Rolling coverage of all the day’s events at the Labour conference in Brighton, including John McDonnell’s speech on the economy
- John McDonnell’s morning interviews - Full summary
- McDonnell’s speech - Snap verdict
- McDonnell’s speech - Verdict from the Twitter commentariat
- Mandelson should be expelled from Labour, Meacher suggests
Diane Abbott goes next. She says she respects Mattinson, but there were only eight people in each focus group. She says she is the only person on the panel who supported Corbyn. It is not surprising that people have doubts about him; he has had an extraordinarily negative press. But as people see him they will get to like him, she says. She says his Marr interview was excellent.
She also says she thinks it is a mistake to just follow public opinion. She has been campaigning on race equality for years, she says. In the 1970s if people had just accepted public opinion on race, there would have been no progress, she says.
Mattinson says people do not know much about Corbyn. They are not even sure what it means when it is said he is leftwing. And they had heard he supports the IRA; they don’t like that, she says.
She says they liked the new way he did PMQs. But they thought Corbyn looked a bit scruffy. And a bit old-fashioned. One person said he looked as though he did not own an iPad. That was not intended as a compliment.
Deborah Mattinson is now presenting some research based on focus group studies looking at the reasons for why Labour lost.
She says her team started by asking about people’s top concerns. They were: the economy (people accept there has been a recovery, but they worry about it); immigration (the refugee crisis has made people more sympathetic to refugees, but, overall, it is still a big concern); and the state of politics (one woman suggested there should be a law against political lying).
The Guardian fringe is starting.
Jonathan Freedland is chairing the event.
Jeremy Corbyn was due to attend a CND fringe tonight. He did not go, but he sent a message.
Corbyn pulls out of CND fringe sends text: As committed as ever to nuclear free world & non renewal of trident. I will do my persuasive best
Here is my colleague Nicholas Watt’s analysis of John McDonnell’s speech.
Here’s the official Conservative response to John McDonnell’s speech. It’s from David Gauke, the Treasury minister.
Labour’s tax rises would hurt hardworking people, threatening every family’s security.
And as Mark Carney has said, Labour’s policy to end the Bank of England’s independence and print money would drive up the cost of living.
The Press Association has filed a story saying the Labour MP Dan Jarvis“has warned the party that it must be ruthless about removing failing leaders”. That sounds dramatic, not least because Jarvis is seen as a favourite to become Labour leader if Jeremy Corbyn is replaced in around 2017 or 2018, but his actual words were not quite that strong.
Asked if the party should have got rid of Ed Miliband before the election, when people were questioning his leadership, Jarvis replied:
I think it is a good thing that we are instinctively loyal as a Labour Party, as a Parliamentary Labour Party. But in the end politics has got to be about giving our party the opportunity to change this country for the better using our values. It is a Labour prime minister, it is a Labour government that we have got to work towards.
It is clearly not something I am personally comfortable with at all. I spent all of my life standing against terrorism, at some considerable risk and cost to myself. I am not comfortable with people expressing those sentiments in that way.
I do have much stronger concerns about some of the language around the IRA and those earlier statements. If you said something wrong you should retract it and say it was wrong and not have this stuff about ‘if I have caused offence’. You have got to be clear about what was wrong. The Labour Party played a very strong and powerful role in the history of peacemaking in Northern Ireland and Ireland and it would be a grave error to jettison that.
And in his speech Owen Smith, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said Labour was now committed to fighting the welfare bill unequivocably.
It penalises children.
It takes money from the poorest workers.
In his conference speech Michael Dugher, the shadow culture secretary, announced a review into arts and culture.
We will develop a comprehensive National Plan for the publicly funded arts and culture sector.
This is something Jeremy Corbyn called for before his election as leader of our party.
Because no one should be in any doubt that this Tory Government presents a clear and present danger to the future of the BBC.
It could be the end of the BBC as we know it.
Here’s a Labour video of Jeremy Corbyn explaining how he is changing the party and appealing for people to join.
Here’s Jeremy Corbyn helping a wheelchair user speaking at the conference off the platform.
The Labour MP Keith Vaz is chairing this afternoon’s session of conference. He has just urged delegates to attend tonight’s diversity night event. For the first time in 19 years the party leader will be attending, he said.
Until very recently Jeremy Corbyn was chair of the Stop the War Coalition. It is convenient that he has stood down, because this afternoon it has put out a statement criticising Hilary Benn’s stance on Syria. (See 11.35am.) Here’s the key extract.
Stop the War Coalition is disappointed that Hilary Benn, the shadow Foreign Secretary, has indicated support for air strikes in Syria. There is now much experience of such air strikes in Libya, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.
“These airstrikes achieve nothing, except further misery for the local populations,” said Stop the War’s convenor Lindsey German. “And they have only exacerbated the threat of terrorism, as we are seeing across the Middle East.”
Dan Jarvis, the MP for Barnsley Central and a former British Army officer, has been speaking at a fringe event hosted by the Huffington Post. The room was packed with journalists, reflecting the fact that he is the bookies’ favourite to be Labour’s next leader.
It was an eventful conversation. Jarvis confirmed that he still has a piece of shrapnel in his head from his time in the armed forces; he said he’d take the food blogger Jack Monroe’s brother, who’s in the RAF, for coffee to persuade him that Labour is the party of the armed forces; and he talked about losing close friends is battle.
I also think it’s legitimate and sensible to draw on lessons from that campaign, specifically whether enough had been done to prepare for what happened after the initial movement into Iraq.
I often reflect back on whether it was the right thing or the wrong thing. It’s not unreasonable to be asking those kind of questions. But what I’d say is – seeing as we’ve waited quite some considerable time for John Chilcot to report – it would be prudent to wait for John Chilcot to report [before making an apology].
Vodafone has rejected John McDonnell’s suggestion that it is avoiding tax. (See 12.33pm.) It has issued this statement.
It is disappointing that this has been raised again. There was no truth in the allegations in the past and there are none now. As we have made clear on numerous occasions, Vodafone has always paid its taxes and for the last financial year (2014/15) we paid around £360 million in direct taxes in the UK.
It requires huge investment to build and maintain our network, which is relied upon by businesses and consumers up and down the country and we have invested heavily in the UK over the last few years, spending more than £1bn on our network and services last year. As a result of that investment and the very competitive market, we make minimal profits (£41m) in the UK. As the Government wants to promote investment in essential infrastructure like ours, the UK tax rules mean that reliefs for our investment are set against the profits we make. In addition the Government understands that we have to borrow huge sums of money to be able to invest for the long term, so they allow us to take the interest we pay on those borrowings off our profit too. Corporation tax is then paid on any balance – this is the same rule that applies to all UK companies large and small.
Here’s a Guardian video with excerpts from John McDonnell’s speech.
Caroline Flint, the Blairite the shadow energy secretary, made a veiled criticism of the Labour leadership at a packed fringe saying that closing the loopholes that allowed billions of unpaid taxes to go uncollected could not “sustain” a economic programme.
Speaking at a Respublica fringe on business, Flint said that there were 1,100 tax allowance schemes and most “were honed for tax avoidance” but said no one could be sure how much would be raised if all of them were closed.
I would scrap most of them. The question is what do to with the proceeds. We don’t know how much (the Treasury would get). It’s wishful thinking to say that (it) would sustain an economy. I think it should be used to pay down debt.
Westminster Public Affairs, a lobbying firm, has conducted a survey which probably gives some insight into what key people in the party think of Jeremy Corbyn. It surveyed 48 people who stood unsuccessfully as Labour candidates at the election, and asked them what they thought of their new leader. A third of them voted for Corbyn as their first preference.
Here are some of the key findings. The full details are on Westminster PA’s website.
Stewart Hosie, the SNP’s deputy leader, has responded to John McDonnell’s speech on behalf of his party. He says that, because of McDonnell’s comments at the weekend accepting the fiscal charter, Labour is by implication accepting Tory cuts.
Labour’s economic plans are all over the place. While the SNP went into May’s election opposing austerity and campaigning for a real terms increase in public spending, Labour ran scared of the Tories and backed their draconian cuts and welfare reforms.
While the SNP remain firmly opposed to George Osborne’s pro-austerity fiscal charter, John McDonnell just last week mandated Labour MPs to troop through the lobbies with the Tories yet again to back the plans, just as they did when they voted for £30bn of cuts in the last parliament. Labour have now lost all credibility and no one will take these claims remotely seriously.
The Labour MP Michael Meacher is suggesting that Lord Mandelson should be expelled from the party. He made the case in a post on his blog.
It is one thing for those who opposed the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader to make their concerns and objections known and to argue for them within the Big Tent which is the Labour Party. It is quite another thing, when a new leader has just been elected with 60% of the vote (higher than Blair’s 57% in 1994), for a well-known Labour public figure to openly incite insurrection to have him promptly overthrown. When the party has spoken with such unprecedented decisiveness, such behaviour is coming close to traitorous. The Labour party has a rule, introduced by Blair himself, that anyone who brings the party into disrepute can be expelled. Many would think that Mandelson, who no doubt was deeply involved in the machinations behind the new rule designed to get rid of inconvenient left-wing activists, has now put himself in a position to be hoist on his own petard.
Jonathan Freedland and economics editor Larry Elliott discuss John McDonnell’s #Lab15 speech https://t.co/4SX0k8Ctzi
In its response to John McDonnell’s speech, the Social Market Foundation says Labour has not avoided the trap set by George Osborne with his fiscal responsibility charter. Here’s an excerpt.
John McDonnell said he was avoiding the attempt by George Osborne to play political games with fiscal charters. He wasn’t falling into the trap apparently. Well, he didn’t tumble into it in this speech, because he cleverly skirted over whether his position is to run a current surplus or an overall surplus. It sounds like a technicality, but it makes £40billion worth of a difference. He’s postponed falling into the trap rather than avoided it: at some point he is going to have to decide where his vote lies in parliament.
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, was on the World at One talking about John McDonnell’s speech. He said McDonnell was rather vague as to how he would raise taxes.
There was quite a lot of nodding towards things, or directions that he would like to take. So, unlike what I had understood him to say on Saturday [that he would accept George Osborne’s fiscal charter], he didn’t say that he would be in favour of balancing the books by the end of the parliament. He didn’t say anything specific about a Tobin tax [the financial transaction tax]. He didn’t say anything specific about people’s QE. But he did talk in general terms about the need to support growth, to reduce corporate welfare, to raise money from people like Starbucks and Google and so on.
So what one got the sense of was a desire to raise taxes, as is often the case with politicians, from other people , be they multinational companies, or the 1%, or the rich or whatever. But, to make what he’s saying balance, that is a significantly large amount of tax in that.
That was the slightly confusing thing in a way. He did not really talk very much about spending cuts at all. To meet the fiscal charter, certainly to meet the government’s fiscal plans to get to balance by the end of this parliament, you either need really very significant spending cuts - and that’s what this government has laid out, and let’s be clear they are very significant spending cuts, we saw some of them announced in the budget, we are going to see some more in the spending review - or you need some really, really big tax increases. So, if he really does want to go down that route, then there’s a lot more to spell out.
The CBI has criticised John McDonnell for his attack on Amazon and others over tax. (See 12.33pm.) This is from John Cridland, the CBI director general.
The shadow chancellor was strong on intent but has not yet provided great detail on how he intends to deliver his plans. The overall impression of this speech was of rather more intervention in the world of business and the economy.
What’s clear to us is that you can’t be pro-growth and pro-jobs without being pro-business. And a thriving private sector is essential for raising living standards and paying for high-quality public services.
And this is what journalists are saying about the speech on Twitter. Generally they like it. Even a reporter from the Financial Times - the Bible of capitalism, which McDonnell once vowed to overthrow - says the speech was “grown-up, thoughtful and measured”.
From the BBC’s Kamal Ahmed
McDonnell aimed for serious and sober, whether you agree with him or not. This conf seems to be about tone - "no rants please" #labour2015
Mature & impressive Labour conference speech by new shadow chancellor, John McDonnell. We cd pick holes in it, but that's true of them all
The McDonnell speech was grown-up, thoughtful and measured. But his Achille's Heel remains the comments he made years ago elsewhere.
Many blanks to fill in for McDonnell on raising tax take. Danger is spending years working them out before an election not about austerity.
McDonnell promised a stultifyingly boring speech ... certainly no policy fireworks and few rhetorical ones... More strategy/reviews etc
...it went down very well in the hall among the membership who loved the shift in political strategy, even if there wasn't much policy meat
Find McDonnell's 'boring' speech much more interesting than most - no tricks, thoughtful, much to say. And short! #lab15
Quite impressed by John McDonnell's speech. He's no fool. The Tories might have to think about beating him with ideas rather than ridicule.
I think that may be the first time that "David Blanchflower" has been used as an applause line. #lab15
Clever by McDonnell, I thought to wheel out big names - makes him look more serious. #lab15
McDonnell’s speech - Snap verdict: In presentational terms John McDonnell did sound as if he were delivering new politics, and this was a welcome change. Conventional party conference speeches are often a leaden mix of low-grade argument, weak jokes, corny personal references, faux indignation and boiler-plate soundbites. McDonnell abandoned almost all of that, and instead we got a plain, straightforward manifesto. It was not stirring, or even especially memorable, but there was a basic authenticity and integrity there that was appealing.
Yet, in terms of substance, this was all far less novel than McDonnell suggested. In fact, almost all of it could have come from Ed Balls. Perhaps Balls would have been a bit more reluctant to criticise conditionality in the benefits system, but he also argued for an alternative approach to deficit reduction, with more focus on growth, he argued for more progressive taxation, and he repeatedly asked George Osborne to let the Office for Budget Responsibility scrutinise Labour’s plans. And getting a former head of the civil service to conduct a review of the Treasury - the one surprise announcement left in the speech by the time McDonnell delivered it - was a classic Balls-style manoeuvre.
McDonnell is winding up now.
As socialists we will display our competence with our compassion
Idealists yes but ours is a pragmatic idealism to get things done, to transform our society.
McDonnell urges Labour MPs who left the front bench because of Corbyn’s election to return.
I admit that I was disappointed that after Jeremy’s election some refused to serve.
In the spirit of solidarity upon which our movement was founded I say come back and help us succeed.
McDonnell says people are fed up with being patronised.
I believe the British people are fed up of being patronised and talked down to by politicians with little more than silly slogans and misleading analogies.
McDonnell summarises the Corbyn economic project.
First we are throwing off that ridiculous charge that we are deficit deniers.
Second we are saying tackling the deficit is important but we are rejecting austerity as the means to do it.
McDonnell says he is not going to play political games any more.
You know the narrative George Osborne wanted to present of us this week.
Deficit deniers risking the security of the nation etc.
McDonnell says “pre-crash warning signs” could be reappearing.
George Osborne fought the last election on the myth that the slowest economic recovery from recession in a century has been some sort of economic success.
In reality the Tories presided over the longest fall in workers’ pay since Queen Victoria sat on the throne.
McDonnell announces two new reviews.
I want us to stand back and review the major institutions that are charged with managing our economy to check that they are fit for purpose and how they can be made more effective.
As a start I have invited Lord Bob Kerslake, former head of the civil service, to bring together a team to review the operation of the Treasury itself.
McDonnell says the Tories’ attack on Jeremy Corbyn’s plans to nationalise the railways i hypocritical.
At this stage let me say that I found the Conservatives rant against Jeremy’s proposal to bring rail back into public ownership ironic when George Osborne was touring China selling off to the Chinese State Bank any British asset he could lay his hands on.
It seems the state nationalising our assets is ok with the Tories as long as it’s the Chinese state or in the case of our railways the Dutch or French.
McDonnell names the members of the new economic advisory committee.
I give you this undertaking that every policy we propose and every economic instrument we consider for use will be rigorously tested to its extreme before we introduce it in government.
And we will demand that the Office of Budget Responsibility and the Bank of England put their resources at our disposal to test, test and test again to demonstrate our plans are workable and affordable.
McDonnell promises “a radical departure from neoliberalism”.
We’ll also turn the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills into a powerful economic development department, in charge of public investment, infrastructure planning and setting new standards in the labour market.
This is a radical departure not just from neoliberalism but from the way past administrations tried to run the economy.
McDonnell explains how Labour would tackle the deficit if it still exists in 2020.
If we inherit a deficit in 2020, fiscal policy will be used to pay down the debt and lower the deficit but at a speed that does not put into jeopardy sustainable economic growth.
McDonnell says his measures to balance the books will be “aggressive”.
Labour’s plan to balance the books will be aggressive.
We will force people like Starbucks, Vodafone, Amazon and Google and all the others to pay their fair share of taxes.
McDonnell criticises the Tories for using cuts to tax credits to fund an inheritance tax cut that benefits the rich.
The national living wage will not make up for this, he says.
McDonnell turns to the SNP.
I was devastated by Labour’s losses in Scotland.
The SNP has now voted against the living wage, against capping rent levels and just last week voted against fair taxes in Scotland to spend on schools.
McDonnell says Labour accepts the need to tackle the deficit. But it won’t take lectures from the Tories, who have missed their deficit targets.
We will tackle the deficit but this is the dividing line between Labour and Conservative.
Unlike them, we will not tackle the deficit on the backs of middle and low earners and especially by attacking the poorest in our society.
McDonnell says the Tories have decided to protect the rich.
The leadership of the Conservative Party made a conscious decision 6 years ago that the very richest would be protected and it wouldn’t be those who caused the economic crisis, who would pay for it.
Although they said they were one nation Tories, they’ve demonstrated time and time again, they don’t represent one nation, they represent the 1%.
McDonnell says austerity is a political choice.
Austerity is not just a word for the women and families across the country being hit hardest by cuts to public services.
Women still face an average 19.1% pay gap at work.
Austerity is also not just a word for the 100,000 children in homeless families who tonight will be going to bed not in a home of their own but in a bed and breakfast or temporary accommodation.
On behalf of this party I give those children my solemn promise that we will campaign for and when we return to government we will build you all a decent and secure home in which to live.
Here is more on the Michael O’Sullivan case.
McDonnell is now into the body of his speech. He is using the text that the Telegraph has published.
At the heart of Jeremy’s campaign, upon which he received such a huge mandate, was the rejection of austerity politics.
But austerity is just a word almost meaningless to many people.
John McDonnell is speaking now. He says, for those how know his normal speaking style, this will be different. He won’t be ranting. And there won’t be jokes; they get him into trouble, he says.
He says he has some important messages for the British people.
The Telegraph has published what it says is a copy of John McDonnell’’s conference speech on its website. Labour has not confirmed yet that it is the proper text, although it would be surprising if it isn’t.
Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, compared the government’s trade union bill to Nazi attempts to victimise trade unionists. In his speech, he said the proposals to force trade unionists to to wear armbands when they are on picket lines justified the comparison. He also said he would ignore this aspect of the law.
Let me make one thing clear.
Whatever the law says, I will be on the picket line when Unite members are on strike.
I could tell you the new law proposed by the government is not fit for purpose. But the official Regulatory Policy Committee has already done so.
I could say it’s unnecessary – as the Police Federation have done. I could argue that it breaches fundamental human rights, including the right to free speech and free assembly. But I would only be repeating what Liberty and Amnesty International have stated publicly.
SSI Steel has announced it is closing its plant at Redcar, my colleague Sean Farrell reports. Here is an extract from the story he’s just filed.
SSI Steel has announced it will close its iron and steel making plant at Redcar on Teesside indefinitely with the loss of 1,700 jobs.
The Thai-owned company, which put production on hold on 18 September, said that after reviewing the business it had no choice but to close the operations. Coke ovens and a power station at the site will continue to function, it said.
This afternoon there will be an emergency debate at the conference on the threat hanging over the SSI steelworks in Redcar, where production has been stopped. Angela Eagle, the shadow business secretary, said government policies were contributing to problems at the plant.
The latest announcement from SSI shows how critical the situation in Redcar is. Unless the government acts, 1,700 jobs will be lost.
It is unacceptable that the government is allowing strategic industries to fail. This government’s ideological decision not to have an industrial strategy is putting jobs at risk.
Hilary Benn, the shadow foreign secretary, did not say whether or not Labour would back air strikes against Islamic State in Syria in his speech to the conference a few minutes ago. Instead he focused on calling for a UN security council resolution on this issue.
This week the United Nations General Assembly is meeting in New York for the world leaders’ debate.
Presidents Obama, Putin, Xi Jinping and Rouhani will be among those speaking, but it seems that the UK’s contribution will be made by the Foreign Secretary and not by David Cameron.
In her speech to the conference Diane Abbott, the new shadow international development secretary, said that she would not vote in favour of bombing Syria.
Interestingly, this line does not appear in the text of the speech released by the Labour press office.
Barbed wire, armed troops and letting people drown is not the solution to waves of economic migration. Still less is it the politics of UKIP. Ultimately the only way to check the flows of economic migration is international development promoting growth and prosperity worldwide.
We need “woman centered” development policies.
Here are more quotes from the speech from Paul Kenny, the GMB general secretary
Free movement of labour has become the right to exploit workers in one member state by employment of people through the now notorious umbrella agenceis to work in other member states at wages 25% or even 50% below the market rates. Not the vision of raising living standards for all, but good old-fashioned, naked exploitation of working people.
And, frankly, even our own party, by blindly embracing Europe at any price, merely encouraged Cameron and the CBI to push for even more attacks on working people.
It is ridiculous and stupid suggestion that we as a movement, facing vicious attacks on trade unions and democratic freedoms, as well as moves to destroy the funding base of our party, how could we possible know all that but campaign alongside the same people who attack our very existence ... Unless we’ve learnt nothing from what happened in Scotland, we should not be fighting on any platform alongside the bloody Tories. How would we expect our members and working people to understand why we would work alongside those who have proposed weakening and removing their very rights.
John McDonnell, the new shadow chancellor, has said that the fact that he is personally opposed to Heathrow expansion does not mean that the party as whole could not support a third runway there. He would oppose a third runway not as shadow chancellor but in his capacity as MP for Hayes and Harlington, he told the Press Association.
As a constituency MP I will be opposed to Heathrow. The decision on Heathrow itself will be a democratic decision within our party itself. If there is a difference between me and the rest of the party, just as we always do, we respect the individual constituency MP’s view to protect his constituency.
We may not have had a debate about Trident at this conference, but Maria Eagle, the new shadow defence secretary, did mention it in her speech. She acknowledged that she and Jeremy Corbyn disagreed on this, but said that the party would hold a debate about what policy should be.
For decades our policy has been that the UK should have responsive, high-tech armed forces with the capability to respond to emerging threats.
And it has been our position for decades too that Britain needs a credible independent nuclear deterrent while taking a lead internationally to push for a world without nuclear weapons. Labour in government reduced the numbers of nuclear warheads and gave up our free fall nuclear bomb option – as part of multilateral disarmament efforts.
The Labour split on Europe, such as it is, largely focuses on the issue of workers’ rights. Those on the left who dislike the EU worry that deregulation is bad for workers. Paul Kenny, the GMB general secretary, was reflecting that in his speech. (See 10.05am.)
So one of the creative features of Alan Johnson’s speech was that he made a pro-worker case for staying in the EU. He said that Labour would run a principled campaign for EU membership, and that it would start now. He said that the EU was not perfect, but that Labour should work to change it from within.
There is no progressive case for leaving the EU.
We know how this government feels about workers’ rights. The trade union bill did not come from Europe. That nasty, spiteful, repressive bill would not have emanated from any other mainstream, right of centre party anywhere in Europe other than the Conservative party in Britain. The problem with the EU for the Tories is that it consists of their two least favourite words, European and union ...
And let me say this: if we cannot defeat the trade union bill in parliament, we may well need the European Court of Justice to restore the basic democratic rights of British workers that this bill removes.
Kenny says the real scandal in the Ashcroft biography of David Cameron is what it says about Ashcroft hoping to get a government job after donating to the party. And (in the obligatory pig joke) he says he does not know if “porkies” were told about Ashcroft’s non-dom status.
Kenny says it is a mistake to suggest that Labour should campaign alongside the Tories to stay in Europe. “We should not be fighting on any platform alongside the bloody Tories”, he says. They put the interests of money and exploitation first, he says.
Paul Kenny, the GMB general secretary, is speaking now. He says free movement of labour in the EU has become a vehicle for exploitation.
In the conference hall Alan Johnson has just finished speaking in the Britain and the World debate in his capacity as head of the Labour for Europe campaign. I will post quotes from his speech shortly.
The GMB proposed a motion to the conference saying that the party should not commit itself to backing the in campaign in the EU referendum until after David Cameron’s renegotiation. There should be a special Labour conference then to decide the party’s position, the GMB motion said.
Alan Johnson, the Labour former home secretary, told the Today programme this morning that he expected Jeremy Corbyn to remain as leader until the election. Johnson also came close to saying that he should have been willing to stand himself. Asked about how long Corbyn would survive, Johnson said:
[Corbybn will] perhaps be the servant of the party that I never was, that perhaps I should have been. Many people criticised me for that. I think he will be the leader at the next election, yes.
Anyone who is voted in that emphatically should be there for, I think Tom Watson said ten years. I think that’s probably true.
Here are the key points from John McDonnell’s interview with Today and other broadcasters. I’ve taken some of the quotes from the Press Association and from PoliticsHome.
I will give you one example, on tax justice. Years ago I was part of a tax justice campaign where we had meeting after meeting about how we make sure we tackle tax evasion, tax avoidance in this country. Along come a group of young people called UK Uncut and they took some direct action - they protested in the street, they occupied a couple of offices that were not paying their taxes. Eventually that meant that we started addressing the issue and even George Osborne then had to start addressing the issue. So sometimes, in addition to parliamentary debates, we do need a bit of protest in this country. That is exactly what I have been advocating. But it is purely non-violent protest.
Monday's Times front page: Secret plot to oust Labour moderates #tomorrowspaperstoday#bbcpapers#lab15pic.twitter.com/Soxf4vr8V9
A plot to target Labour MPs who refuse to serve under Jeremy Corbyn has been revealed in a leaked email from a senior officer in Britain’s biggest union.
The plan is the first concrete evidence of moves to mobilise Mr Corbyn’s supporters against moderate MPs.
It’s absolute rubbish. I don’t know where these fantasies are coming from. This is not about deselecting anyone, it’s about making sure we all come together. The message from this conference and from Jeremy’s speech will be unity - come together, everybody come back together and engage in this debate, but more importantly respect each other’s views. No deselections, let’s just get on with the job of winning the next election.
Monday's Daily Mail front page: Tax war on middle class #tomorrowspaperstoday#bbcpaperspic.twitter.com/VqOVoeD27a
Monday's Daily Telegraph: Corbyn and comrades reveal plot to hammer middle-class with tax raids #tomorrowspaperstodaypic.twitter.com/AHXqX5ppTu
I have heard some of the rumours about massive tax increases - I think the Tory party must have been affected by the lunar eclipse last night, we have said nothing whatsoever. We are actually not making any major statements on tax today. What we are saying is we recognise there is a deficit and we are going to tackle that deficit. Yes, we are going to vote against some of the tax cuts for the rich that the Conservatives are introducing, our main thrust is around making sure that we tackle tax evasion, tax avoidance. But more importantly, we want to start growing the economy. So where they have got these fantasy figures about increases in taxes from, I have got no idea.
If you look at our capitalist system, one of the definitive analysts of how it works - not whether it is condemned, or whether it is right or wrong, just the mechanics of how it works, when it was first formed and how it would be developed - actually was Marx. If you look at most of the institutions that are teaching economics today, Marx has come back in to fashion because people have gone back to his analysis of just the basics of how the system works.
People might disagree with his conclusions about what to do with the system, but actually to understand how the system works he comes up with some interesting analyses that have been built in to traditional and fairly classical economics.
This new politics that’s been introduced since Jeremy Corbyn’s election is basically saying our members are the people who own this party, it’s our members who will make the policy. But all of us - MPs, members of the shadow cabinet - will all be participating in our debate and our policy making. We believe in equality and that’s what we’ve got now. We’re all equal now and we will all be involved in this debate and it will be democracy. Don’t confuse democracy with disunity.
The interview ended with Sarah Montague mistakenly thanking John McConnell. McDonnell laughed.
I will post a summary of the highlights shortly.
Q: You said in a speech a few years ago that direct action, or insurrection, could change society.
McDonnell says he is thinking of publishing his old speeches, because everyone else is publishing them now.
Q: Would you introduced the financial transaction tax unilaterally?
McDonnell says the party’s policy is to introduce it globally. That has not changed, he says.
Q: Is People’s QE dead as a policy?
McDonnell says the government should borrow when interest rates are low.
Q: Do you admire the economy in France?
No, says McDonnell.
Q: You have also talked about removing subsidies worth £93bn from companies.
McDonnell says where these subsidies are delivering, they should be kept. But if they are not delivering, they should be up for review.
McDonnell says he wants to study how much of this tax money could be collected.
Sarah Montague is interviewing John McDonnell.
Q: How will you make the economy grow?
According to the BBC, John McDonnell has said his speech today will be “stultifyingly boring”.
Never mind. I’ll try to liven it up.
After the leader’s speech, the most important event at a main party conference is normally the speech from the chancellor or shadow chancellor and just before lunch we will be hearing from John McDonnell, the hard-edged leftwinger whose move the Treasury job was the most controversial appointment in Jeremy Corbyn’s reshuffle.
There has been some briefing of the speech in advance. Here is Patrick Wintour’s preview story, and here is how it starts.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, will promise to match Jeremy Corbyn’s new politics with a new economics, including a pledge that the next Labour government will live within its means but run a different kind of economy.
McDonnell’s promise will come after his predecessor Chris Leslie told him to tone down his negative rhetoric to business and spell out what he planned to do to make Labour an anti-austerity party.
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