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Jess Phillips to tell Labour MPs: 'I want to be PM to change people's lives' - live news
Labour leadership hopefuls make pitches to parliamentary party - live news
(32 minutes later)
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen
A half-time verdict if you will from inside the room courtesy of Alexandra Rigers:
According to Harpin, Lisa Nandy has said that there was a “collective leadership failure to acknowledge anitsemitism crisis” and says that party must “accept the Equality and Human Rights Commission in full and emphasises listening to Jewish community”. In an apparent attack on Rebecca Long Bailey, Nandy says “people on this stage” didn’t agree with International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.
Lee Harpin of the Jewish Chronicle tweets that Emily Thornberry has backed her rival Keir Starmer over being willing to raise the issue of antisemitism at shadow cabinet meetings:
The hustings has turned to the issue of antisemitism, which has bedevilled the party over the last few years. Andrew Adonis notes that: “Keir Starmer the strongest answer in the PLP hustings – ‘the job of leaders is to lead & on antisemitism I wouldn’t leave it to someone else but take personal responsibility for dealing with it, every day’.”
Although seen as a centrist option, Keir Starmer has made a string emotional appeal to the party’s traditional bonds to unions and other organisations that he worked for in his career as a barrister. Alexandra Rogers tweets that he earlier backed Labour’s union links:
As we reported earlier, Jess Phillips is doubling down on her ability to challenge Boris Johnson as a different sort of politician: “Yes I would be a different kind of leader, no doubt about it. But anyone who ever fought a marginal seat knows that playing it safe doesn’t win, sometimes you have to close your eyes and be bold. I am the bold choice, its going to take bold to beat Boris Johnson.”
Asked about the disconnect between the party and previously solid areas such as Wales, where the party lost seats in December, Lisa Nandy says: “We need to tell the stories of Labour’s success in power and show we are relevant in people’s lives – but in Rhyl they feel just as distant from Cardiff as they do from Westminster. We need to empower people and communities.”
Keir Starmer also went down well in the room. The Independent’s Lizzy Buchan wrote that:
The BBC’s Iain Watson tweets that Starmer stressed the need for the party to become an effective opposition to the Tories:
Lisa Nandy’s pitch to the party has gone down well. Paul Waugh tweets that:
Lisa Nandy’s pitch to the party has gone down well. Paul Waugh tweets that:
And Labour veteran Peter Hain said:
And Labour veteran Peter Hain said:
Paul Waugh, executive editor of Huffington Post, reports that deputy leadership hopeful Richard Burgon arrived at the hustings flanked by shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, newly elected MP Claudia Webbe and Nav Mishra, MP for Stockport who was elected in December. His hustings for deputy aren’t until tomorrow.
Paul Waugh, executive editor of Huffington Post, reports that deputy leadership hopeful Richard Burgon arrived at the hustings flanked by the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, newly elected MP Claudia Webbe and Nav Mishra, MP for Stockport who was elected in December. His hustings for deputy aren’t until tomorrow.
Responding to a constituent and party member on Twitter, Charlotte Nicholls, the MP for Warrington North, makes an important point that the PLP process is different from that involving Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs):
For more information on the slightly Kafka-esque process that the party now uses to select a leader, here’s our excellent guide by political editor Heather Stewart:
According to lobby journalist Alexandra Rogers, the candidates have been allowed two minutes to make their opening statements at the hustings:
Some Twitter banter as the hustings begin, former secretary of state for transport, Andrew Adonis, on just how many elections his colleague Margaret Beckett has endured:
While Louise Haigh, shadow minister for policing, seems somewhat less than enthused by the event:
Jess Phillips will tell the Labour hustings tonight that they have the chance to elect a different sort of leader who can communicate in a way that resonates with normal people, and who is a big enough personality to take on Boris Johnson.
She’ll tell Labour MPs: “I don’t want to be the leader of the opposition – I want to be prime minister. I want to be PM to change people’s lives. I have spent my life in one way or another working to change lives. What I have realised is that I can’t keep moving the dial slightly. We have to get power to really swing the dial and change lives. That would be radical.
“I understand that there’s a path that looks safe. But the pathway to being prime minister is much harder. Out of 31 elections since the Labour was created, we have won a working majority in only five. Boris Johnson has got a majority of 80. We run the risk of being completely irrelevant for the next four years. All over the country people have busy lives, with lots of noise from one way or another. We have got to get them to hear us in the little time they give us.”
The Guido Fawkes website is maintaining a running tally of the MPs who have publicly declared for the six leadership candidates, and as of around 5pm with 46 MPs having committed, 23% of the party, the total is:
The prominent names in the party to declare include the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, and the shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, for Long Bailey (as well as party chairman Ian Lavery); former cabinet minister Ben Bradshaw for Starmer as well as Tracy Brabin, who replaced Tom Watson as shadow culture secretary today; and ex-ministers Margaret Hodge and Chris Bryant for Phillips. Lisa Nandy is backed by Jon Cruddas, the MP for Dagenham and Rainham, who served in Ed Miliband’s shadow cabinet, while Lewis is supported by Rachael Maskell, who was today appointed to the shadow cabinet as employment rights spokesperson.
In the Commons Stephen Barclay, the Brexit secretary, has just finished his speech opening the committee stage debate on the EU (withdrawal agreement) bill. As expected, he restated the government’s determination not to extend the post-Brexit transition period, which will finish at the end of 2020 (meaning any UK-EU trade deal must be concluded by then). Otherwise, he did not say anything particularly striking, and my colleague Peter Walker sums it all up well here.
That’s all from me for today.
My colleague Seth Jacobson is now taking over.
During his statement earlier about the Iran crisis, Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, insisted that Britain’s support of the United States was not unquestioning. Responding to a question from Labour’s Chi Onwurah, who criticised the government’s “unquestioning support of Trump”, Wallace replied:
During the general election campaign the Conservative party issued a press notice about what would happen in the first 100 days of a Boris Johnson government. Among other things, it promised “a post-Brexit budget in February which will cut taxes for hardworking families”. In perhaps the first broken election promise of this parliament, Sajid Javid, the chancellor, announced today that his first budget will in fact take place on 11 March.
No one would normally object to a budget being delayed by a week or two, regardless of what was said during the campaign. But in Scotland this has serious consequences because Scottish councils have to set their budgets by 11 March, and this year they will have to do so not knowing now much cash they will get from the Scottish government.
Derek Mackay, the Scottish finance secretary, told the Scottish parliament that this was “disrespectful of devolution”. He went on:
In response, a spokesman for the UK Treasury said:
This is from John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, responding to the report that Boris Johnson has told cabinet ministers to cut wasteful spending. (See 2.21pm.) McDonnell said:
In an interview before Christmas Dan Jarvis refused to rule out standing for the Labour leadership. But he has finally ruled it out now.
Jarvis already has a second job in addition to being MP for Barnsley Central; he is mayor of Sheffield city region. Normally MPs with metro mayor positions stand down from parliament, but Jarvis has been able to hang on to both posts because the Sheffield city region mayor currently has only very limited powers and responsibilities.
