Jeremy Corbyn & Tom Watson elected leader and deputy leader of the Labour Party

[deltic]

A return to historical roots and a resounding resurgence in the Labour Party - or an unelectable pair of dinosaurs that will take Labour to a crushing general election defeat in 2020.

 

[backontrack]

Gah! Pipped me to it by less than a minute.

Tom Watson gave an absolutely brilliant speech, Corbyn showing signs of self-entitlement in a rather frustrating one.

 

[ainsworth74]

My personal opinion is that Labour just lost the 2020 election.

 

[Groningen]

So Labour is moving to the left of the left? Is Arthur Scargill still alive?!

 

[backontrack]

My personal opinion is that Labour just lost the 2020 election.

My opinion is that, rather than a pair of dinosaurs, it is just Corbyn that's trouble.

Yvette Cooper, despite being rather right-wing, would have been more effective as leader, even with the 'wife of Balls' image. Corbyn is too 'nice', and he's only ever been a constituency MP. He'll do nothing at all to help the north such as building HS3.

 

[azz7008]

This could be an amazing result. Needed young people's interests to be represented in parliament for a long time.

 

[backontrack]

Burnham still managed to beat Cooper - Liz Kendall got only 4.5% of the vote, ha ha!

 

[Haydn1971]

Left wing ? Really ? Labour is currently more right wing than Thatchers Tories... Time to move back to centre. The membership has given a huge mandate to the leadership - looking forward to seeing Labour in Number 10 in 2020

 

[backontrack]

This could be an amazing result. Needed young people's interests to be represented in parliament for a long time.

Yes, I think Tom Watson is a great choice for Deputy Leader. His speech was amazing.

The Tories need to be held to account over News International, phone hacking etc. and Tom Watson's the man to do that.

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

A leftwing Labour party is needed, otherwise they'll be a useless opposition who like the Tory ideas and would leave many voters in the UK with no one to vote for.
I'd rather have a party which sticks to their beliefs and loses the election then one which tries to emulate the government of the day and wins, which I doubt would have happened with the others anyway. After much suffering from the far right Tories like IDS, Pickles, Osborne and Cameron the country deserves a strait forward choice between left and right, not right and right.

 

[Haydn1971]

I'd rather have a party which sticks to their beliefs and loses the election then one which tries to emulate the government of the day and wins.

Interestingly, we are heading into a Euro referendum on the basis of a party that has just one MP - a good opposition should be able to pull politics back to the centre ground in the UK - that will be a good thing in my opinion.

 

[90sWereBetter]

I'm surprised that Labour still haven't elected a female leader or deputy. Stella Creasy would have been fantastic as deputy, regulating Corbyn. Ah well.

I think this could spell trouble for UKIP and the Greens. Whether it's enough for Labour to actually win in 2020, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

[Howardh]

My personal opinion is that Labour just lost the 2020 election.

And the one after that! Can Cameron call a quick election or does he HAVE to sit out the full term?
Whatever government is in needs a strong opposition. Iteresting times ahead.

 

[ainsworth74]

Can Cameron call a quick election or does he HAVE to sit out the full term?

Only if he calls a vote of no confidence in his own Government and this is successful or if two thirds of the House agree to calling an early election.

 

[cf111]

Interestingly, we are heading into a Euro referendum on the basis of a party that has just one MP - a good opposition should be able to pull politics back to the centre ground in the UK - that will be a good thing in my opinion.

We're headed into a European referendum on the basis of public opinion demanding a debate on our relationship with Europe. UKIP's relative success is a result of that, rather than the cause of it.

 

[azz7008]

And the one after that! Can Cameron call a quick election or does he HAVE to sit out the full term?
Whatever government is in needs a strong opposition. Iteresting times ahead.

why would he do that? he's already said this will be his last term IIRC

 

[MidlandMainlie]

My personal opinion is that Labour just lost the 2020 election.

A leftwing Labour party is needed, otherwise they'll be a useless opposition who like the Tory ideas and would leave many voters in the UK with no one to vote for.
I'd rather have a party which sticks to their beliefs and loses the election then one which tries to emulate the government of the day and wins, which I doubt would have happened with the others anyway. After much suffering from the far right Tories like IDS, Pickles, Osborne and Cameron the country deserves a strait forward choice between left and right, not right and right.

I'm surprised that Labour still haven't elected a female leader or deputy. Stella Creasy would have been fantastic as deputy, regulating Corbyn. Ah well.

I think this could spell trouble for UKIP and the Greens. Whether it's enough for Labour to actually win in 2020, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I agree, having voted for Corbyn not because I believe he will win the 2020 election (frankly I didn't think any of the candidates were likely to win in 2020), I voted for Corbyn because he is the only candidate who has inspired thousands of young people to join and older former members of the party who walked away under Blair and Brown to rejoin.

The challenge for the Labour Party and espically the Deputy leader now is to get back to basics and become and a grass roots campaigning organisation again and inspire people who have been inspired to join to vote for Jeremy to become full Labour members who can take the fight to the Tories on the campaign trail. Personally I would have preferred Stella Creasy for deputy but I think Tom Watson will do a good job in channeling the enthusiasm of new members and registered supporters.

Also having won 59.5% of the vote there is no chance of an immediate coup from the Parlimentary Labour Party against Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.

 

[Metrailway]

Interestingly, we are heading into a Euro referendum on the basis of a party that has just one MP - a good opposition should be able to pull politics back to the centre ground in the UK - that will be a good thing in my opinion.

Corbyn is an old school Labour eurosceptic. He voted no in the 1975 referendum on UK's membership of the European Community. His views on the EC/EU haven't changed much since then.

Considering most of the parliamentary Labour party is pro-EU membership it will be interesting to see how he will position the Labour party for the up-coming referendum.

 

[ainsworth74]

Trident is another one that could make things interesting for the new Corbyn leadership. The final vote on renewal should be coming up at some point in 2016 and whilst Corbyn is opposed the PLP are broadly in favour. Another case where it's going to be interesting to see how he positions things.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Given Corbyn's own history of frequently rebelling, I think it would make a rather nice principled stand - as well as making things easier in the Parliamentary Labour Party - if he reduced the power of the whips, and publically adopted a line that MPs should be consistent to their personal principles, and that it's therefore not a big thing if individual MPs choose to vote against their party line on occasions.

I've no idea whether he will, but it strikes me as a nice thought. And would certainly go some way to solving the upcoming headache on Trident.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

As someone who grew up expecting to be lifelong Labour supporter and voter only to find that by the time I was able to vote in a general election (2001) the Labour party had become tory-lite, I finally joined just after this year's election on the assumption that Diane Abbott would be running for the leadership I voted for Corbyn and Creasey respectively in the leadership/deputy election. The media's coverage of the campaign has been horribly skewed in my opinion and the senior Labour party has rather shot itself in the foot by trooping out all the charlatans (Bliar (NOT a typo!), Brown...) of New Labour to try to sway the vote away from the left. The biggest danger to Corbyn now is, as usual, the right-wing mainstream media of Murdoch et al.

I was impressed with Tom Watson's speech, less so with the interviews from various Labour MPs shortly after the results. A near 60% vote is an awful lot of members to disregard even allowing for the small minority of nefarious "registered supporters".
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Given Corbyn's own history of frequently rebelling, I think it would make a rather nice principled stand - as well as making things easier in the Parliamentary Labour Party - if he reduced the power of the whips, and publically adopted a line that MPs should be consistent to their personal principles, and that it's therefore not a big thing if individual MPs choose to vote against their party line on occasions.

I've no idea whether he will, but it strikes me as a nice thought. And would certainly go some way to solving the upcoming headache on Trident.

I'd largely agree with this. However, given the debacle of the Welfare Reform bill, not to mention the consistent failure of Milliband's "opposition" to hold the previous coalition government to account, there won't be much of a society left to save by 2020... :roll:

With regard to Trident renewal, it's absurd that so many on both sides of the political divide have written off Corbyn as someone from the past, whilst supporting the renewal of a weapons system that ceased to be relevant in 1989.

 

[Masboroughlad]

If he were PM, what would Corbyn mean for the railways? I know he wants to renationalise and is anti-HS2, but what are his views on reopenings and new lines?

If HS2 has started to be constructed, could it be stopped?
Has he said how he would renationalise the railway? Wait for each TOC to expire? I am not sure how realistic it is (as much as I would like it to!).

Interesting times ahead.

 

[Haydn1971]

One of the key elements of Corbyn is that he doesn't fear the party whip - I see no reason why he should expect his party to follow his own personal view - that in my mind is a true democratic representation, not the party whip telling the MP's what the leader wants.

To add, I don't see Corbyn lasting much more than 3 yrs as leader, his job is to get the Labour Party into shape to win the next election, then pass on the winning ticket to whoever replaces him.

 

[meridian2]

I think this will herald a new direction for Labour; either take it to the unelectable fringes by taking it too far to the left or by being brave and rebellious by introducing new policies

The problem so far is that there are too many career politicians and, as evidenced by Labour's virtual elimination in Scotland, too many retrograde policies holding the party back.

Well done Jeremy Corbyn.

 

[MidlandMainlie]

If he were PM, what would Corbyn mean for the railways? I know he wants to renationalise and is anti-HS2, but what are his views on reopenings and new lines?

If HS2 has started to be constructed, could it be stopped?
Has he said how he would renationalise the railway? Wait for each TOC to expire? I am not sure how realistic it is (as much as I would like it to!).

Interesting times ahead.

I wouldn't worry about HS2, Corbyn may have been sceptical in the past but during the campaign he said next to nothing on HS2 because for the simple reason he carn't stop the scheme even if he wanted to. The majority of the PLP and Labour local authorities in the North support HS2 as does the SNP which combined with the Tory MP's being whipped to support the scheme means that the final reading of the HS2 bill will pass with a comfortable majority when it returns to the commons.

One of the key elements of Corbyn is that he doesn't fear the party whip - I see no reason why he should expect his party to follow his own personal view - that in my mind is a true democratic representation, not the party whip telling the MP's what the leader wants.

To add, I don't see Corbyn lasting much more than 3 yrs as leader, his job is to get the Labour Party into shape to win the next election, then pass on the winning ticket to whoever replaces him.

I largely agree with all of that, it will be interesting to see if Corbyn does relax the whip and allow MP's more free votes on issues like Trident rather than him trying to impose order on those who don't agree with him and forcing rebellions.

Personally the best thing I think he could do is seek re-election in 3 years time, that will allow party members to decide if he has done a good job of leading the Labour part over the previous three years and allow the party to decide if he or someone else is best to lead Labour into the general election in 2020; don't forget the Tories will be electing a new leader (probably George Osbourne) around the same time too.
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Just to add:- Insted of worrying about an election that is four and a half years away Labour should be more concerned about the immediate future, namely the Tories Trades Unions bill which is an attempt to cut of Labours financial support from the unions. The low turnout amongst union members in the leadership ballot should be a grave concern to the party.

 

[RichmondCommu]

As a member of the Labour party and a modest donor I'm afraid this all means that the Labour party will be out of power for the next ten years at the very least. Worst case scenario is that the party not exist in fifteen years. Jeremy Corybn hasn't got a hope of winning an election; not just because of his policies but also his looks and his age. The Tory press are going to have a field day.

 

[TheKnightWho]

As a member of the Labour party and a modest donor I'm afraid this all means that the Labour party will be out of power for the next ten years at the very least. Worst case scenario is that the party not exist in fifteen years. Jeremy Corybn hasn't got a hope of winning an election; not just because of his policies but also his looks and his age. The Tory press are going to have a field day.

I think it's simply incorrect to think that Miliband lost because he was too left-wing, and not because of a pitifully weak Labour party that has refused to challenge austerity and other narratives of the Tory party.

If a credible alternative can be presented (and Corbyn has a lot of economists on his side with anti-austerity) the public can be persuaded. The problem is that most people seem to think it's a choice between a difficult recovery and going totally broke, which is simply not true.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Just to add:- Insted of worrying about an election that is four and a half years away Labour should be more concerned about the immediate future, namely the Tories Trades Unions bill which is an attempt to cut of Labours financial support from the unions. The low turnout amongst union members in the leadership ballot should be a grave concern to the party.

Its too late, the Tories can do what they want. As for the low turnout a lot of union members couldn't careless who leads the party.

 

[backontrack]

If he were PM, what would Corbyn mean for the railways? I know he wants to renationalise and is anti-HS2, but what are his views on reopenings and new lines?

I don't think he'll do the north an awful lot of good. HS3 won't get built, and we won't get any major reopenings.

Basically, the country will still be run for the south of England.

 

[Qwerty133]

I think it's simply incorrect to think that Miliband lost because he was too left-wing, and not because of a pitifully weak Labour party that has refused to challenge austerity and other narratives of the Tory party.

If a credible alternative can be presented (and Corbyn has a lot of economists on his side with anti-austerity) the public can be persuaded. The problem is that most people seem to think it's a choice between a difficult recovery and going totally broke, which is simply not true.

It is however true that Jeremy Corbyn style economic policies are not sustainable in the long term...