Jeremy Corbyn: bikes, cars, airports and missiles
Labour’s new leader has been told by his team he’s got to park his bike. It’s not an image thing – they know it’s part of Jeremy Corbyn authentic persona – but they worry about security and vulnerability to an angry or distracted motorist.
On security, I understand Mr Corbyn has decided to eschew the offer of Special Branch protection but will take up use of the Labour party leader’s traditional car.
MPs are still reeling from the appointment of John McDonnell as shadow chancellor. It helps to answer the question on many lips: who is really running the Corbyn ship? The answer on a central question like this was: John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn.
No two MPs have been more inseparable. Despite opposition to the appointment from all over the Corbyn-sphere, including from Len McCluskey, John McDonnell won out. He sits at the centre of the Corbyn project in an unrivalled position. It is just one more fascinating plot-line in this saga whether that duopoly can sustain.
Some of the centre/centre right figures now in the shadow cabinet calculate they might be able to moderate or overwhelm the Corbyn/McDonnell axis in shadow cabinet decisions. And where they can’t win the decision they hope to be able to win a loose leash “free vote” that allows them to go different ways.
One such vote would be the prospect of British military intervention in Syria. Another would be the final gate decision on Trident (due at the beginning of 2016). Heathrow expansion is also taxiing towards a decision soon, another area where the shadow cabinet is deeply divided.
Welfare policy changes present less of a problem. Those who wanted a Labour abstention in the July Commons vote on the government reforms are no longer in the shadow cabinet. It was Harriet Harman and some supporters of Liz Kendall who were most in favour of that move. The shadow cabinet might more easily decide to oppose the reforms tooth and nail as Mr Corbyn would wish (even if some would not be doing so off their own bat).
Rosie Winterton the chief whip appears to have been the key figure trying to work out who might serve under Jeremy Corbyn – you get a juicy account of some of those conversations here . Some were then spoken to briefly by Jeremy Corbyn on the phone. I haven’t come across anyone demanding assurances or extracting promises of “no go areas” for policy changes etc.
The approach seems to have been, after some direct consultation amongst the non-Corbyn types, that they will go in hoping that they can hold back the tide on policy change, whether that is in shadow cabinet or even through conference.
Conference’s 50/50 split between members and unions wasn’t affected by the Ed Miliband reforms. On Trident, for instance, some shadow cabinet ministers told me this morning they were pretty confident they could hold off any attempt to reverse Labour’s commitment to Trident renewal in a conference vote.
One of Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet appointments told me: “It’s going to take a long time to convince the party faithful that their man is no use so we need to tread very carefully and make sure we are alive and kicking come the day.”
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