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Category: Labour leadership

The likely reaction from the blue team if they’re facing Opposition Leader Corbyn?

The likely reaction from the blue team if they’re facing Opposition Leader Corbyn?

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Picture: The first PMQs maybe? Antifrank looks at how CON might respond to a JC victory  When the Conservatives had finished celebrating their unexpected overall majority and started gazing across at the potential Labour leadership candidates they no doubt started thinking about the challenges of their next possible Labour opponent.  Newspapers and blogs speculated about which of the leadership candidates the Conservatives most feared, and then newspapers and blogs further speculated whether the Conservatives were laying false trails. This speculation…

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Donald Brind says: “Thanks Neil – now we need to hear from Gordon”

Donald Brind says: “Thanks Neil – now we need to hear from Gordon”

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Brown is well-placed to deal with the Corbyn surge Shortly after Tony Blair was elected Labour leader in 1994 I bumped into my political hero Jack Jones at a book launch. What inspired me about Jones was that he understood that making gains for the working people he cared passionately about could only be done through a combination of industrial organisation and winning political power. So, what I asked did he make of the new leader? He havered. He hadn’t…

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Keiran Pedley: LAB’s making a big mistake to assume that the only way now is up

Keiran Pedley: LAB’s making a big mistake to assume that the only way now is up

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  As CLP nominations close, with Jeremy Corbyn leading, Labour members must remember that its electoral fortunes can get worse as well as better A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article for the New Statesman in which I argued that Jeremy Corbyn was not the answer to Labour’s problems. Last week I was interviewed about it on the BBC and you can see the clip here. My reasoning is pretty straightforward, Labour can only win if its leader is seen as…

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Remember the Saturday when the Telegraph and Sky News both declared that Alan Johnson had won the deputy leader election

Remember the Saturday when the Telegraph and Sky News both declared that Alan Johnson had won the deputy leader election

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With AV LAB elections don’t always go to plan Remember June 2007? So many Labour MPs had chickened out of doing other than nominate Brown for leader that there weren’t enough left for another candidate to go on the ballot. The result – the party got what the polling indicated was a leader who was an electoral liability – not someone who could lead them into a fourth successive general election victory. Instead there was a hard-fought deputy race which…

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Only 3 LAB leaders have ever won overall majorities and the creed of the most successful is now being dismissed as a “virus”

Only 3 LAB leaders have ever won overall majorities and the creed of the most successful is now being dismissed as a “virus”

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Electability has to be paramount or else what is the point? One of the things that is often said, particularly by Tories, is that excluding Tony Blair the last time Labour secured an overall working majority was in 1966. That was a very long time ago. For in Labour’s entire history just three leaders, the ones pictured above, have led led the party to working majorities at general elections. And only one of these, the “virus” as we are being…

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Don Brind says he’s voting for party unity by putting Liz Kendall first

Don Brind says he’s voting for party unity by putting Liz Kendall first

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It was, if you like, my Liz Kendall moment Just as Kendall has been told she’s a Tory I was told “You should go and join the SDP”. It was wounding – the more so because it came from a friend. It was the 80s and we were on opposite sides of one of the many controversies inspired by or centred on Tony Benn. Happily she is still a friend and says now “The 80s were a mad time. We…

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The Corbyn polling could be the 2015 version of what happened to Hilary Benn in 2007

The Corbyn polling could be the 2015 version of what happened to Hilary Benn in 2007

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Don’t attach too much credence to numbers at this stage There have been only two Labour elections in recent times where there has been polling and we are able to look back and compare the survey numbers with the actual votes received. In 2010, as I’ve reported before, the final YouGov members’ survey taken after the voting had started showed EdM with a 4% lead in this part of the electoral college. David actually won this segment by 8.8%. Three…

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What the latest private LAB polling has done to the betting

What the latest private LAB polling has done to the betting

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Burnham the big loser after survey had him 3rd One of the great features now on the Betfair exchange for those who like trading is that with one click you can cash out and instantly get to a position where you are equal on all outcomes. Yesterday evening just after news of the latest private polling came out there was nearly £10,000 available on Betfair for those who wanted to lay Andy Burnham at the price of 2.1. Effectively this…

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