Senior Labour figures are not happy with shadow mental health minister Rosena Allin-Khan. Khan has been hyped as a potential future leader by soft left voices for years, and her coming second to Angela Rayner in the 2020 deputy leadership has only emboldened those backers. This afternoon anger is finally bubbling to the surface after Survation published a poll for LabourList testing out perceived leadership qualities of Labour figures. Accidentally, one section had been labelled “ROSENA QUESTIONS”.
The Times’ Henry Zeffman was the first to spot Survation’s cock up, with the New Statesman’s Rachel Wearmouth piling on pressure by reporting “Lots of shadow cabinet ministers angry with what appears to be leadership manoeuvres from Rosena Allin-Khan”.
A clarification from Survation’s Damian Lyons Lowe has done little to stop the runaway train of anger from Starmer loyalists, with Lyons Lowe claiming “this was an error due to the survey script using questions from a template from work done for the 2020 Deputy Leadership election”. Unfortunately for Rosena, this doesn’t prove a wholly solid defence. Lowe goes on:
“ These questions are for some new @LabourList polling that will be out next week.”
A shadow cabinet source, however, points out to Guido that Rosena Allin-Khan’s big financial backer, David Kogan, is a director of LabourList, and gave her £7,500 in February according to her register of interests. So while Allin-Khan may not be directly behind the cock up, one of her key backers responsible for commissioning the polling may have ulterior motives…
The anger continues. The Sunday Times’ deputy pol-ed Harry Yorke is told “the growing consensus in the shadow cabinet is that Rosena Allin-Khan should resign or be sacked over this”. Politico’s Eleni Courea is told by a shadow cabinet member that “they were once sitting on a train to London from Manchester when Rosena and her team boarded and sat a couple of rows in front… and overheard her asking them go round and “say something you’ve done this week to help me become Labour leader”.” When Guido asked a shadow cabinet source their response to the Survation defence, the reply was the eternally pithy: “bollocks.”
A survey of LabourList readers has found that most believe a Tory government is most likely following the next election. Excluding don’t knows, a full 55% of those keen enough on the Labour Party to read the insider website expect the Tories to cling onto power after the next election in some form or another. The most popular response was Tory majority…
- Tory majority – 26.7% (1,922)
- Don’t know – 21.8% (1,568)
- Labour-led coalition – 14.9% (1,075)
- Tory minority government – 12.3% (883)
- Labour minority government – 11.7% (845)
- Labour majority – 8.4% (605)
- Tory-led coalition – 4.2% (299)
The survey also found that LabourList readers believe the Metropolitan Police is institutionally racist, and supports Labour maintaining most of the 2019 manifesto’s radical policies. See the full results here…
Fascinating polling of LabourList readers this morning, they asked “Did you vote against Labour in the European elections?“
28% of Labour members voted against their own party in the recent European elections, the LabourList poll of 9,286 respondents found.
The swing of traditional voters from the Tories and Labour was more pronounced than ever in the Euro elections. Ashcroft polling found that more that 53% of 2017 Conservative voters who took part in the European elections voted for the Brexit Party. The Brexit revolution is shaking up the old parties…
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As Tory MPs start jostling for position at the start of the Tory leadership race, they and their allies will be making claims and counter-claims about who would be best placed to take on Corbyn with one eye on their own prospects. Perhaps it might be worth asking a more objective sample of experts who might be best placed to beat Corbyn? Labour activists for example?
LabourList did a massive survey of 4,478 readers last week which they have just published. They asked: “Which of the following potential candidates do you think would be most difficult for Jeremy Corbyn to beat in a general election?”
Labour frontbenchers and Owen Jones might bluff that they don’t fear Boris, in reality they remember he beat them twice in London, a City they consider their fiefdom. The opponent Labour activists most fear is Boris. They know. The clique of Tory MPs who are trying to block Boris are making a strategic mistake that risks delivering a Marxist government in Britain.
LabourList, the hitherto dull and worthy rival to ConservativeHome that was launched by Peter Mandelson, was for years non-factional and tried to balance the views of the Labour family. It appears to be responding to market forces and moving to the left…
This week it has been guest edited by Diane Abbott. It links out to the Canary. The only up and coming Labour leaning site that doesn’t support Corbyn is Red Roar. The surrendering of the online space to the Corbynistas reflects a wider malaise.
The established left-of-centre publications like the New Statesman and The Guardian are not enough. If Labour’s moderates don’t have an online forum around which to coalesce they will find it difficult to ever regain control of the party from the Marxists. Rather than wasting time and money trying to overturn the referendum result the Labour luvvies should be focusing on organising for when Labour loses the next election. Unless the Jolyons, Chukas and Stellas are really going to risk it all on a new centrist party…
LabourList has a new editor, Sienna Rodgers. The 24 year-old parliamentary assistant to Tulip Saddiq has plenty of editorial experience with a year at Conde Nast’s House & Garden as well as her local Ham & High paper. Of late the insurgent Corbyn backing left-wing sites have somewhat overtaken and eclipsed LabourList of late. With a brief to be non-factional LabourList is the noticeboard for the Labour Party, this has sometimes made the site a bit vanilla and lacking in personality. Sienna is promising a refresh and a new redesign. Guido wishes her well reviving the site…
