Long-Bailey gets boost in the Corbyn successor betting after the NEC announce the contest rules

Long-Bailey gets boost in the Corbyn successor betting after the NEC announce the contest rules

Corbyn remains leader until April 4th We’ve now got the timetable for the LAB leadership election and already critics are saying that the party’s NEC is making it easier for Rebecca Long Bailey. This is from HuffPost’s, Paul Waugh. …the left-dominated NEC faced swift accusations of trying to “rig” the race in favour of Long Bailey, who is expected to win the backing of Momentum founder Jon Lansman. Momentum has extensive reach among the party’s members but candidates won’t get…

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With Labour’s NEC deciding the leadership election rules Long-Bailey has yet to declare

With Labour’s NEC deciding the leadership election rules Long-Bailey has yet to declare

Can we ready anything into her silence? Over the weekend we have seen a fair bit of the prospective successors to Corbyn as LAB leader of which five have already declared. These are: Keir Starmer Emily Thornberry Lisa Nandy Jess Phillips Clive Lewis Surprisingly there has been no public move so far from Long-Bailey who is said to be the favourite of the Corbyn and McDonnell – the ones who really hold the power. An excellent profile on her in…

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Will the Conservatives increase their majority at the next election?

Will the Conservatives increase their majority at the next election?

  Ladbrokes have a market up on the Conservatives increasing their majority at the next general election. I can understand why some will want to back the 4/1. Boundary changes would see the Conservative majority increase to around 104 if the vote shares remained identical at the next election and if Labour choose electoral Ebola in the form of Ian Lavery then this bet looks like a winner. I’m always wary of markets where the bookmaker doesn’t offer the other…

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Point of no return

Point of no return

When Emily Thornberry threw an early hat into what is likely to become a crowded Labour leadership ring she did so with a vow to step down if it ever became clear, from the polls and her colleagues, that she couldn’t win a future election as a sign of her loyalty to the party. This was a fairly obvious shot at Jeremy Corbyn who went into the 2019 GE as the with the worst ratings of any major party leader…

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Key GE2019 party constituency stats from the Commons Library analysis

Key GE2019 party constituency stats from the Commons Library analysis

Just before the Christmas break the Commons library published its analysis of the December general election and the above are some of the sets of data that relate to the main national parties. Clearly the seats of former Speaker Bercow and the current one Hoyle are going to appear in the lists because the main parties do not contest them. So Buckingham had its first main party contest since 2005 while Chorley had a limited range of candidates this time….

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The Next Labour Leader matrix – working out who’ll win

The Next Labour Leader matrix – working out who’ll win

Working through lots of candidates and lots of considerations Calling the Labour leadership contest is hard, to me at least. Not only do we not yet know who’s going to stand but working out what the key considerations will be with the relevant voters – at both nomination stage and in the election proper – is an exercise in second-guessing on multiple levels. We don’t even know when the election will start for sure: it might be next week but…

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The big worry for Trump is that his disapproval ratings remain above 50%

The big worry for Trump is that his disapproval ratings remain above 50%

The chart shows the Real Clear Politics average for the President’s approval ratings which over the decades have been a good pointer to electoral outcomes. In an analysis Taegan Goddard of Politicalwire notes that only Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush had periods when the majority of American disapproved of them and both failed to be re-elected. Maybe Trump can change things in his final year but maybe be won’t. As we saw in the midterms voters are very…

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