Anna Soubry confirms my story from yesterday. Change’s 5 MPs will not vote for any govt led by Corbyn and doesn’t commit to even supporting a no confidence motion.
The hyper remainer MPs suffer the same delusions as the hyper Brexiters. They forget that the vast majority of the House of Commons is not like them.
Their plan seems to be that some dreamy government of national unity can be formed with someone of their choosing, bypassing the Leader of the Opposition etc.
But remind me, just who is supposed to provide most of the votes for this govt?
Oh yeah, the Leader of the Opposition.
Moreover this idea of getting a People's Vote instead of a general election is even more fanciful. Even in the outlandish scenario the votes are there to form GNU as soon as you try and legislate for a referendum, you lose a few dozen. No majority for it.
Any administration which tries to last more than a few weeks would have zero legitimacy and will struggle to attract the support necessary to set it up. It would have virtually no majority and almost certainly fall quickly.
Soubry in her email repeats the cliche that "an election won't solve anything."
Some might say that's rather convenient for those almost certain to lose their seats. The fundamental problem is the Commons is too finely split.
Of course an election might solve it.
It used to be said that the Tory eurosceptics "couldn't take yes for an answer."
The remainists have gone the same way. Corbyn has offered them everything they wanted for a 4 week administration, incl. offer of a ref if they win. If they don't want to take it then...
...well, as I keep saying, they either have to come up with a feasible alternative (of which I've seen no evidence) or live with a no deal. It's that simple.
The remainists, like the Brexiters, have gone down the route of forgetting other people have politics too, that that is perfectly legitimate and you have to accommodate it (and if you want to achieve your ends) navigate it. That is literally what politics is.
The fact that (without irony) some can call for a "national unity govt" which would be comprised of people who solely agree with them is testament to this sad transition.
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It seems very weird to allow rumours to build up and not clarify them before PMQs where the PM can be asked about them directly on the floor of the Commons. Not least when in news management terms you have a rare good day and decent story to tell on inflation…
Two scenarios at this point. He calls it today which given immigration figs tomorrow is, well, a big call. Or it’s been allowed to build for no reason, political journalist class annoyed and the rest of the week is dominated by “Sunak isn’t good at politics” narrative.
NEW: Latest @TheNewsAgents Investigates - Britain’s hidden homeless children
Nearly 140,000 kids in Britain are now homeless, in so-called “temporary accommodation”. We went to a school where half of the kids don’t have a home to call their own. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the…
It’s having a devastating effect on the educational outcomes of a big and growing group of working class kids. They’re almost forgotten, because they’re not on the streets. But their living conditions are Victorian, often sharing one room with their parents, siblings, shared bath.
Some of the kids come to school not having been able to wash in the mornings because there wasn’t an agailable bathroom in the temporary accomm. They’re embarrassed and have to wash at school. There are sometimes safeguarding issues because the kids are sharing bathrooms with strangers in the TA.
NEW: Lib Dems call on the govt to suspend arms sales to Israel.
@EdwardJDavey: “Clearly, the thought that British-made arms could have been used in strikes such as these is completely unacceptable.
“The government must take swift action to suspend arms exports to Israel."
There's been (more or less) a fragile consensus between Conservative and Labour on policy towards Israel and the war. Pressure is going to increase on Starmer to move. Possibly (and more importantly) Sunak too...
Flick Drummond, Tory MP for Meon Valley has also said arms to Israel should cease.
“This has been concerning me for some time. What worries me is the prospect of UK arms being used in Israel’s actions in Gaza which I believe have broken international law.”
For the general election, very little. This was a unique by election and little is transferable. But it does change politics before the election and possibly tells us something about the shape of politics after it as well.
In the short term the result is highly embarrassing for Keir Starmer and for Labour. The Labour vote collapsed by over 40 % points. Labour will point to the fact that they withdrew support. But that reminds us that they had to withdraw support in a safe seat, itself a shambles.
Questions for the leadership as to why the by-election was held so quickly and why the selection process happened so quickly. As it is a safe Labour seat has been handed to one of the party's most implacable opponents.