptic Tories just ‘shut-up’ as they are going to alienate the vast majority of people who will look at this campaign as a Tory stich-up.
The Leave.EU campaign is about the people of Great Britain which includes Labour, Lib Dem UKIP Tories and anyone else who believes we should vote to leave the EU at the next referendum. If the Tories keep using has beens like Lord Lawson and the other Eurosceptic rabble then that will turn off supporters. So get back in your box Nigel and let the people support a peoples campaign not an SW1 bubble brigade.’
All of which proves that Farage was absolutely right last week when he told the Ukip conference that the problem with Eurosceptic groups is that that were hopelessly divided. As a reminder, this is what he said:
One of the problems with the Eurosceptic movement in this country is it has been, for all the 25 years that I have been involved with it, it has very often been fractured, it has very often been divided, it has very often been a valid, pertinent and correct criticism to say that the Eurosceptic groups are all run by egomaniacs - with some exceptions, one hopes - that they can never work with each other, that they all hate each other, that they are more concerned with who is top dog on our side of the argument than fighting the enemy.
Jeremy Corbyn has told the Guardian that he would offer Scottish Labour “hard work and dour activities” in its fight to close a widening gap with the Scottish National party.
In Edinburgh on his first visit since winning the Labour leadership contest, he denied he brought unique properties to the job of rescuing the battered party from a record low in Scottish opinion polls. He said: “Oh, there’s no magic solutions. There’s hard work and dour activities and that’s what I’m going to be doing.”
Corbyn appeared to be wearying of the relentless media attention. Surrounded by a hoard of photographers and camera crews as he walked from the Scottish parliament to a private meeting with many of Scottish Labour’s 37 MSPs in Edinburgh, Corbyn came close to sarcasm.
Asked by the Guardian what he planned to say at his first ever meeting with the Scottish parliamentary group - in the appositely named Serenity cafe, he replied: “We’re going to have a very interesting and very thoughtful and very intelligent and very well informed discussion and then we’ll let you know.”
Pressed for a few specific topics, he answered: “Lots of things; I imagine we’ll be talking about poverty; we will be talking about austerity; we will be talking about the enormous growth of Labour party membership all over Britain, including Scotland.”
As he posed for the photographers who asked him to fake a wave over their heads rather than towards a cluster of school children outside the Dynamic Earth geological sciences centre, he responded: “Oh, waving to the children ... the children are over there guys.”
Several bystanders were welcoming. He encountered one couple en route to the MSPs meeting, who said “Glad you could visit Jeremy” and “Well done!”. And outside a nearby cafe, a man cradling his baby daughter in the sunshine shouted out to him: “Thanks for bringing humanity back to politics. Well done sir.”
After a brief exchange of pleasantries with Corbyn, the dad told reporters: “I think he’s a true gent and he’s what politics needs.”
TV crews sneak footage of @jeremycorbyn addressing @scottishlabour MSPs at the appositely named #Serenity cafe pic.twitter.com/lUAUcUma98
— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) October 1, 2015
In this week’s Spectator James Forsyth has a good article explaining how Boris Johnson’s hopes of becoming the next Conservative leader have faded since the general election. According to Forsyth, Johnson was planning to pounce if the Tories did not do well.
Five months ago, allies of Boris Johnson were ready to launch his bid to become leader of the Conservative party. The election was imminent and even David Cameron was fretting that the Tories were going to lose. A sympathetic pollster had prepared the numbers that made the post-defeat case for Boris: he extended the Tories’ reach, and a party that had failed to gain a majority for 23 years desperately needed a greater reach. There was a policy agenda ready to magnify this appeal, too: compassionate conservatism, based around adopting the Living Wage. Boris had kept a plausible distance from these preparations. But one of those charged by No. 10 with sniffing out plots against the prime minister says of the Boris operation, ‘Everything was geared to make it happen. Anything short of just shy of a majority, and it would have been in play.’
But the result turned out differently, and now George Osborne is seen as the favourite to succeed David Cameron.
Not all is lost for Johnson, though. Today Ipsos MORI has released a poll showing that, amongst the public at large, Johnson is more popular than the chancellor. People say having Johnson as leader would be more likely to make them want to vote Conservative. But Osborne is more popular with Conservative supporters (who presumably include members, who will have the final say when they vote for the next leader).
One in four (27%) say the London Mayor would be the candidate to make them most likely to vote Conservative at the next election. Falling behind Boris Johnson is Theresa May with 17%, George Osborne with 15%, Sajid Javid with 4% and Michael Gove with 3% (although 42% of Labour supporters, 28% of Liberal Democrats and 16% of UKIP supporters said ‘none of them’ would likely make them vote Conservative). Conservative supporters are though more likely to support George Osborne over Boris Johnson with one in three (32%) opting for the Chancellor versus three in ten (29%) choosing the London Mayor. Eighteen percent of Conservatives back Theresa May, 4% Michael Gove and 3% Sajid Javid.
Photograph: Keith Larby/Demotix/Corbis
Jeremy Corbyn told journalists that Labour was “doing great” as he arrived at the Scottish parliament. According to the Press Association, he said:
We’re doing great, party membership is going up after my first conference as leader and things are going really well.
He also said that he was looking forward to a “good chat” with Kezia Dugdale and that they would be discussing how they campaign ahead of the Scottish elections next year.
Jeremy Corbyn has arrived at Holyrood for his meeting with Labour MSPs.
.@jeremycorbyn gets a #Holyrood welcome: arrives to wall of cameras as he bids to help save @scottishlabour pic.twitter.com/MdfT0d8D4K
— Severin Carrell (@severincarrell) October 1, 2015
.@jeremycorbyn has arrived in Scotland to meet with @kdugdalemsp and members of the labour movement. pic.twitter.com/aSfodRlrcM
— Scottish Labour (@scottishlabour) October 1, 2015
BuzzFeed’s Jamie Ross is covering Jeremy Corbyn in Scotland.
Notable there aren't any angry men with saltires here to welcome Corbyn. Miliband was trapped in a shopping centre last time he visited.
— Jamie Ross (@JamieRoss7) October 1, 2015
Sky News’s Faisal Islam has been tweeting about Jeremy Corbyn and Scotland.
In Edi @jeremycorbyn tries to win back Scotland for Labour. Yday he told me: issues here are "poverty, inequality, loss of college places...
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) October 1, 2015
Corbyn re Scotland "..issues are need for investment, welfare bill and whether or not Scottish govt uses tax revenue raising powers or not..
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) October 1, 2015
In ydays interview, Corbyn said "scottish people have a right to make their own decision... There may or may not be another referendum..."
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) October 1, 2015
Corbyn also pointed out in yesterday's interview that the SNP "have a bit of a problem" with their finance spokesperson
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) October 1, 2015
As I said earlier, Lord Lawson’s appointment as president of Conservatives for Britain is the latest development in a struggle between Leave.EU and the For Britain coalition for the right to be the lead out campaign in the EU referendum. (See 10.30am.) Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, has now hit back, suggesting the For Britain camp are too Westminster-focused. In a statement he said:
Whilst I welcome Lord Lawson in his new role as head of Conservatives for Britain which will apparently be be campaigning for Britain to leave the EU, there are a few issues we must make clear.
Whilst winning support from Westminster figures is important, this referendum cannot be won in Westminster but out across the country. That is why I have been so impressed by the Leave.EU campaign which is signing up thousands of supporters every week and why I and other Ukip MEPs have been going across the country holding public meetings on the Say No to EU national tour, speaking to thousands of voters.
Lord Lawson calls for all to support his campaign [see 10.30am] but the fact that it is called Conservatives for Britain and that he is so intimately associated with the Thatcher years is bound to limit appeal to Conservative voters. The Leave campaign must reach across the spectrum to everyone.
As I have always said, Ukip will work with anyone who wants to help get the UK out of the EU. My party cannot win this referendum on our own. But it cannot be won without us either.
Updated
In the New Statesman Suzanne Hall has written up the findings of two focus groups conducted in Croydon Central to find out how voters reacted to Jeremy Corbyn’s conference speech.
The findings were mixed. Participants warmed to Corbyn personally.
A common refrain from participants was how Corbyn appeared to be “genuine” and someone that they could relate to. This was evident from both his image – participants noted his appearance was certainly less slick than his predecessors – but also his background. This experience lent him a credibility that they felt had been lacking from Westminster for some time.
But they were not so positive about some of what he had to say.
At least Miliband intended to talk about the deficit at the 2014 conference. This time, participants sensed the omission was because Corbyn only wanted to talk the things that mattered to him – not them. For example, his talk of human rights and a social Europe seemed unrelated to the issues they felt were facing the country.
“The first thing he wants to talk about is a 17 year old boy in Saudi Arabia – I don’t know who he is! I have never heard of him. Why is this important to me?”
“A social Europe? What is that? Is that the EU? A lot of this went over my head. If they want people to vote, then they need to make it clear what they are talking about.”
Rather, they wanted to hear about things like the economy and immigration – and not in the context of the refugee crisis.
The full article is here.
Lord Lawson, the former chancellor who is becoming president of Conservatives for Britain, told the Today programme this morning that he would not share a platform with Leave.EU, the out campaign set up by the Ukip donor Arron Banks and unveiled at the Ukip conference last week. Asked if he would share a platform with them, Lawson replied:
No, we welcome others to come and support us. We are not going to support anybody else but we are open to all sorts of others from all parties and none to come and rally to the Conservatives for Britain group.
Conservatives for Britain are linked to Business for Britain and Labour for Britain, and they are shortly expected to unite and form a cross-party For Britain campaign. For Britain and Leave.eu are both competing to be designated as the lead out campaign by the Electoral Commission. The lead campaign gets public funding and free mailing, as well as taking charge of the campaign broadcasts.
Lawson also said that he was not anti-European.
The point is I am not anti-European – I am speaking to you from my home in France – the problem is not Europe, the problem is the European Union and the European Union is way past its sell-by date.
And he explained why he believed David Cameron could not achieve significant EU reform.
The European Union first of all cannot be changed either in its own structure or in the relationship between the union as such and the member states. Treaty change can only be agreed unanimously – you can’t have treaty change unless there is unanimous agreement. And all the evidence is – and I have been around a long time, I don’t make this judgement lightly – but all the evidence is that that unanimity is not going to be forthcoming. Indeed we will only have a few friends who will support the sort of changes we wish to see.
Updated
As my colleague Matthew Weaver reports, the SNP has responded to the news that Jeremy Corbyn is visiting Scotland by challenging him ‘to clarify his position on Trident after his admission that he would never use nuclear weapons was openly criticised by members of his shadow cabinet”.
The SNP intervention has come in the form of a statement from Stewart Hosie, the SNP deputy leader. He claims Labour divisions on Trident and austerity “will allow the Tories to steam roller through their cuts to social security and the spending of £100bn of nuclear weapons”. That’s a questionable claim, on two counts. First, although Labour is clearly split over Trident, the divisions over austerity are much more nuanced and the party in parliament is very likely to unite behind Jeremy Corbyn in opposing the welfare bill. Second, even if every Labour MP lined up with the SNP to vote against Trident, Trident renewal would almost certainly still get passed because of the Conservative majority.
Photograph: CPOA(Phot) Thomas McDonald/MoD/Crown copyright (year)
After a hectic five days in Brighton Jeremy Corbyn might feel he deserves a break, but instead the Labour head is heading for Scotland where he is due to hold meetings with MSPs, union leaders, council leaders and activists. Speaking in advance, he said he wanted to make it clear that Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, was in charge of Scottish Labour. A previous leader in Scotland, Johann Lamont, complained about London treating the Scottish party like a “branch office”. Corbyn said:
Under my leadership there will be no question about who is in charge of the Scottish Labour party. Kezia Dugdale is leader of our party in Scotland and I will be working alongside her to win back support for Labour.
Corbyn also said in advance of his visit that the SNP was backward-looking.
The stakes are high for Scotland. People can’t afford a Tory Government whose policies are making people work harder for less or an SNP Government that is intent on having the arguments of the past rather than looking to the future. It’s time for a Labour Government that would put our young people first and make sure that we are narrowing the gap between the richest and the rest.
Other than Corbyn’s visit to Scotland today, it looks relatively quiet, although I will post any reaction to the news that Lord Lawson, the former chancellor, will lead the Conservative campaign to leave the EU.
If you want to follow me or get in touch on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
