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NEW: Unite policy conference votes to oppose first-past-the-post and support UK electoral reform in victory for proportional representation campaigners:
NEW: Keir Starmer calls for a general election and declares that the Labour Party is a "changed" party that is "confident" and "preparing to go into power" while the Tories are "completely exhausted" and "clapped out":
NEW: 17 Labour MPs – including former leader Jeremy Corbyn – have described the Prime Minister's coronavirus statement as a "thinly veiled declaration of class war":
NEW: Stella Creasy appointed chair of Labour Movement for Europe, calling on her party to offer a "Labour government unafraid to fight for their future within Europe, not outside it":
“I’ve read the 11,500 words. We were told there was going to be 14,000. So there’s 2,500 missing. That must be where the politics was.”
@johnmcdonnellMP
at Socialism Wins in the Ambassador room at
#Lab21
today.
Keir Starmer has been given a boost thanks to YouGov polling that shows he has a net approval rating of +23, which is higher than that of the Prime Minister:
91% of Labour members continue to support nationalising mail, rail, energy and water in polling that shows that the membership overwhelmingly still back the 2019 manifesto policies:
BREAKING: Eleven executive committee members of Islington North’s Constituency Labour Party have publicly vowed to support former MP Jeremy Corbyn’s independent campaign, either quitting or risking expulsion from the party.
Read more here:
NEW: Ed Miliband urges Tory MPs to support a Labour amendment calling for a windfall tax on oil and gas companies, describing the government's refusal to back Labour's proposal as "shameful":
EXCLUSIVE: Labour leadership race frontrunner Keir Starmer has vowed to consult party members on electoral reform and include it in a constitutional convention if he becomes the next leader:
EXCLUSIVE: Labour members are overwhelmingly in favour of the radical policies contained in the party's 2017 and 2019 general election manifestos, polling has found:
NEW: "I can assure you my voice will not be stilled. I'll be out there campaigning for socialism, peace and justice, and I feel sure we'll be doing that together."
@JeremyCorbyn
's final email to Labour members:
NEW: 18 Labour peers defy the whip to vote in favour of an amendment banning the authorisation of rape, torture and murder under the so-called 'spycops' bill:
NEW: Jeremy Corbyn has issued a series of demands – including the introduction of rent deferrals and an increase in statutory sick pay – in a letter to the Prime Minister about the Covid-19 pandemic:
On trans rights, David Lammy says at conference fringe event "dinosaurs exist in our own party" who want to "hoard rights", and there is “always a debate when you’re extending rights to people who have been denied them for so long”.
#Lab21
"It is the first-past-the-post system that turns minority support for the Tories into long-term dominance in parliament. It is a rigged system."
@johnmcdonnellMP
on why he is backing proportional representation ahead of Momentum's policy primary:
NEW: John McDonnell argues that the left of the Labour Party needs to mobilise to "save" an incoming Labour government "from itself", claiming that compassion was "in limited supply" at a meeting of the party's policymaking body over the weekend:
NEW: "Labour will open a Sure Start centre in every community and fund 30 hours’ free childcare for all two- to four-year-olds," Corbyn and Rayner announce:
Labour MP
@jessphillips
is back on the Labour frontbench, only months after resigning over the Gaza ceasefire vote.
She's now a minister in the Home Office. More updates here on appointments
New: Former Jeremy Corbyn aide
@ParkerCiccone
has urged left activists to vote Green in one of the party's target seats, Labour-held Bristol Central.
It comes after
@OwenJones84
quit Labour and also pledged his support for Greens and independents:
NEW: Labour will scrap “inhumane” Universal Credit - and replace the Department for Work and Pensions with a Department for Social Security, Corbyn vows:
NEW: Wes Streeting accuses Steve Barclay of being the "invisible man" over his lack of response to the ambulance crisis after it was reported that all ten ambulance services in the UK were on the highest alert level possible:
NEW: Labour launches ambitious race and faith manifesto, vowing to ensure that historical injustice, colonialism and the role of the British empire is taught in state schools:
NEW: Former Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott has rebuffed calls to let moderates have their chance running Labour, telling viewers at an online event: "Give moderates a chance? Don’t be ridiculous":
NEW: Labour to announce 'Plan for Nature' that would create ten new national parks in the first term in government and plant two billion trees by 2040:
EXCLUSIVE: "People are angry with the Tories, but that’s not been the whole story this week. There was huge enthusiasm for the direction Labour is moving in."
Labour is on the right track, writes
@Keir_Starmer
after going on the road:
"Encouraging a nuclear arms race and raising tensions with other major powers provides no way forward for humanity and will make the world more, not less, dangerous."
@jeremycorbyn
on the integrated defence and security review:
NEW: Clive Lewis has declared that he will be supporting rent strikes for those unable to pay rent because of Covid-19, and has called for local councillors to "support that direct action":
NEW: Labour leadership candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey is set to challenge her rivals tonight – by calling on them all to support bringing back energy, water, rail and mail into public ownership:
NEW: Keir Starmer set to outline plan for NHS "renewal and reform" aiming to create health system "as much about prevention as cure" in Fabians conference speech:
NEW: Angela Rayner accuses ministers of a "cover-up" over Evgeny Lebedev's peerage after the government withheld key documents relating to his appointment to the House of Lords:
"I am pulling my punches when I describe her actions not only as unconstitutional but also as grotesquely irresponsible."
@JohnWhittingQC
on why Suella Braverman must go:
Exclusive: Heads of eight Labour-affiliated trade unions – CWU, FBU, ASLEF, TSSA, BFAWU, NUM, Unite and Community – sign statement urging Labour to resolve the row over Jeremy Corbyn and the party whip:
NEW: Starmer accuses the Tories of being "soft on crime and soft on the causes of crime", promising that a Labour government would "reverse the shocking lack of security being felt by young people and communities up and down the country":
NEW: Lammy says Labour has no plans to restore the whip to Jeremy Corbyn and accuses the Islington MP of "parroting the lines that are coming from Vladimir Putin" by signing the Stop the War Coalition statement:
Exclusive: Polling shows that Labour members are overwhelmingly in favour of rail, mail, energy and water services being run by the public sector, LabourList can reveal:
EXCLUSIVE: 55% of UK adults support bringing energy companies back into public ownership and just 8% oppose, new polling by
@SavantaComRes
for
@LabourList
reveals:
NEW: 175 chairs and secretaries from 124 Constituency Labour Parties have told general secretary David Evans today that his guidance limiting the discussion of certain controversial motions puts them "in the firing line":
EXCLUSIVE: Labour-affiliated trade unions release joint statement expressing "serious concerns" over Jeremy Corbyn suspension and urging party leadership to "repair this damage":
NEW: Angela Rayner accuses Liz Truss of "aiding and abetting" Boris Johnson's attempts to "dodge scrutiny" after the Tory leadership candidate said she would vote to shut down the investigation into whether the outgoing PM lied to parliament:
EXCLUSIVE: Deputy leadership hopeful Richard Burgon wants to set up a 'Tony Benn University of Political Education' as he says Labour has "failed miserably in relation to political education in the last few years" – and much more in our new interview:
NEW: Sharon Graham, general secretary of Labour's largest affiliate donor Unite the Union, warns that it is "harder and harder to defend" continuing to fund the party through affiliation fees:
"I have no regrets about defecting. I’d do it again tomorrow. We have a government bereft of leadership and the public can no longer be conned. A government for the moment is needed and I think the moment is nearly here,"
@Christian4BuryS
writes:
NEW: Keir Starmer set to urge voters to "send the Tories a message they cannot ignore” on rising cost of living, as Labour launches local elections campaign in Bury:
"Johnson wants you to think his failing government is handling the economy well. That is yet another lie. The Tories are overseeing a criminal waste of Britain’s potential,"
@Alison_McGovern
writes:
"I often went to school without breakfast, so I’d be starving by the time we got to the school gates. This is what life was like for many working-class kids."
Labour is the only party that will eliminate food insecurity, writes
@AngelaRayner
:
"We don’t need a ‘recovery’ that takes us back to how things were, but a transformation towards how things should be."
@NadiaWhittomeMP
on why she's backing the climate and ecological emergency bill tabled by Caroline Lucas:
"You expect support and solidarity from people in your party."
Our interview with Zarah Sultana during
#IAM21
on calling Tory ministers "dodgy", receiving Islamophobic abuse, wanting to meet Keir Starmer and reportedly facing deselection:
NEW: Sharon Graham warns that "the remaining financial support" to the Labour Party is now "under review" amid a dispute between Unite members and a Labour-run council:
NEW: The Labour Party is set for a record-breaking annual conference in terms of attendance, income generated and number of exhibitors, according to a senior party figure, as the opposition continues to ride high in the national opinion polls:
"Just as that 1945 Labour government built the NHS in the aftermath of the Second World War, the next Labour government will build a National Care Service out of the pandemic,"
@wesstreeting
writes on the 74th birthday of the NHS:
NEW: Shadow Employment Rights Secretary Andy McDonald has said that a four-day working week should be "increasingly trialled with the introduction of more pilot schemes":
Keir Starmer has welcomed the knighthood of former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, saying he "deserves the honour" because his "many achievements" in government "vastly improved our country":
NEW: Labour leadership candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey has pledged her support for the NHS to be able to produce its own essential medical equipment and supplies:
NEW: Jess Phillips declares that Labour's controversial attack ad on Rishi Sunak is "not hard enough" and that she would have "gladly" defended it, while demanding that ministers "own" the fact that they have "broken" the justice system:
📢"The party has shifted towards our Declaration...The party needs to tackle horrible bullying of women, including MPs and councillors, for advocating changes which are now party policy."
Alice Bondi of
@LabWomenDec
writes as part of our series on self-ID
"For the first time since 2001 authoritarian regimes outnumber the world’s democratic countries... Protesters in Hong Kong are trying to resist that trend."
@SKinnock
last month on why Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters are an example to us all:
WATCH: Unite general secretary Len McCluskey describes the decision not to restore the whip to Jeremy Corbyn as a "witch-hunt and persecution of a decent man":
NEW: Ashworth has said the spread of the 'Indian variant' in the UK could have been avoided and argued that the border has been "about as secure as a sieve" throughout the pandemic:
"Labour can be the party of business and the party of workers... We shouldn't see a contradiction between the two. What we're against is the cronyism," Rachel Reeves tells
#FEPSFAB21
NEW: Labour should back a recovery universal basic income, say readers – and they describe Labour as “not critical enough” of the government’s Covid-19 response:
John McDonnell has demanded a ban on all private sector contracts being used for the UK's coronavirus response services in a bid to end "rampant" conflicts of interest:
"While we are focused on the pandemic, Boris Johnson's government is busy trying to rip up all the promises it made to get Brexit done."
@RCorbettMEP
on the danger of a no-deal Brexit in the midst of the Covid crisis:
"A vision for the future of work where working people enjoy dignity, gain security, receive respect and get the support they need to prosper."
@AngelaRayner
on Labour's plan to make Britain work for working people
#TUC22
:
EXCLUSIVE: "A job should be a source of pride, dignity and opportunity. But for millions of people across Britain, it’s not. That’s why today, Labour is launching a new campaign: to make Britain the best place to work," writes
@Keir_Starmer
: