Guido is pleased to report that after 100 minutes offline, Novara Media’s YouTube channel has been restored. It was inexplicably terminated this morning, without prior warning or explanation. So far, YouTube haven’t explained anything. Still, Guido is pleased the channel back online. Even those who vehemently disagree with Novara’s politics immediately lent their support to the team, including the editors of The Spectator and Gript, the political editor of The Sun, and, of course, our own editor. Tech platform censorship is obviously a serious problem, and it’s right to resist it whatever one’s individual politics. Ash and Aaron would do the same for us, right?

UPDATE:  For our take on the freedom of speech implications watch our latest Guido Talks.

Bad news for TrotsApp: Leadbeater won the Batley & Spen by-election. Having spent the last few weeks hoping a Labour loss would end Starmer’s leadership and enable a far-left takeover, the socialist crew are now cheering through gritted teeth at the result – all the while keen to remind Sir Keir it only proves he needs their “radical domestic policies” to survive, and pretending they aren’t furious they can’t replace him with John McDonnell. 

• Owen Jones claimed this morning that “a possible electoral disaster is a certainty” if Starmer continues to pursue “more factional warfare”. In other words, if Starmer continues to try and distance himself from the Corbyn golden years.
• Aaron Bastani insisted Labour won by “keeping Starmer at safe distance“, and retweeted the astute analysis of Michael Walker (fellow Novara intellectual), who speculated whether Starmer “would come up with some ideas for once, or just intensify factional war against the left.” Because McDonnell / Rayner / Dawn Butler would be great unifiers…
• Ash Sarkar spent the morning calling Dan Hodges an “idiot pundit” and promoting her new book.

Angela Rayner, meanwhile, has tweeted to congratulate Kim Leadbeater “and the whole Labour team“. Oozing conviction…

Polls are now open in the Batley & Spen by-election, and the Tories aren’t the only ones hoping they’ll storm to victory. In a rare moment of bipartisan consensus, the TrotsApp crowd are also quite openly banking on a Labour car-crash – and using it as an opportunity to ram through a more left-wing candidate in any looming leadership challenge. The Socialist Campaign Group are even reported to have met last night to discuss the best strategy for capitalising on the loss. Brace for crocodile tears over the result come tomorrow morning…

Inevitably Owen Jones is at the front of the pack. Ever since Labour lost in Hartlepool, Owen’s been beating the drum for a far-left takeover of the party, and now he’s made his big pitch:

“If Labour lose the Batley and Spen by election, Starmer will have to resign…if Keir Starmer resigns, then you need 20 MPs, and the left would then have a very good chance at putting a candidate forward. A lot of people would say John McDonnell would be the obvious candidate in that particular circumstance.”

Yes, John McDonnell is the man to help rebuild the Red Wall he helped destroy in 2019. Obviously. 

Team Novara’s not far behind, with Aaron Bastani saying “Keir Starmer is now the worst person, at the worst moment, to lead the Labour Party“, and claiming George Galloway “could leave Starmer staring into the abyss”. Ash Sarkar also declared “it would be disastrous to put Keir Starmer in post until the next general election”. It’s certainly been amusing to watch them all pretend they’re really unhappy about Galloway’s arrival…

Then there are the MPs. Diane Abbott’s already suggested “it must surely be curtains” for Starmer if Labour lose, Angela Rayner is doing her best to act like she’s not about to mount a leadership challenge, and even Lisa Nandy is thinking of giving it another go. And to think this by-election was all about “local issues”…

Labour suffered their worst by-election defeat in history in Chesham and Amersham last night. Taking just 1.6% of the vote, the party easily broke their previous 28-year record for worst by-election result, when they earned 2% in Newbury in 1993. Which also means they say goodbye to their deposit…

Obviously it was a bad result for the Tories; for Labour it was an absolute car-crash. In 2017, they came second with 11,374 votes (or 20.6% of the vote share). Even in 2019, they still managed over 7,000 votes. In less than 2 years, Labour’s vote share in the constituency has fallen 8 times over.

The most hilarious stat to come out of this, though, is that at 622 votes, Labour are rumoured to have earned fewer votes last night than there are Labour members in the constituency. Clearly a botched effort to vote tactically…

As expected, TrotsApp are furious: Owen Jones has already called for Starmer’s resignation if Labour go on to lose Batley & Spen, and Aaron Bastani says “the excuses need to stop” as Starmer continues to blame his polling on “a vaccine bounce”. Skwawkbox even went so far as to declare him “the worst Labour leader ever“. Batley & Spen is coming up on July 1 – Guido’s marked his calendar.

Labour sources tell Guido that the founder of Novara Media and well known advocate of communism, Aaron Bastani, is no longer a member of the Labour Party. Bastani himself tells Guido cryptically:

“I don’t comment on personal affiliations. Membership data remaining private is a legal matter and party staff show a level of unprofessionalism that should be unbecoming of them by engaging in such trivial tittle-tattle”.

Typical of the attention-seeking Bastani to avoid giving a straight yes or no answer. No official confirmation from the Labour Party either…

UPDATE: Responding to speculation that he had been kicked out of the Labour Party, Bastani has just tweeted the email he sent cancelling his membership:

I’m just sending a message to let you know I’ve cancelled my membership, and have contacted the party as well as cancelled my direct debit.

This has nothing to do with policy or politics, and I look forward to helping Stephen and council candidates win in future elections, but for now I don’t want party allegiance to be a limiting factor in terms of my reporting, so it is a professional choice.
I wish you, and the party’s members and candidates all the best come May and thereafter.

Best, A

You are either in front of Guido, or you’re behind…