While Westminster hacks forgot Labour’s woes at its now-finished conference some recent scandals were still causing shockwaves in the party. A Mandelson-shaped shadow was looming….
Guido is told by a selection of Labour MPs and staffers that they decided to boycott the annual private reception hosted on Monday by Global Counsel, the powerhouse lobbying firm founded by Peter Mandelson. It’s handbags inside Labour over this one…
Mandelson, a long term enemy of the Labour left, was also criticised by the soft left wing led by Ed Miliband. Though those close to the ex-Ambassador are already talking about his eventual return…
Deputy Labour Leader hopeful Lucy Powell slammed Starmer for “going on” about Farage. Speaking at the deputy leadership hustings, Powell said:
“I think people are sick of us just going on about Nigel Farage all the time. We’re trying to out Reform Reform. Let’s get back on to what we’re actually doing to fix the problems that this country faces.”
Co-conspirators may be inclined to agree after that Farage-obsessed Labour conference…
GB News has beaten both BBC News and Sky News for the third month in a row now. The BARB figures don’t lie…
Here are the all day viewer shares for the last three months:
July
August
September
Private BARB figures show GB News has grown its audience share month on month on month. Tellingly culture minister Stephanie Peacock was full of praises for the channel at its Labour Conference party this year. When the herd moves…
Deputy Labour Leader contenders Bridget Phillipson and Lucy Powell are going head-to-head on the main stage at Labour conference. It could get spicy…
Phillipson reiterates to the audience that she will use her “voice at the Cabinet table” to get things done.
Ed Miliband launched a bizarre attack on Elon Musk in his conference speech. He said of the X owner:
“Elon Musk. He incites violence on our streets. He calls for the overthrow of our elected government. He’s an enabler of disinformation through X. He thinks he can tell us how to run Britain. We have a message for Elon Musk. Get the hell out of our politics and our country.”
For the record, Elon is not actually in the UK right now, nor is he a UK politician. Red Ed also announced that Labour will ban fracking for good. The last major shale gas site in the UK was ordered to fill their wells with concrete in January to be done by June. Mad monk…
The US government shut down for the first time since 2018 last night after Congress failed to pass a stopgap funding bill. A late-night Senate vote on healthcare spending saw Democrats block the Republicans’ plan by 55 to 45 – five votes short of the sixty required to avoid a filibuster. Around 750,000 federal employees won’t be showing up to work today…
Museums, national parks, and passport services have now closed. Other critical services, including immigration enforcement, will also slow. In the meantime, President Trump is vowing massive public sector layoffs and threatening to target Democrat-supported giveaways:
“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, by cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like…”
There are at least some Democrats conceding they might have taken things too far. Senator Angus King admitted last night that his party’s politicking is actually “empowering” Trump, and they’ve made a mistake. Trump isn’t likely to fold any time soon…
Paula Barker, Liverpool Wavertree MP backing Andy Burnham, told Times Radio there wouldn’t be trouble from the markets under Burnham:
“The markets will have to fall in line.”