Afternoon summary
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Jeremy Corbyn has said the “vast majority” of Labour MPs should not fear deselection, as he prepares to strengthen members’ grip on policymaking.
As Heather Stewart reports, Corbyn won the bitter leadership race on Saturday against challenger Owen Smith with 62% of the vote. He has said he will “wipe the slate clean” for MPs who have criticised him, but some still fear a backlash. Appearing on the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show, he was asked about deselection, which is being openly advocated by some of his backers, with the Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, saying disloyal MPs were “asking for it”. Corbyn said Labour MPs across the country would have to stand for selection as constituency boundaries change.
- Iain McNicol, Labour’s general secretary, has given his coded backing to Corbyn’s critics. (See 1.36pm.)
- Carwyn Jones, the Welsh first minister, has told Labour it must focus on “the successful pursuit of power”. (See 5.42pm.)
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
Angela Eagle condemns culture of abuse in Labour
Angela Eagle, the former leadership candidate and minister, has accused Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters of allowing a culture of abuse of MPs and Labour party staff which could lead to a form of “populist authoritarian rule”.
The Labour MP who challenged Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership before withdrawing from the contest, said that allegations of homophobia, sexism and anti-semitism are being used to silence those standing against the current leader.
Her contentious words came at a packed Labour First fringe meeting at Labour’s annual conference. A succession of speakers including Hilary Benn, Ruth Smeeth and Yvette Cooper promised to oppose the policies and practises of supporters of Corbyn just a day after the Labour leader was re-elected. Eagle said:
The people who have run the narratives in the Labour party in the last year have decided that the problem with the party is its MPs and the people who work selflessly, our Labour staff.
They have turned one part of the party against another in a huge blame game. We have all been subject to massive amounts of disgusting and disgraceful vile abuse.
I changed my photo on my Facebook page and I got 47,000 pieces of abuse from individual people. They are trying to drive people out of the social media space, drive people out of the public square, drive people out of the party.
The only way we can deal with this is to stand up to it together. We have got to fight for decency in our party together. We have got to fight the kind of homophobia that has happened in my Labour party together - which is now denied by the way.
We have got to fight the anti-semitism, the sexism and the abuse, the coarsening of political debate and the politics of grievance. That way can only lead to populist authoritarian rule.
Carwyn Jones says Labour must focus on 'successful pursuit of power'
Carwyn Jones, the Welsh first minister, and Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, can claim to be the two most powerful Labour politicians in the UK. They are the only figures with executive roles that put them in charge of multi-billion pound budgets.
In his speech to the conference Jones spoke in detail about what Labour is doing in Wales, but he also used his speech to make a wider point. Here are the key points.
- Jones stressed the importance of Labour winning power.
Conference we need to constantly remind ourselves what Labour being in Government actually means. That is our historic mission - that is the journey that Hardie started and every Labour leader since must try and advance.
How was it that Bevan finished his great quote “the Language of priorities is the religion of socialism”? It was with these words: “only by the possession of power can you get the priorities correct” ...
This country needs the Labour party, but we don’t have a God-given right to exist. It is time for us to focus on the things that really matter, and as Bevan said, only the successful pursuit of power can truly give you that focus.
- He said the Labour government in Wales would be bringing forward plans to prevent the use of agency workers to undermine strike action in the public sector.
- He said the the Labour government in Wales was both pro-business and pro-union.
Conference, when we launched our programme for government, both the CBI and TUC could see how we had reflected their priorities.
We are not playing a zero sum game in Wales between capital and communities. Massive infrastructure investment will get Wales moving, it will boost our economy and it will bring better jobs closer to home for Welsh communities.
- He said the Welsh government would soon investigate the changing nature of work.
We don’t just want jobs, we want better jobs. And as Yvette Cooper has written about so passionately and persuasively, it is down to Labour to recognize the changing patterns of work, the challenges and opportunities of new technologies, and the insecurity that stalks too many working lives.
These are lessons not lost on us in Wales, and the Welsh government will shortly begin a deep and thorough investigation into the changing nature of work to make sure we keep pace with the new challenges.
- He said the Welsh government would tomorrow launch “a new universal child health programme to ensure every child gets excellent, consistent health services across Wales”.
- He said Labour members had to treat each other with more respect.
And a starting point for us must be to regain our dignity in the way we speak to one another and the way we speak to the world.
It wasn’t that long ago that the Party’s priority was anti-poverty policies, but now we’re commissioning reports on anti-Semitism in our own Party. How has that happened?
We have no hope of creating an open, tolerant country if we cannot first do the same for our own Party. If we really want to shape what post-Brexit Britain looks like, we have to start treating one another with respect.
In the conference hall delegates are now paying tribute to Jo Cox, the Labour MP killed in the summer. The party is showing a video of Labour MPs and peers speaking about why she meant so much to them. The session was introduced by Rachel Reeves.
Funny, touching, saddening and inspiring speech by @RachelReevesMP about her memories of "one of our own" Jo Cox MP #MoreInCommon pic.twitter.com/QQYKYKOzYw
— Tulip Siddiq (@TulipSiddiq) September 25, 2016
Updated
In his speech to the conference Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, confirmed that Labour was committed to bringing the railways back into public ownership.
What we have now is a government clinging to a failed model for purely ideological reasons, and passengers and taxpayers are being made to pay an ever increasing price.
We are clear about this. We’ll put an end to Britain’s rip-off railways, so as private contracts expire, the routes will return to public ownership so profits can be re-invested to improve services and hold fares down.
Because passengers, not profit, should be at the heart of Britain’s railway.
Let us have the same confidence as other countries like the Netherlands, Germany and France.
Labour will take back control of our railways.
They don’t write poems about David Cameron or Theresa May. But Jeremy Corbyn does inspire people to verse, and at the Momentum The World Transformed alternative conference a volume called “Poems for Jeremy Corbyn” on sale. It costs £10. There was even a session there today where they were read out, although it was not well attended.
On Sky News the Telegraph’s Michael Deacon gave viewers a flavour of what the volume contains.
And now for something completely different: @MichaelPDeacon reads from 'Poems For Jeremy Corbyn' at #Lab16 https://t.co/buMkO7T22c
— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 25, 2016
Rachael Maskell, the shadow environment secretary, told delegates in her speech to the conference that Labour would embrace “the circular economy”. She was talking about recycling.
Unlike the government, Labour will embrace the circular economy – reducing our consumption, recycling and generating energy from our waste, not turning it over to landfill. We all have our part to play in Labour’s recycling revolution.
We also have a poor relationship with food – where it comes from, what we eat, how much it really costs to produce, how much we need, how much we waste. A quarter of adults are overweight or obese, families put £470 per year of food straight into the bin.
We will change that relationship with education and labelling, better health interventions and a new food framework.
Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, has been elected as the new chairman of the Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation (Tulo), which co-ordinates the activities of unions affiliated to Labour.
At a fringe meeting Angela Eagle, who challenged Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership before standing down to make way for Owen Smith, refused to say whether she would return to the shadow cabinet. “I’m not going to answer questions like that at this stage,” she said.
Labour would abolish 'hidden health fee' for domestic violence
Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, told the conference in his speech this morning that Labour would campaign to get rid of fees that mean women wanting to access legal aid to help them divorce or separate from an abusive partner are being charged up to £125. He described it as a “hidden health fee”.
Women have to pay the moneyso they can receive a letter from their GP confirming any illness or harm has been caused by domestic violence, he said. He told delegates he was taking up the issue following talks with Lisa Clover, coordinator of the Manchester-based domestic abuse campaign, the Safe Spots Centre.
[Lisa] told me that women who are in the same position as she was, women who have tried to escape an abusive relationship, tried to get help for themselves and their families from our courts, are being charged £75 for a letter from their GP to say they’re a victim of domestic violence, so that they can access legal aid - sometimes even more.
Lisa told me women are coming into the Safe Spots Centre asking for help because they’re getting charged £125 for a letter - £125 for a piece of paper, a piece of paper which says ‘Yes, this woman is suffering from domestic abuse, yes she needs help’.
I don’t need to pass this through the national policy forum to say that a future Labour government will scrap this hidden health fee.
Momentum says their The World Transformed opening night party, where people celebrated Jeremy Corbyn’s re-election, raised more than £2,500 for Asylum Link, an organisation that helps asylum seekers and refugees.
Immigrants should be forced to integrate into British life, says Umunna
Immigrants should be forced to integrate into British life to stop them leading “parallel lives”, Chuka Umunna told a Fabian Society fringe meeting.
The government should make clear to foreigners working and living in the UK that “not getting involved in the community is not an option”, the Labour MP for Streatham in south London said. “There should be an expectation that you become part of the community,” added the former shadow business secretary.
Umunna, who was born in London to a Nigerian father and Anglo-Irish mother, said Labour had made a mistake by assuming that those who raise fears about immigration only did so through a “lack of understanding.”
He said too many Labour supporters rubbished anyone who voiced objections to immigration by dismissing them as “bigots and racists … who have been reading too much of the Daily Mail.”
Such a view, he said, was “unbelievably patronising, not just in respect of immigration by the way, but in respect of economic policy as well.”
He rounded on those loyalists to the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who like to call their opponents within the Labour party “Red Tories” and “Tory-lite”. Such insults would do nothing to win back Tory voters, he said.
Treating them like the devil incarnate is not going to be the way you’re going to get them to vote for the Labour party and have a Labour government in future.
Labour should not fear patriotism, he added:
I don’t think anyone in the Labour movement should underestimate the importance of us illustrating that we are as patriotic as anyone else. And that’s why things like your national anthem, support for the armed services and all these things should never, ever allow those to be the exclusive preserve of the Conservatives.
Labour would suspend right to buy, says Pearce
Teresa Pearce, the shadow housing minister, told the conference earlier this afternoon the Labour would follow the example of the Scottish and Welsh governments and suspend the rule that gives council tenants the right to buy their homes. She made the commitment in a passage where she explained what a Labour government Housing and Planning Act would look like.
We would remove the shackles from local government so they could build the homes of all tenures and infrastructure their communities need.
Labour will commit to building over a million new homes over the next parliament with half social housing, and invest in the construction skills to tackle the skills shortage and train up a generation.
And through our national investment bank and regional development banks, we’ll also provide the necessary infrastructure.
In the private rented sector end of tenancy is a rising cause of homelessness, so we would change the rules on tenancies where a three year lease becomes the norm.
Setting up not-for-profit lettings agencies to promote longer-term, stable tenancies for responsible tenants and good landlords.
Introduce a national standard to ensure private rented properties are fit to live in.
We would reverse the government’s ‘pay-to-stay’ policy and, following the examples set by Wales and Scotland, we will suspend the right to buy. The right to buy can only make sense in a time of surplus, in a time of shortage it makes no sense at all.
Burnham says Labour should 'embrace devolution' and 'make the northern powerhouse our own'
At the same meeting addressed by Len McCluskey, the shadow home secretary Andy Burnham also spoke, and he had some interesting things to say, particularly about his decision to try and become Manchester’s elected mayor. Roles such as this, he argued, could help Labour reconnected with voters who felt a sense of “abandonment & neglect” and voted for Brexit.
Let’s embrace devolution in England. Let’s put all our weight behind it, let’s put Labour’s stamp on it. Let’s make the northern powerhouse idea our own. I think it is the answer to some of what we saw at the referendum.
I think Westminster has created a very unequal country. It’s failed the north of England – it hasn’t delivered the prosperity seen elsewhere. So I’ve made the decision to leave it and put my energy into rebalancing this country by making a success of devolution.
Burnham was also scathing about Labour’s internal bickering, saying to cheers:
I want to out to you a radical and new thought, which I put to all of my colleagues in parliament. It’s a real, novel thought: how about from now on we use Twitter to attack the Tories?
But he also warned against efforts to deselect MPs seen as not loyal to Corbyn.
If there’s talk of deselection around, I have to say, that pulls the rug from the people who are trying to represent people who are suffering at the hands of this government. It turns everything internal. And it doesn’t help us – the energy goes internal, and goes negative.
Here is the Press Association report on the Labour First event mentioned earlier. (See 2.20pm.)
Defiant Labour moderates vowed to stay and fight following Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership victory amid warnings that the party’s future existence is at risk.
A series of senior MPs, including former shadow cabinet ministers Hilary Benn, Angela Eagle and Yvette Cooper took part in a rally hosted by the Labour First movement.
The packed rally heard repeated calls for people to remain in the party rather than quit in protest at Corbyn’s re-election.
Former shadow cabinet minister Vernon Coaker set out the stark choice facing Labour, warning it could “die” unless it changed.
He said: “The real task, of course, is changing the membership and winning the party back to the views of electability as well as principle.”
But he added: “The political terms of trade in this country are changing. The Labour Party has to change. Our policies have to change. If we don’t change we will die.”
That did not mean “abandoning” what Labour stands for “but it does mean making it relevant to people in 2016 not 1976, making it relevant to people in 2020 not 1980”.
Benn, who was sacked as shadow foreign secretary by Corbyn, told the gathering: “Don’t be disheartened because in the end the values that bind us together will win.
“So for all of the difficulties and the problems that people may feel today, I say to you today be of good heart, be of good cheer, stick together and we will win.”
He acknowledged that the atmosphere within Labour was “pretty unpleasant” and critics of the leader had been subjected to “vile abuse”.
But Labour MP Ruth Smeeth, who has been targeted with death threats, said: “If I’m not going anywhere, not one of you gets to go anywhere because we are staying and we are fighting.”
McCluskey criticises PLP for undermining Corbyn
Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, has seemingly not received the ‘reconciliation’ memo, judging from his appearance at a Unite fringe meeting just now.
He spoke just after Betty Tebbs, a 98-year-old member of McCluskey’s union, who prompted a standing ovation after she praised the re-election of Jeremy Corbyn (as well as seemingly calling for an immediate general strike to prompt an election). He told the packed event:
I was just thinking that perhaps we should get Betty to address the next meeting of the PLP [parliamentary Labour party]. She might be able to tell them what courage, principles and backbone is all about.
McCluskey said Corbyn had “reconnected with people”, but had prompted too much suspicion from many Labour MPs and others about the mass of new members.
Are they not pleased of that, proud of that? Do they have to moan and groan about handfuls of so-called Trots who have infiltrated?
While predicting that “the vast majority” of shadow cabinet members who chose to quite would now return, McCluskey claimed it was their revolt which caused Labour’s such poor current polling.
The truth of the matter is, until there was this mass hysteria and a rush by PLP members to abandon their roles and their jobs, the opinion polls were showing that we were level. In fact a few of them were showing that we were ahead.
The event was co-sponsored by the Daily Mirror, and McCluskey was no less diplomatic with them, saying:
It would be hypocritical of me if I didn’t register my disappointment with the manner in which the Mirror has conducted itself during the leadership campaign. It was heartbreaking for me to see the Mirror fall into the group-think of the Westminster bubble, sniping against Jeremy Corbyn.
Jeremy Corbyn has made an impromptu appearance at the Momentum festival, The World Transformed, which packed out last night until 2am to celebrate the Labour leader’s victory.
Sessions on fracking, academisation of schools and workshops on becoming a local councillor were running this morning when Corbyn turned up in the main hall to speak to a delighted crowd. He told them:
This event here might be described by many as some kind of fringe, extreme or whatever event. I see the kind of discussions that are happening here in this programme as absolutely central and mainstream to how people think and what we are trying to do. Because if we don’t face up to the huge issues that matter around the world then, what’s our future going to be?
Corbyn said he would return to the event at the Black E centre for a longer rally on Tuesday, the day before he will give his keynote speech to Labour conference.
During the speech, he paid tribute to his supporters who had campaigned for him over the summer and attended rallies across the country but said now it was time to focus on opposing the Tories.
We are here to transform and society and the world. I want to thank you all friendship and activity all through this campaign. But the importance now is standing up against this government on its inequality, its injustice, all the things it is doing to benefit the few and not the many. We know which side we are on.
Lisa Nandy, the former shadow energy secretary, was speaking at a fringe event earlier. Here are some of her key points posted by various journalists on Twitter.
Lisa Nandy says she was one of 14 MPs not to take part in no confidence vote in Corbyn. "I thought it was unhelpful and frankly irrelevant".
— Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) September 25, 2016
Nandy: "It seems to me Labour is just not in this debate about the future...that isn't a question about Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith."
— John Ashmore (@smashmorePH) September 25, 2016
Lisa Nandy: "We have to recognise the public are moving away from us...our activists and councillors know it from knocking on doors." #lab16
— John Ashmore (@smashmorePH) September 25, 2016
'We're going to have to win back Tory voters' says @lisanandy. Seems almost revolutionary saying at a labour conference #waughzone
— Owen Bennett (@owenjbennett) September 25, 2016
'The summer's been awful...there have been moments when I've felt genuinely threatened' says @lisanandy #waughzone
— Owen Bennett (@owenjbennett) September 25, 2016
Lisa Nandy: "Shadow cabinet elections is really important because it's become symbolic."
— John Ashmore (@smashmorePH) September 25, 2016
Clear msg from @lisanandy: shad cab elxns v important for JC to prove "he means it" on party unity. Sounds like she's not going back soon.
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) September 25, 2016
Lisa Nandy says the fate of the Liberal Party is a "warning from history" for Labour. Need to be "relevant", not just "radical".
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) September 25, 2016
Nandy: Labour future must be team effort:"it's not gonna come from me or Dan Jarvis or Chuka sitting in a room working up our grand vision"
— John Ashmore (@smashmorePH) September 25, 2016
Lisa Nandy says in the Labour Party and in Britain, too many big decisions are still made by "small groups of men in closed rooms" #Lab16
— Jack Blanchard (@Jack_Blanchard_) September 25, 2016
Lisa Nandy leaves plenty of space for future leadership bid when asked by @paulwaugh.
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) September 25, 2016
Rachel Reeves says Labour must not pretend there's a 'magic money tree'
Rachel Reeves, the Leeds West MP who sits on the Treasury select committee, has told a fringe meeting that her party must be careful to ensure its policy pledges are fully funded if it wants to win back a reputation for economic competence.
A £500bn investment package is at the centre of Labour’s economic policies. But speaking alongside shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Reeves, who has not served on Jeremy Corbyn’s front bench, said:
At the last general election we lost for a whole lot of reasons, but perhaps one of the biggest was that we weren’t trusted on the economy. We have to be mindful of that. If that means raising taxes, and making that argument, we should do that. We can’t pretend there’s a magic money tree.
Long-Bailey suggested party’s promises were affordable with a crackdown on tax avoidance. “We’re not at that point yet [where tax rises are needed]: we need to start collecting the taxes that are due in the first place,” she said.
.@RachelReevesMP speaking on our all-female panel on Commission on Economic Justice:a fair post-Brexit economy #Lab16 #IPPRpc #IPPRCEJ pic.twitter.com/5pH6vff1Q9
— IPPR (@IPPR) September 25, 2016
My colleague Peter Walker has been listening to Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, speak at a Unite/Daily Mirror fringe.
Len McCluskey begins with a pretty brutal dig at parliamentary Labour Party, and then at hosts the Mirror. No forgiveness from him.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) September 25, 2016
McCluskey still laying into Corbyn's Labour critics. He heard Burnham's speech about ending the internal sniping, but he's not agreeing
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) September 25, 2016
McCluskey blaming poor opinion polls entirely on Labour MPs' rebellion. Says party was level or ahead beforehand.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) September 25, 2016
McCluskey is wrong about this - at least, if you take a considered view of Labour’s performance in the polls under Jeremy Corbyn. YouGov’s Anthony Wells posted a very fair and thorough assessment of Labour’s electoral performance under Corbyn a few weeks ago on his UK Polling Report blog. On the claim that Labour was ahead in the polls before the leadership challenge, Wells says this is “a disingenuous claim at best, and seems to rest wholly upon cherry-picking individual polls”.
McCluskey: for first time in 40 years, Britain has a major party challenging the main economic consensus.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) September 25, 2016
Apparently I'm "the mouthpiece of the corporate elite". So says McCluskey, of the media. We're apparently set on ousting Corbyn.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) September 25, 2016
Meeting addressed by 94yo Unite member who says Corbyn means for first time in her life UK "in touching distance" of real socialism
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) September 25, 2016
Labour First, the group for self-described Labour “moderates”, has been holding a fringe meeting. It attracted so many people that they ended up on the street. These are from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg and Sky’s Faisal Islam.
Queue to get into Labour First rally - centre ground labour group, 'we are the insurgents now' one of them says pic.twitter.com/K50NG4mkzx
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) September 25, 2016
Michael Dugher-'the people on the left are good at talking about their heroes But we have our heroes too'
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) September 25, 2016
Dugher - 'the Labour Party maybe going nowhere but we are going nowhere - this is our party'
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) September 25, 2016
Huge cheer for Hilary Benn - 'we re all bennites now' shouts someone in the crowd
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) September 25, 2016
Benn had to push his way thro the crowd to get to the stage pic.twitter.com/b6wNA7JdT7
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) September 25, 2016
Labour first rally has spilt out into the street pic.twitter.com/MHDIJSKZsB
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) September 25, 2016
Huge turnout at @labour_first rally as speakers are forced to spill out on to the streets..Where they vow to fight on pic.twitter.com/xX5KB46wBN
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) September 25, 2016
Ruth Smeeth to @LabourFirst: "a lot of talk about unity - but leadership have to meet us half way - on abuse, on shadow cabinet elections"
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) September 25, 2016
"The Labour Party has no existential right to exist" says @Vernon_Coaker pic.twitter.com/GRiJJLZWkz
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) September 25, 2016
Prescott says 'election-loser' Kinnock was wrong about Corbyn
Lord Prescott, the former Labour deputy leader and former deputy prime minister, was on the BBC’s Sunday Politics earlier. Urging the Labour party to unite, and focus on attacking the Tories, he also criticised Lord Kinnock, the former leader who said last week that he did not expect to see another Labour government in his lifetime if the party continued as it is under Jeremy Corbyn. When asked about Kinnock’s comment, Prescott affected not to know who he was. Then he went on:
I was on the [shadow] cabinet with him. We were both on shadow cabinet elections and when I heard Neil saying, ‘there will never be another Labour government in my lifetime,’ ... but basically Neil, you did lose two elections and you know Michael Foot was influenced, we lost that one. He was influencing [Ed] Miliband, we lost that one, so there’s no doubt he’s got great experience of that. But I think he’s wrong.
Labour's general secretary issues coded support to Corbyn's critics
The Labour party general secretary normally gets to speak in a quiet slot on the first day of the party’s conference. The general secretary is essentially a functionary - the party’s most senior administrator/bureaucrat - and generally the speech is very dull.
But this year’s - for anyone interested in Labour party Kremlinology - was fascinating. The general secretary is Iain McNicol and he has an awkward relationship with Jeremy Corbyn. He was appointed before Corbyn was elected, he is not loyal to Corbyn, he used to work for the GMB, which backed Owen Smith, not Corbyn, and that Corbynites suspect that fixed the leadership contest rules as far as possible to maximise Smith’s chances. It has also been reported that Corbyn would like to get rid of him, and replace him with an acolyte, although at the moment Corbyn does not have the votes on the national executive committee to make that happen.
To a casual listener McNicol’s speech may have sounded routine. But in fact it was full of coded support for Corbyn’s opponents.
- McNicol explicitly backed “clause one socialism” - the philosophy championed by Jeremy Corbyn’s critics that stresses the importance of Labour being an effective force in parliament.
Labour was created for a very specific purpose, explicit from the very start.
And that purpose is stated in black and white in our constitution.
‘To organise and maintain in Parliament and in the country a political Labour Party and ‘The Party shall bring together members and supporters who share its values.’
That’s our Labour party.
A party founded to win elections and form governments.
To make our values real through practical change.
It’s a powerful idea and I’ve not heard a better one.
This might sound like a statement of the obvious, and of course Corbyn would say that he wants Labour to be an effective force in parliament. But the leadership contest became a battle between those who said the wishes of Labour members should take priority (Corbyn) and those who argued a leader had to retain the confidence of MPs (Smith), and McNicol is explicitly siding with the latter. The quote about Labour being set up to “organise and maintain in parliament ... a political Labour party” is from clause one of Labour’s constitution and Smith supporters quoted it during the leadership contest as a reason as a reason why Corbyn could not lead the party. And Progress, the Blairite pressure group which is loathed by some Corbynites, recently published an editorial explicitly urging “clause one socialists” to stay in the party and fight for their cause.
- McNicol said criticised people who wrote off the achievements of the last Labour government. He said:
There will always be those Tories who want to write off the Labour years, and pretend no good came from them.
Let’s make sure none of us ever falls into that Tory trap.
This seemed clearly aimed at the Corbynites, some of whom seem to find it much easier to condemn the record of the Blair/Brown governments than to praise them.
- He praised party staff and said that he would always defend them “whenever they come under attack”. There have been reports (like this one, for example, by the New Statesman’s Stephen Bush) suggesting that the Corbynites want to get rid of not just McNicol, but other staff at Labour HQ deemed insufficiently loyal. McNicol signalled that he would oppose this strongly. When he talked about staff coming “under attack”, he did not mean from the Tories. He said:
I want to say something about the people who work for the Labour party.
We expect a huge amount from them.
They work weekends and evenings. They drop everything to fight by-elections or local elections. They put this Party conference together year after year. They are some of the brightest and the best our movement has.
I value them, I respect them, and I stand in solidarity with them whenever they come under attack.
- He explicitly praised the parliamentary Labour party (PLP), most of whom opposed Corbyn’s re-election. He said:
Hard-working Labour champions, winning seats for Labour, and denying Tories, and SNP and Lib Dems an extra seat in Parliament.
That’s the PLP - Labour through and through, and deserving our whole-hearted gratitude and support.
Updated
Heidi Alexander, who resigned as shadow health secretary, was on the Sunday Politics earlier. She said she would not be willing to return to the shadow cabinet.
Heidi Alexander tells @daily_politics she won’t serve in shadow cab saying her views hadn't changed because Jeremy Corbyn had been elected
— Alex Forsyth (@AlexForsythBBC) September 25, 2016
Labour's @heidi_mp says she won't return to the shadow cabinet. Corbyn's leadership was "dysfunctional" #labconf16
— norman smith (@BBCNormanS) September 25, 2016
Cooper says McDonnell should apologise to McVey
Yvette Cooper, the former shadow home secretary, told Peston on Sunday that it was “really, really not okay” for John McDonnell to defend the comment he made about Esther McVey being lynched. She said that he should apologise, and that people should always apologise for comments like that. “If you do not, it sets a climate of hostility and abuse,” she said.
She said Jeremy Corbyn and McDonnell should take a much stronger line on abusive language generally.
How can we stand up against oppression and bullying by the powerful or by the mob, as Labour has always done, if we are not prepared to deal with the minority in our own party who might be doing that kind of thing.
Here is @YvetteCooperMP's full reaction to @johnmcdonnellMP's refusal to apologise on the show today for comments about Esther McVey #Peston pic.twitter.com/1YicghxCJh
— Peston on Sunday (@pestononsunday) September 25, 2016
Esther McVey also criticised McDonnell, describing him as someone who encourages bullying and intimidation. She told the programme.
This is a man who talks about the struggle through threats, intimidation and bullying and he doesn’t just talk about it – he whips up that culture. This is the sort of action that he is encouraging.
With no regional breakdown of the leadership election available, it’s hard to stand up yesterday’s YouGov ‘exit polling’ which suggested that Owen Smith did much better than Jeremy Corbyn in Scotland with 58% of the vote.
Corbyn staffers say their canvas returns were more in line with the rest of the Uk, at around 60/40, while the Smith campaign’s returns show closer to 50% for their man. There is some speculation that the greater support for Smith reflects a higher proportion of pre-2015 members in Scotland, with that demographic who joined Labour post-Corbyn in England already having signed up to the SNP and Greens in Scotland.
There is also some inevitable speculation about the position of Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, following her support for Owen Smith during the campaign and pointed remarks yesterday that Corbyn can unite the party “but he needs to want to unite it”.
Yes, there is some procedural opposition looming for Dugdale. With conference due to approve plans to give the Scottish party full control over policy and candidate selection, it appears that there will be calls to reconsider the additional plan to give Scottish Labour a seat on the UK NEC, to be directly controlled and answerable to Dugdale. But even amongst Corbyn’s Scottish stalwarts, there is little appetite for another leadership election – the fourth in two years - this morning.
Meanwhile, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson set out her pitch to Labour moderates in an article for the Sunday Times Scotland, promising to speak up for traditional Labour voters who now feel excluded by Corbyn, and stating she is “determined to build a moderate Scottish Conservative party that appeals to the same people who supported Brown and Blair: one which knows that economic growth only has value if it works in tandem with social progress.”
Iain McNicol, the Labour general secretary, is addressing the conference now. He has just announced that the party is setting up a Jo Cox Women in Leadership programme.
I’m pleased to announce the Jo Cox Women in Leadership Programme, delivered in
— Labour Press Team (@labourpress) September 25, 2016
partnership with @Labourwomensnetwork – @IainMcNicol
John McDonnell defends calling Esther McVey 'stain of inhumanity'
This is what John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said on Peston on Sunday earlier about abusive language he had used about Esther McVey, the former Tory disabilities minister.
Robert Peston asked him about saying she should be lynched, and calling her a “stain of inhumanity”.
Referring to the lynching comment, McDonnell said:
I simply reported what was shouted out at a meeting.
Peston then put it to him that “stain of inhumanity” was McDonnell’s phrase. McDonnell defended it, saying it was important to be honest.
I was angry. Sometime you need to express honest anger. And that was about what the last government was doing to people with disabilities. And it was appalling, to be frank. And sometimes it is better to be honest with people about what you feel. At times, in parliament in particular, it means using strong language. But actually if it reflects your honest views, I think it better to be honest than to be deceptive in many ways ...
People have had enough of spin and triangulation. What they want is politicians who speak the truth. And do express themselves.
But there has to be an element of expressing yourself in language which doesn’t go too far. I accept that, and occasionally I’ve gone too far, and I’ve admitted that.
But at the same time, now, we’ve got to be straight with one another. We can’t have this, people can’t trust whatever a politicians says because they are always saying one thing and doing another. I think what people want - and that’s exactly why people voted for Jeremy - is what you get is what you see, straight, honest politics.
The Lib Dems claim that 300 people joined their party yesterday as Labour announced that Jeremy Corbyn had been re-elected. “I am delighted to welcome so many new members to the party and look forward to working with them to provide the real opposition to this Conservative Brexit government,” Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, said.
Corbyn's interview with Marr - Summary
Here are the main points from Jeremy Corbyn’s interview with Andrew Marr.
- Jeremy Corbyn has said that the “vast majority” of Labour MPs have no need to fear being deselected. Asked about reselection, he said that the boundary changes being introduced meant MPs would have to get selected for the new seats. But he insisted that he wants most MPs to stay. Asked if he wanted MPs to be reinstated, or if he wanted the process to result in a new breed of MPs being chosen, he replied:
I wish them [existing MPs] well. The relationship between an MP and their constituency is a complex one. It is not necessarily all the policy, tick-boxing exercise. It is also the relationship with the community, the effectiveness of representation and all those issues. Let’s have a democratic discussion. I think the vast majority of MPs will have no problems whatsoever.
Corbyn was making the point that, if local parties want to get rid of MPs, it might not necessarily be because of their political views. But the phrase “the vast majority” suggests that Corbyn expects at least a few MPs to be replaced before the next election.
- He said that he was opposed to a so-called “hard” Brexit (Brexit involving giving up access to the single market).
- He strongly rejected Parry Mitchell’s claim that it is difficult for Jews to remain in the Labour party. (See 9.05am.) Commenting on what Mitchell, a peer, said about why is is leaving the party, Corbyn replied:
It’s unfortunate he would say that, because it’s not a fair comment and I would hope that he would reflect on that because clearly there are diverse views within the party on issues in the Middle East, but there is absolute unity in the party of opposing any form of anti-Semitism, any form of racism in the party. That is very clear.
- Corbyn said he wanted party members, and the party conference, to have more say in Labour policy making.
- He said that the investigations into alleged abuses by British servicemen and women in Iraq and Afghanistan should continue. Asked if he backed Tony Blair, who this weekend said the investigations should stop, Corbyn said:
I have spoken to a number of soldiers that have served in Afghanistan and Iraq and I recognise the awful conditions that they were asked to serve under, and the difficulties they had with that.
But I do think there has to be a recognition that we have signed up for international law on the behaviour of troops. America is going through the same experience, as do other European countries even though they’re not signed up to the international criminal court. So I think there has to be investigations. Saying never to prosecute I think would be a step too far.
- He suggested the more of the defence budget should be spent on emergency relief. Asked if defence spending should be higher or lower, he said it should not be any higher. He went on:
I think it should be efficiently used, but I also think the defence budget should also be used where necessary so that Britain is very good at actually giving aid and comfort during emergencies. Look at what we did during the Ebola crisis and other things.
- He questioned the need to expand the size of MI6. Asked if he backed its decision to hire 1,000 more staff, he replied:
I don’t necessarily think that is particularly necessary. I think there has to be security for everybody, but I’m unclear as to why they want to be so much bigger.
Yvette Cooper says she is 'not opposed' to returning to shadow cabinet
Yvette Cooper, the former shadow home secretary, has also been on Peston on Sunday. She said she would not rule out returning to the shadow cabinet. This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
Cooper also said she is 'not opposed' to going back to front bench altho she is running to chair Home Affairs Cttee
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) September 25, 2016
Cooper was also angered by the way John McDonnell defended his abuse of Esther McVey (see 10.12pm.)
Yvette Cooper visibly upset that McDonnell wouldn't apologise or retract what he said about Esther McVey on Peston
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) September 25, 2016
Tristram Hunt tells ITV’s Robert Peston that he cannot take up John McDonnell’s offer to return to the shadow cabinet because he disagrees too much with Jeremy Corbyn on policy.
Hunt also interprets what McDonnell said a few minutes ago about reselection as McDonnell rejecting hard-left factionalism.
Tristram Hunt adopts a strategy of hugging Team Corbyn close, saying that McDonnell has "knocked on the head" any "hard-left factionalism".
— Robert Hutton (@RobDotHutton) September 25, 2016
The ad break is over, and the Peston/McDonnell interview is carrying on.
Q: Why did Owen Smith win in Scotland, according to a YouGov poll yesterday?
McDonnell says YouGov was wrong about that. But he says it is true that there had not been a surge of new members in Scotland.
He says Labour has just won a seat from the SNP in a council byelection in Scotland.
Q: Why was there an attempt at the NEC meeting yesterday to block the move to give Wales and Scotland a seat on the NEC?
That is not what happened, says McDonnell.
He says it has been agreed to give Scotland and Wales a seat on the NEC. There is a debate to be had about whether those members are chosen by the party leaders in those countries, or elected by members. There was a case for saying that decision should be delayed, so it can be decided as party of wider party reform. But the NEC last night decided to press ahead with a vote this week on the current proposals, that would allow the leaders to decide, McDonnell says.
(Jeremy Corbyn reportedly backed a bid at last night’s NEC to delay the whole decision. That was interpreted by some as Corbyn trying to block the move to give Scotland and Wales seats on the NEC.)
McDonnell also says it may take weeks before new appointments are made to the shadow cabinet. And he says there could be an NEC away day to decide whether to bring back shadow cabinet elections.
And now the McDonnell interview is over.
McDonnell says Labour needs to win as a coalition.
Q: And if Tristram Hunt wanted a job back in the shadow cabinet, he would be welcome back.
Yes, says McDonnell. He says Hunt is a good advocate for his party. And he says he is reading Hunt’s book about cities at the moment and enjoying it.
That section of the interview is over, but he is back on the programme later.
Q: Is it a problem if Labour MPs do not return to the front bench?
McDonnell says that is a shame. But people like Yvette Cooper are opposing the government from the back benches. Cooper is leading on asylum. He says the leadership will support them.
Q: What about your hit list of disloyal MPs?
McDonnell says he was furious about this. A staffer produced a list of MPs who have been critical. It was put out as notes to a press release without permission.
Q: So you would not support Tristram Hunt (another guest on the programme) being deselected?
No, says McDonnell.
John McDonnell's interview with Robert Peston
Robert Peston is now interviewing John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, on his show.
Peston points out that Esther McVey, the former Tory minister, is on the programme. McDonnell once said she should be lynched. Does he still think that?
McDonnell says he was quoting what someone said at a meeting. But he was expressing the anger that people felt about cuts affecting the disabled. He says politicians need to say what they think.
Sometimes people have gone too far. But honesty is important, he says. That is why people voted for Jeremy Corbyn.
Q: Does that mean you do not expect MPs who disagree with Corbyn to shut up?
McDonnell says they are a democratic party. Decision making is better like that, he says. He says the Wilson government was an example.
He says he has a lot of time for what New Labour did. But one problem was that it shut down debate.
Q: Do you want Hilary Benn back your shadow cabinet?
Corbyn says Benn is standing to be chair of the Brexit committee.
And that’s it. I will post a summary shortly.
Q: Should the defence budget be higher or lower?
Corbyn says it should not be any higher. It should be efficiently used. And troops should be used for emergency relief, he says. He says Clive Lewis, the shadow defence secretary, will say more about that this week.
Q: Some people argue it needs to go up, because Britain is not well defended.
Corbyn says there is an issue about cybersecurity. But that does not necessarily mean you need big land forces, he says.
Q: Do you support the increase in size of MI6?
Corbyn says he is not convinced that is necessary. He does not see why they need more staff.
Q: You want a minister for peace and a minister for disarmament?
They would be the same person, says Corbyn.
Q: What would you do about something like Aleppo?
Corbyn says there has to be political engagement and a political solution.
Q: Do you agree with Tony Blair who has said today that the prosecutions of servicemen over alleged abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan are going too far?
Corbyn says he recognises that servicemen faced very difficult conditions.
But we have signed up to international law, he says. He says it must be enforced.
Q: What is your view of capitalism? Is it broadly good, or broadly bad?
Corbyn says he backs a mixed economy. But there is case for the public sector running services. We should produce what people need, not just produce for the sake of greed.
Q: Do you want to nationalise key industries as Labour did in the 1980s?
Corbyn says he is not proposing that.
Q: You have spoken about nationalising the NHS. So what about private firms doing things like medical tests more efficiently than the NHS.
Corbyn says services are best provided by the state.
Q: Always?
Corbyn says services are provided more effectively inhouse.
Q: Would you stop doctors in the NHS doing private work?
Corbyn says most GPs do not do private work. Most GPs are salaried. They prefer it that way.
Q: After the crash people decided Labour could not be trusted because it spent too much.
Corbyn says the crash was not caused by Labour overspending. It was caused by a deregulated banking system. Maybe regulation should be tougher.
Q: But people think Labour government’s spent too much. Aren’t you taking a risk reinforcing this view?
Corbyn says, look at the £9.5bn spend on housing benefit. That could be spent much more effectively, he says.
Q: Ministers says parliament will not be consulted until the Brexit deal is done. Is that sustainable?
No, says Corbyn. He says he has set up a Brexit team. Labour is organising a conference with European allies later this year to consider how the UK can maintain a relationship with the EU.
Q: You have plans for a £500bn investment fund. How much will taxpayers have to pay in higher interest rates?
Corbyn says this would not all be spent in one year. This is the proposal that would lead to increased tax revenues.
Q: How did you come up with this figure? Is it just because it is a nice round number?
No, says Corbyn. It is what is required.
Corbyn says he is opposed to a hard Brexit
Q: Do you want a hard Brexit or an open Brexit? Should we accept the end to free movement?
Corbyn says a hard Brexit would lead to a huge hit for manufacturing industry in Britain. He says if the Tories want the UK to be a tax haven offshore island, that will not be “appetising to most people in this country”.
Q: So you would oppose a hard Brexit?
Yes, says Corbyn.
He says he has been speaking to allies in Europe.
- Corbyn says he is opposed to a hard Brexit.
Marr asks about Parry Mitchell’s comments today. (See 9.05am.)
Corbyn questions whether Mitchell has ever met anyone from Momentum. He does not accept what Mitchell is saying about antisemitism in the party.
Corbyn says ‘vast majorty’ of Labour MPs have no need to fear being deselected
Q: What about deselections?
Corbyn says Labour is going through boundary changes. So there will have to be reselected.
Q: Do you want the party to change? Or do you want MPs to be reselected?
Corbyn say he wishes MPs well. The “vast majority” of MPs have nothing to fear, he says.
- Corbyn says ‘vast majority’ of Labour MPs have no need to fear being deselected.
Updated
Q: Don’t you need the support of MPs?
Corbyn says he is reaching out to MPs.
There is some difference. But there is a great deal of agreement on much too.
Q: There was a vituperative leadership campaign. Don’t your critics now have to shut up?
Corbyn says he has never made personal criticisms of any of his critics. So let’s move on, he says.
He says the party should be discussing policy.
Labour has a massive membership. They should be pleased about that, he says.
Corbyn says party conference needs to be more at centre of Labour decision making.
Corbyn says the party conference needs to be more at the centre of Labour decision making.
- Corbyn says the party conference needs to be more at the centre of Labour decision making.
Jeremy Corbyn's interview with Andrew Marr
Andrew Marr is interviewing Jeremy Corbyn now.
Q: Do you want big decisions in the party to be taken by an open vote of the members?
Corbyn says he wants a more open party. He has asked the NEC to look at how the party democratises. That includes greater trade union involvement.
Q: So if someone who has joined wants to have a say over policy over, for example, Trident, will they get it?
Corbyn says he wants more say for members.
For example, the party is anti-austerity. But there is a debate to be had about where you invest.
Q: Will new members get a vote on party decisions?
Corbyn says they will through their local party. But he would like more online consultation too.
Boris Johnson, the Conservative foreign secretary, is being interviewed on the Andrew Marr Show now. Marr starts with a question about Labour, suggesting that Jeremy Corbyn’s popularity means he could be a threat to the Tories.
Johnson says he does not accept that. He says Corbyn wants to “whack up taxes”, increasing borrowing and return to a “leftwing, 1970s, Dave Spart-style agenda”.
Corbyn also wants to “abolish the army” and sent out nuclear submarines without missiles, he goes on, “so that the whole country is literally firing blanks”.
Johnson says he does not think the public would support this.
(The claim that Corbyn wants to “abolish the army” is a classic Johnson misrepresentation - or lie, to be a bit more blunt. It is Tory spin on a speech Corbyn gave about peace in 2012. The Daily Mirror explains what Corbyn actually said here.)
As I mentioned in my paper round-up earlier (see 8.16am), the Mail on Sunday is running a story saying Chuka Umunna, the former shadow business secretary, is being tipped to mount a leadership challenge before the general election.
Umunna is reviewing the papers on the Andrew Marr show, and he has just rubbished the story. He told the programme:
This issue of leadership is settled. We do not need to be talking about this anymore. We need to be talking about how we win the general election.
Labour peer confirms he is leaving party following Corbyn's re-election
Parry Mitchell, a businessman and Labour peer, has confirmed that he is leaving the Labour party. He said earlier in the year that he would leave if Jeremy Corbyn were re-elected, and in an interview for the BBC’s Sunday Politics, he has explained why he is quitting.
The first reason is that many of the issues that seem to be important to him and his friends, I’m absolutely opposed to; I’m supportive of Nato, I’m supportive of Trident, I’m supportive of America and in particular I’m supportive of Israel and he and his group seem to me are very hostile to that. But secondly, you know, this is about leadership and this is about becoming prime minister, and Jeremy’s fine with his group of people and the membership who’ve put him in, but at the end of the day you’ve got to win an election and you’ve got to appeal to middle England and I don’t think he has a hope in hell of doing that …. Jeremy has no leadership qualities whatsoever, his little group like him and they think he’s the Messiah, but he will never become the leader and prime minister of this country.
Mitchell also said that antisemitism in the party was a major factor in his decision.
I’m Jewish and I’m very strongly Jewish and I make no bones about it and there’s no doubt in my mind that Jeremy himself is very lukewarm on this subject. He’s never been as vociferous in condemning anti-semitism as he should be, and when he does make a mention of it he combines it with other forms of racism, so he will never say specifically as far as antisemitism is concerned. But even more than that he surrounds himself with a coterie of people who hold violent, violent anti-Israel views and allied with it they are very hostile to Jews so, in my view, they’re pretty bad guys.
I think it’s very difficult if you are Jewish and you support Israel to be a member of the Labour party.
You might expect Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour conference to be dominating the news headlines this morning, but events in Liverpool are being slightly overshadowed by a Conservative party story - excerpts from a book by David Cameron’s communications chief, Sir Craig Oliver, saying Cameron felt “badly let down” by Theresa May during the EU referendum.
Mail on Sunday front page:
— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) September 24, 2016
How Theresa torpedoed PM Cameron#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/sTDcZa2HrD
It’s a reminder that Labour is not the only party beset by deep and bitter divisions - although the fact that the Conservative party is fundamentally split on the key issue of our time (Europe) doesn’t seem to be doing them much harm. According to one poll today, the Tories have a 15-point lead over Labour.
Still, there is quite a lot of Labour coverage in the papers. Here are some of the main stories.
- Toby Helm and Daniel Bofey in the Observer says Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to reward Labour’s mass membership with more power over the running of the party, after he inflicted a thumping defeat on leadership challenger Owen Smith.
The Labour Party risks extinction unless Jeremy Corbyn drops plans to take revenge on his critics following his landslide win in the leadership election, Sadiq Khan has warned.
The London mayor said bitter divisions between Corbynistas and moderates meant his party was in “more serious” danger of splitting and then dying out than in the early 1980s, when the Gang of Four broke away to form the SDP.
Khan, the party’s most senior elected official, issued his warning as Corbyn secured an emphatic victory over his challenger, Owen Smith. He won nearly 62% of the vote, increasing his mandate and his stranglehold on the party ...
Khan also warned the moderates who plan to set up a backbench group to defy Corbyn not to provoke divisions. “Anything that gives the impression there’s an upside to splitting, I’m against,” he said.
Labour MPs are steeling themselves for a long war of attrition with Jeremy Corbyn and his hard-left supporters that many fear will end in a “catastrophic” general election defeat.
There was dismay after their attempt to oust Corbyn backfired and his victory over rival Owen Smith was confirmed in a half-empty conference hall in Liverpool at noon yesterday, with one former frontbencher saying: “I feel sick.”
Many have all but given up hope of dislodging the Labour leader before the next election and fear that the more moderate members — and MPs — will desert the party.
Today is the formal opening of the Labour conference. (Yesterday the leadership election results were announced in the middle of the women’s conference.) Here is the agenda.
9am: Jeremy Corbyn gives an interview to the Andrew Marr Show.
10am: John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, Yvette Cooper, the former shadow home secretary, and Tristram Hunt, the former shadow education secretary, are interview on Peston on Sunday. Corbyn isn’t on the programme - he was on last week - but he has recorded a plug for the show.
An exclusive message from the newly re-elected Labour Leader ahead of our special programme live in Liverpool tomorrow at 10am @itv #Peston pic.twitter.com/kcNvublbMF
— Peston on Sunday (@pestononsunday) September 24, 2016
10am: John McDonnell, Diane Abbott, the shadow health secretary, and Seema Malhotra, the former shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, are interviewed on Sky’s Murnaghan show.
#Murnaghan is live from #Lab16 tomorrow with @johnmcdonnellMP, @HackneyAbbott, @SeemaMalhotra1 and @Patrick4Dales pic.twitter.com/T03n8jgKY3
— Murnaghan (@SkyMurnaghan) September 24, 2016
11am: The conference formally opens, with speeches in the morning from Iain McNicol, the general secretary, and Jon Trickett, the election co-ordinator
2.15pm: The afternoon session starts, with debates on communities and transport and the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland reports.
If you want to follow or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
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