On by-election day there’s a new favourite in the race for next Labour leader – Hilary Benn

On by-election day there’s a new favourite in the race for next Labour leader – Hilary Benn

A speech that could have great significance Of all the speeches in the long commons debate yesterday one stands out – the winding up in a packed chamber by “Wedgie-Benn’s son”, Hilary, who is now Labour’s shadow foreign secretary. If you didn’t see it the little clip above is quite extraordinary with Benn getting huge applause from across the chamber. What’s striking is that throughout his leader, Mr, Corbyn, was sitting alongside and he, of course, has a totally different…

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The Syria vote: Cameron looks set to win but how many LAB MPs will back him?

The Syria vote: Cameron looks set to win but how many LAB MPs will back him?

Now count 130 Labour MPs who've indicated they're likely to vote Against, 54 who've indicated they're likely to vote For #SyriaVote — Joe Oliver (@joe_oliver) December 2, 2015 Just over an hour to go to the big vote Voting takes place at 10pm and the result should be known within about 16 minutes. Then there’ll be the wait, not too long, for the division lists so we can see who has not followed their parties. There will be Tory rebels…

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Syria – the big debate goes on

Syria – the big debate goes on

Will bombing #ISIS make a UK terror attack more likely? Most Brits think not #Syriavote pic.twitter.com/knRaPZ6d06 — Andrew Hawkins (@PigsAndPolling) December 2, 2015 Tim Farron backing air strikes. "This is toughest call I have ever had to make, and certainly in this House". Cites UN resolution &refugees. — Patrick Wintour (@patrickwintour) December 2, 2015 Great speeches by Labour's lost leaders (Alan Johnson and @YvetteCooperMP) in #SyriaVote — Jason Beattie (@JBeattieMirror) December 2, 2015

The Commons might be about to vote for Syrian air strikes but the public is becoming less convinced

The Commons might be about to vote for Syrian air strikes but the public is becoming less convinced

Support for air strikes against Syria falling sharply pic.twitter.com/LxnWVMKTsJ — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) December 1, 2015 Men strongly in favour – women much less certain As we come to the crucial Commons vote on Syria there’s new YouGov polling in the Times this morning that suggests that support for British action is declining with, now, fewer than half of those sampled approving. YouGov had this at 48%. The affairs impacting on the Labour leadership appear to have overshadowed the movement…

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Corbyn’s leader rating with YouGov drops to a calamitous minus 41% (Updated with YouGov chart)

Corbyn’s leader rating with YouGov drops to a calamitous minus 41% (Updated with YouGov chart)

YouGov chart showing trend in its Well/badly ratings for Corbyn and Cameron. pic.twitter.com/nSkFejGT7c — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) December 1, 2015 Corbyn's YouGov well/badly ratings drops to new low. Just 24% saying he is doing well and 65% badly. Amongst GE2015 LAB voters he's a net -6 — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) December 1, 2015 Corbyn's record YouGov well/badly rating of -41% compares with the -6% in September just after he won the leadership — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) December 1, 2015 CON…

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Win the definitive book of the 2015 General Election in the PB Oldham by-election competition

Win the definitive book of the 2015 General Election in the PB Oldham by-election competition

Will the collective view of PBers once again get the outcome right? Using the bespoke NoJam template you will need to enter vote shares down to 2 decimal points for the parties. The prize will go to the person with the smallest overall error. With previous PB by-election competitions the collective view of PBers has been a pretty accurate guide to the final outcome. Let’s see if we can do it again. All the entries can be seen here. As…

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Imagine what next Monday’s PLP meeting is going to be like if LAB loses Oldham

Imagine what next Monday’s PLP meeting is going to be like if LAB loses Oldham

Another Tuesday morning after the LAB meeting the night before It’s Tuesday morning and like many other Tuesdays since Mr Corbyn had his huge victory in the Labour leadership election the political news is dominated by what happened at the weekly meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party. Last night the massive chasm between Corbyn and his MPs never appeared wider and it is hard to see how this can get any better. This is the new normality. Corbyn has not…

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Betting on a UKIP by-election upset in the absence of hard polling

Betting on a UKIP by-election upset in the absence of hard polling

More from Aby Tomlinson – the energetic LAB campaigner who tweeted about the responses she was getting in Oldham pic.twitter.com/idnhv91aa9 — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) November 30, 2015 Alastair Meeks gives his view Oldham West & Royton should have been a spectacularly boring by-election.  It is a previously-safe Labour seat held at the last general election by a leftwing MP with a thumping majority and an absolute majority of votes cast.  To gain it, UKIP would require a swing of 17.1%. …

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