Corbyn provokes anger from Labour critics with NY message glossing over impact of election defeat

The Daily Mirror’s Kevin Maguire, one of the most high-profile Labour-supporting commentators in the media, thinks Jeremy Corbyn sounded “clueless” in his New Year’s message.

Tom Blenkinsop, a Labour MP from 2010 to 2017 and a longstanding critic of Corbyn’s, has an even harsher take on the New Year’s message.

Sir Vince Cable, the former Lib Dem leader, has told the Daily Mail in an interview that the party’s decision to go into the election promising to revoke Brexit was a “mistake”. He explained:

There is an adage in politics – ‘if you’re explaining, you’re losing’. Liberal Democrat canvassers found themselves explaining endlessly to voters on doorsteps that the proposal to revoke article 50 would only apply in the event of a democratic earthquake, and the election of a majority Liberal Democrat government.

At the start of the election campaign the Lib Dems confirmed that their policy was to revoke Brexit. But as it became clear that this was unpopular with voters, because it sounded undemocratic, the party increasingly focused on its support for a second referendum (a more likely outcome, because it was an option backed by Labour and the Lib Dems).

But Cable said, even though the prospect of the Lib Dems obtaining the majority that would allow them to revoke Brexit was most improbable, that did not stop people getting angry about the idea. “Commentators could sustain derision about the likelihood of this outcome, but also outrage about the implications,” he said.

Phil Wilson, who was Labour MP for Sedgefield until he lost his seat at the election, says that, far from being part of the resistance to Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn has been one of Johnson’s “enablers” – helping him to stay PM.

The Labour MP Gareth Thomas also seems unimpressed by Jeremy Corbyn’s New Year’s message.

And Caroline Flint, who was a Labour MP until she lost her seat at the election, seems astonished that Corbyn did not directly mention the election result in his message.

The Scottish government has said that the increase in the national living wage announced today does not go far enough. This is from Jamie Hepburn, its fair work minister, who says the Scottish government urges organisations to pay the voluntary Living Wage Foundation’s living wage instead.

While I welcome any increase to workers’ hourly rate of pay, the increases announced today, following a decade of UK government austerity, do not go far enough.

The UK national living wage is still not a real living wage – even for those who will receive the full rate – and it cannot be right that workers aged 18 to 25 receive a lower rate of pay.

That is why the Scottish government supports the payment of the real living wage of £9.30 per hour. Unlike the UK national living wage, this is a minimum rate which applies to all workers over the age of 18.

While pay legislation remains reserved to the UK government, we continue to encourage every organisation, regardless of size, sector or location to ensure all staff receive a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

More than 200,000 people have signed a change.org petition protesting against the knighthood awarded to Iain Duncan Smith.

The former work and pensions secretary, who was responsible for the implementation of the controversial universal credit system, was named in the new year honours list, which recognises the “achievements and service of extraordinary people” in the UK.

The petition, started by an NHS psychiatrist, says that Duncan Smith was “responsible for some of the cruellest most extreme welfare reforms this country has ever seen” which have led to “suffering and impoverishment”.

It describes his knighthood as an “insult to the hundreds of thousands of vulnerable individuals across this country who are suffering as a result of his policies” and calls for his title to be dropped.

Corbyn supporters initially focused on Rebecca Long Bailey, shadow business secretary …

But her pitch of “progressive patriotism” [in a Guardian article yesterday] has not been universally well received. One senior party figure described it as a “confection of nothingness”. Another official said the article — which has been in gestation for more than a week — confirmed Ms Long Bailey was “a reluctant leader and it seems people are realising that now” …

Ms Long Bailey’s status as the left’s main candidate is under threat from Ian Lavery, the party chair who is close to Mr Corbyn …

One Corbyn ally said the influence of the powerful Unite trade union was behind Mr Lavery’s decision to challenge Ms Long Bailey.

“I think that Unite — specifically [leader] Len McCluskey and [Corbyn ally] Karie Murphy — are disaffected with Becky for some reason and they are encouraging Ian Lavery to run. From their point of view, the beauty of Ian is Corbynism without Corbyn. But I don’t see him appealing to voters in London and the cities or university towns.”