For a party with less than one MP UKIP sure knows how to hog the headlines

For a party with less than one MP UKIP sure knows how to hog the headlines

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Ukip donor Banks says he will run against Carswell at next election after MP describes party as a 'basket case' https://t.co/9EcJfklbkp v — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) February 28, 2017 https://twitter.com/DouglasCarswell/status/836335896379207680 @MarkReckless this Carswell tweet says it all. UKIP MP or not, I'll stand against him in Clacton next election! https://t.co/NjuTDITiBI — Arron Banks (@Arron_banks) February 27, 2017 My money would be on Carswell. Extraordinarily popular in Clacton and, no doubt, has the data. https://t.co/LgYNzLtff5 — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) February 28,…

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Why Corbyn should stay

Why Corbyn should stay

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In 1981 when Tony Benn stood for the Deputy Leadership against Healey and lost by a 0.9% margin , he got 30% of the Parliamentary Labour MPs’ votes but 19 members of Tribune abstained, including one Neil Kinnock.  Margaret Beckett denounced him furiously as a Judas, allegedly prompting another MP to say: “So Benn is Jesus now, is he?”.  Following the 1983 defeat, it took Kinnock two elections and hand-to-hand combat with Militant and others before Labour once again became…

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Unless LAB make a disastrous candidate choice then it’s hard to see them losing Gorton

Unless LAB make a disastrous candidate choice then it’s hard to see them losing Gorton

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A seat where 62.1% voted REMAIN should in theory be challenging for Corbyn’s LAB Yesterday I Tweeted expressing the wish that the next by-election along would be somewhere that voted to stay in the EU last June 23rd. Sadly that has come about following the death of the long-standing Labour MP, Sir Gerald Kaufman, at the age of 86. As can been seen by the map the seat is rather odd shaped covering an area to the south of Manchester…

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Don Brind explores the intriguing silence of Len McCluskey in the post Copeland debate

Don Brind explores the intriguing silence of Len McCluskey in the post Copeland debate

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Has he started to worry about the Corbyn effect on working class voters? Some time ago I went up to introduce myself to Angela Rayner. I wanted to congratulate her on her debut speech to the Labour conference as Shadow Education Secretary. “You don’t need to introduce yourself, she said. “ I know who you are. You helped get me here” She went on to remind me that she had taken part in a training scheme for potential parliamentary candidates…

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POLL ALERT: Labour has a ‘Corbyn problem’ and it’s not going away

POLL ALERT: Labour has a ‘Corbyn problem’ and it’s not going away

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Two-thirds of voters think he’s the wrong person to lead Labour into a General Election A new Polling Matters / Opinium survey, taken before the Copeland and Stoke by-elections, shows that voters think Corbyn is the wrong person to lead Labour into a General Election, with those considering voting Labour more likely to do so if he is replaced. Keiran Pedley explains. In the latest of a series of surveys for the Polling Matters podcast, Opinium asked three questions of…

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LAB’s loss to the SDP in the Greenwich by-election exactly 30 years ago has lessons for the party today

LAB’s loss to the SDP in the Greenwich by-election exactly 30 years ago has lessons for the party today

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A guest slot by Stodge 30 years ago today (roughly), I was pounding the wet streets of Greenwich on a miserable cold Thursday evening. I was doing knock-up for this woman:    This was a by election in what was supposedly a safe Labour seat which had survived the 1983 Conservative landslide but the 1987 by-election was a disaster for the Party of Opposition. The third party vote (in this case the Conservatives) collapsed and Rosie Barnes swept home by…

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Are we seeing the Tony Blair effect on BREXIT? Those saying LEAVE vote “wrong” now same as those saying “right”

Are we seeing the Tony Blair effect on BREXIT? Those saying LEAVE vote “wrong” now same as those saying “right”

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The party splits show Corbyn out of line with party voters I love trackers because the same question is asked in exactly the same way each time the question is put so and as PBers will know I’ve regularly report the above BREXIT finding from YouGov. The latest movement is all within the margin of error and we need to see further polling before any conclusions can be drawn but it does come out at a key moment politically with…

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Betting on whether or not Jeremy Hunt will be Health Secretary on the 1st of January 2018

Betting on whether or not Jeremy Hunt will be Health Secretary on the 1st of January 2018

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But is there another Jeremy Hunt bet you should be making? William Hill have a market up whether Jeremy Hunt will be Health Secretary on the 1st of January 2018. I think taking the 2/5 on him being Health Secretary on the 1st of January 2018 is the best option. Here’s why you’ll be getting a 40% return in less than ten months. One of the things to take from the Copeland by-election is that Labour’s attempts to use the…

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