Jeremy Corbyn is a 'disaster', says Stephen Hawking

Jeremy Corbyn: SNP piles on pressure over Trident

1 October

The Labour party conference ended with Jeremy Corbyn caught in the crossfire. On the one side are his own senior colleagues infuriated by his admission yesterday that he would never use nuclear weapons if he became PM. On the other are the Scottish Nationalists and the Conservatives, both seeking to exploit his fragile position, with the SNP asking in effect, "Do you lead the Labour party or not?"

Meanwhile Corbyn's deputy, Tom Watson, sought to pick up the pieces yesterday with a rousing end-of-conference speech. "We've had our summer of introspection," he told delegates in Brighton. "Let's get back out into the country and start talking to people... we have to get back into government."

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Shadow cabinet 'goes nuclear'

The troubles began yesterday morning when Corbyn was asked by Radio 4's Today programme whether, given his personal opposition to Trident, he would ever press the nuclear button should he become prime minister. "No," he replied, adding: "We are not in the era of the Cold War any more."

A string of shadow cabinet members quickly stepped up to say they disagreed. "I don't think that a potential prime minister answering a question like that, in the way in which he did, is helpful," shadow defence secretary Maria Eagle told the BBC.

Andy Burnham, shadow home secretary, said: "If a deterrent is to mean what it says then that is an option that prime ministers have to keep." Some reports claim Burnham is ready to resign should Corbyn have his way and change Labour policy.

Shadow justice secretary Lord Falconer said: "If you've got a nuclear deterrent you have got to be willing to use it in extreme circumstances or it isn't a deterrent."

Cameron makes the most of it

Corbyn's "no nukes" interview gave David Cameron the chance to exploit Labour's qualms over Corbyn's election as party leader and to repeat the Conservatives' claim that the 66-year-old CND veteran poses a threat to Britain's security.

"The independent nuclear deterrent that we have in Britain is a vital insurance policy for our nation in what is a very dangerous world," said the PM, visiting Jamaica. "And, frankly, the way the Labour leader has answered that question demonstrates that Labour can't be trusted with our national security, which after all is the most important duty of government."

SNP turns up the heat

With Corbyn visiting Scotland today in a bid to fire up the Labour party following its disastrous general election campaign north of the border, the SNP's deputy leader, Stewart Hosie, said: "After days of chaos and infighting, Jeremy Corbyn must use his trip to Scotland to make clear whether he is leading Labour – or whether Labour is leading him."

As The Guardian puts it, the SNP "is seeking to exploit Labour divisions on the issue as Corbyn attempts to win back Labour support in Scotland".

Hosie's statement goes on: "Jeremy Corbyn needs to be straight with the people of Scotland – will Labour oppose Trident nuclear weapons on our shores, or simply allow the Tories to go ahead with this outdated and unwanted project?

"The longer Labour remain such a deeply divided party, the less chance they have of providing any effective opposition to the Tories."

What the issue says about Labour

The nuclear deterrent issue "goes to the heart of the debate about the future of the Labour party", reports The Guardian.

Moderates believe that, never mind the £100 billion price ticket, only by supporting the renewal of Trident can Labour assure "centrist voters" that the party can be trusted with the nation's security.

In the view of Labour moderates, says The Guardian, "the party only made itself a credible force for power when it abandoned support for unilateral nuclear disarmament in 1989 in favour of multilateral disarmament".

Currently, the renewal of Trident remains official party policy following Corbyn's failure this week to get a debate and vote on the issue.

But, as The Guardian reports, he sees his support for unilateral disarmament as one of "his defining political beliefs" and has made it clear that he intends to use his "huge mandate" from the leadership election to press for change.

Whether it is a "red line issue" for Corbyn is a moot point. As The Times reports, he appears to have "backtracked" by telling ITV News yesterday that he would "live with it somehow" if he failed to change party policy.

The Financial Times says even if Corbyn got his way and persuaded Labour to change its position, "the Conservative majority in the House of Commons means Labour would be unlikely to be able to block the replacement of Trident when the decision is made in the next year".

Immigration: another divide

The Times picks up on another controversial remark Corbyn made during yesterday's Today programme interview.

Asked why he had not brought up the subject of immigration in his keynote speech on Tuesday, he said that while the pressure on services – doctors' surgeries, school places and housing – needed to be "addressed", immigrants had made an enormous contribution to our society… "So, don't look upon immigration as necessarily a problem, it's often a very great opportunity."

As the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg responded yesterday, "Jeremy Corbyn thinks immigration is not a problem but for many people it is a problem."

The Times reports one Labour MP putting their head in their hands and called Corbyn's position "madness".

Tom Watson: 'the real Labour leader'

Happily, tradition dictates that the deputy party leader rather than the leader gives the closing speech to Labour's annual conference and Tom Watson "made the most of it" yesterday, says Donald Macintyre of The Independent.

"The great Fixer finally emerged from the backroom into the limelight [and] filled in some gaps left by the leader on Tuesday – like listing some of the 'literally a thousand progressive things we did to change our country for the better' in government."

Watson claimed Labour had shown this week that "we can have different opinions, and argue for them passionately, but remain friends" (even if, comments Macintyre, this doctrine was being "severely tested" by the shadow cabinet row over Trident).

"Let's kick these nasty Tories down the road where they belong," Watson concluded to wild applause.

The Daily Telegraph's Asa Bennett believes Watson proved this week he is "the real Labour leader".

First, he used his "tub-thumping" closing speech to talk about "something Jeremy Corbyn didn't mention – winning elections".

Equally important, it is Watson who Corbyn must thank for avoiding a full-blown conference debate on Trident. Corbyn might have sought a debate and vote, but it would likely have exposed an even greater split between the party leader and his members.

Watson achieved this, says Bennett, by making clear his own support for Trident immediately following Corbyn's election.

"Through a simple act of apparent loyalty, Mr Watson - the power behind the throne - has Jeremy Corbyn's leadership in his hands."

Or as Donald Macintyre concluded, Watson "has already said he would back Corbyn '100 per cent'. Which he will. Until he doesn't."

Jeremy Corbyn: I would never press nuclear button

30 September

Accused of failing to mention two of the nation's greatest concerns – the deficit and immigration – in his conference speech yesterday, Jeremy Corbyn defended himself this morning by saying he had decided to use his first speech to set out his general philosophy and ideas.

When Sarah Montague of Radio 4's Today programme asked him about immigration, he said he did not see it as a problem. And on the issue of nuclear arms, he made it clear that if he ever becomes prime minister, he would not press the nuclear button under any circumstances.

As Patrick Wintour of The Guardian comments, "It is likely Corbyn will come under pressure from those who will question why he would not even fire back at nuclear weapons being trained on the UK."

Corbyn told the Today programme he was "very aware" of the different views on Trident around the shadow cabinet table, but in a sign that he is not going to abandon his principles on this issue, he said he was also respectful of the thousands of people who had given him his mandate to lead the party. They are fully aware of his desire to scrap the nuclear deterrent, he insisted.

Asked why he had not mentioned the word 'deficit' yesterday, he replied that shadow chancellor John McDonnell had tackled the issue in his speech on Monday, and that he himself had made it clear that he would drive down the deficit – and raise more tax revenues – by investing in a growing economy. "You don't cut your way to prosperity," he said, "you grow your way to prosperity."

When Sarah Montague asked Corbyn how long he thought he had to prove that "his way of doing things" was working – a polite way of asking, "How long before you're sacked?" Corbyn answered: "There's no timetable on this."

But as the BBC's political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, commented, he has only seven months to prepare Labour for the local authority elections next May – which include the vote for a new London mayor – and he will be judged on how Labour perform.

In short, there is a timetable. Overall, Corbyn's conference performance was not the disaster some had predicted, said Kuenssberg, "but there is a clock ticking".

This morning, almost all commentators are agreed that the big question remains whether Corbyn reached beyond the conference hall to the wider electorate with yesterday's speech. And if he didn't achieve it on this first occasion, will he have another chance to do so?

A Guardian editorial today said it was "fair enough" that Corbyn had not aimed his speech "beyond the Labour tent" because there are still four and half years until the next general election, and Corbyn has "four more conference speeches in which to get sorted and specific".

But, the paper warns, Syria is coming to a head "in days, not years", a vote on the renewal of Trident is only months away at most and "Labour has hardly asked itself this week why the public so lacked confidence in its economic policies in May".

Max Hastings in the Daily Mail is less kind. In committing himself to the cause of the poor and dispossessed, the victims of "injustice and dreadful Tory austerity", Corbyn has "shackled his leadership to the fortunes of the world's losers, which is a fine thing for an Islington socialist to do. Unfortunately, though, there are not remotely enough of them to take him to Downing Street."

Hastings concludes: "The whole affair has resembled a convention of kamikaze pilots, celebrating wildly before a last take-off to oblivion."

Jeremy Corbyn delights his fans - but fails to reassure his detractors

29 September

With a promise to stand up for the poor and dispossessed in society, Jeremy Corbyn's first Labour conference speech won him warm ovations in the conference hall but a cooler response from the critics.

As the BBC's political editor Laura Kuenssberg said afterwards, the annual conference speech offers the Opposition leader a rare chance to get their message across to the electorate. Several commentators believe he failed to make the most of it.

As the press had been briefed, he told us he loved Britain and British values, and closed his 59-minute speech with words that by then had become a refrain:

"Don't accept injustice, stand up against prejudice. Let us build a kinder politics, a more caring society together. Let us put our values, the people's values, back into politics."

Michael Deacon of the Daily Telegraph had hoped for more. "In several ways, Jeremy Corbyn's big speech to Labour party conference was impressive," he writes. "For example, he actually told some jokes… He read smoothly, most of the time, from his autocue. He came across, most of the time, as pleasant, gentle, thoughtful, decent. He won many standing ovations.

"His most impressive feat, however, was that he managed to speak for an entire hour without saying anything."

He did say one thing that could cause him a headache: despite conference rejecting a debate on Trident - which means its retention remains official party policy - Corbyn made it clear he would continue to campaign to abandon the nuclear deterrent.

Some commentators were glad to see him finally take the fight to the Conservatives after Labour MPs had spent so much of the summer talking among themselves.

He challenged David Cameron to intervene immediately in Saudi Arabia where Ali Mohammed al-Nimr faces the death penalty for taking part in a demonstration at the age of 17.

He also urged the PM to stand up – "even at the 12th hour" - for the 1,700 steelworkers whose livelihoods are threatened by the mothballing of the SSI Redcar plant.

And he reiterated the central message that won him the leadership election and has helped bring 160,000 new members into the party – that the Tories' austerity programme is "an outdated and failed approach".

But critics were quick to point out that he made no mention of the national deficit or how Labour would tackle it. Nor did he mention Labour's defeat in the May general election or talk about lessons learned.

The speech was immediately "savaged" by business, reports The Times, with the CBI saying Corbyn had "misunderstood the reasons for the economic recovery" and called for a commitment to fiscal responsibility.

Andrew Sparrow of The Guardian said it could not be described as a great conference speech. "In fact, judged technically, it was second-rate, or worse. It meandered, it had no real structure (at one point Corbyn even appeared to repeat himself), and it lacked an obvious punch."

However, Sparrow went on, "That's the old politics assessment, and the whole point about Corbyn is that he is different, and that he won a surprise election victory because people were fed up with that sort of conventional statecraft."

The new Labour leader did not allow himself to say anything inauthentic, and "even the passage about how he loved Britain because of its values sounded genuine. A more plastic figure could easily have been enticed into phoney patriotism."

But did he reach out to the electorate beyond the conference hall? In short, no. "It was a sincere speech, and it marked a departure," said Sparrow. "But it is hard to see how it advances Labour politically."

Lance Price, a former Blair aide, told the BBC's Daily Politics that he wanted to be positive, but couldn't be. It was a "dreadful" and "rambling" speech that failed to reach out to the country.

Daily Politics host Andrew Neil suggested that Corbyn needed to use this speech to win over his own party before addressing the country.

This point was also made by Political Betting columnist Don Brind, who felt that, on that basis, it was a well paced and professional speech. "Even Tony Blair's early speeches had boring passages, don't forget," Brind told The Week.

The biggest standing ovation came when Corbyn called for an end to "cyber abuse" and "online misogyny".

It was not immediately clear to outsiders that he was addressing some very ugly social networking that had overshadowed the leadership election campaign. He stressed that this was not his style – "There's going to be no rudeness from me," he said – and it was time "to get back to real politics".

He made a rallying call to party activists to get ready for next year's local elections, especially the London mayoral election. As well he might: if Labour does not perform well, this could prove to be his one and only conference speech as party leader.

Jeremy Corbyn speech: 'I love this country'

29 September

Jeremy Corbyn will use his first Labour conference speech to say he loves his country and wants to forge a "kinder politics" and "a more caring society". Or, if you prefer the more cynical view, he will, in the words of the BBC's Norman Smith, "play the patriotism card".

Corbyn will say he shares what he calls "British majority values" – fair play for all, solidarity, not walking by on the other side of the street when people are in trouble, respect for the other's point of view.

"It is because I am driven by these British majority values, because I love this country, that I want to rid it of injustice to make it more fair, more decent, more equal," he will say.

The Guardian calls it a "riposte" to the criticism he received for failing to sing God Save the Queen at the recent Battle of Britain commemoration service at St Paul's.

The Daily Mail claims Labour strategists have been alarmed by the public backlash against Corbyn's republicanism. The speech is an attempt to "wrap himself in the flag to convince the public that he does not hate Britain… But his stance as a patriot will be based on an audacious claim that his left-wing values are shared by the majority of voters."

The Times also sees it as a bid to reach out to the British electorate and persuade them that he's not as extreme as they might think. The paper points to a new YouGov survey which suggests the public sees Corbyn as even more extreme than the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage.

YouGov asked respondents to place the current party leaders on the political spectrum. With minus 100 as the most left-wing through to plus 100 as the most right-wing, voters gave Corbyn a ranking of -80, David Cameron +53 and Nigel Farage +62.

Winning over the critics on his own backbenches is another matter. The Daily Telegraph reports that Labour MPs gathered in Brighton have "openly mocked" Corbyn's call for unity, citing the words of Labour MP John Woodcock, chairman of the Blairite group Progress, at a private event last night.

The audience, which included former home secretary Charles Clarke, apparently roared with laughter as Woodcock wished guest speaker Seema Malhotra "congratulations and good luck" in her new role as shadow chief secretary to the Treasury.

They also enjoyed Woodcock's shaggy dog story about the seven-year-old daughter of a former MP greeting the news of Corbyn's election with the words "We're f***ed". Reprimanded for using inappropriate language, she replied: "It's OK mummy, it's in context".

Corbyn is due to make his speech at about 2.15pm. It will be shorter than the average keynote speech at 45 minutes, and, says The Guardian, it will be "shorn of traditional New Labour conference pyrotechnics, including any stage appearance by his wife, Laura Alvarez".

Corbyn will promise to champion the rising army of self-employed people – now accounting for one in seven of the labour force – whom he believes should have full access to statutory maternity and paternity pay.

Otherwise, the speech will be policy-lite, in contrast to yesterday's tough-talking address by the new shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, who said the Tories' austerity programme was a political choice not an economic necessity and promised to force wealthy corporations to pay their share of taxes.

As Norman Smith, the BBC's assistant political editor, told Radio 4's Today programme this morning, Corbyn and McDonnell appear to be enjoying a "good cop, bad cop" routine.

Not that the "good cop" is shy of reminding Labour MPs of the scale of his victory. "The huge mandate I have been given by the 59% of our electorate who supported me is a mandate for change," he will say today.

"It was a vote for a change in the way we do politics in the Labour party and the country. Kinder, more inclusive. Bottom up, not top down. Real debate, not message discipline."

Jeremy Corbyn defeated over Trident: can end of austerity prove a winner?

28 September

The veteran socialist John McDonnell was due to explain today how he plans to scrap the Tories' austerity programme and yet prove he can be trusted with the country's economy if Jeremy Corbyn is elected prime minister in 2020.

But the shadow chancellor's set-piece presentation at the Labour party conference of his "new economics" – dismissed by the Daily Mail as "a tax war on the middle class" – appeared to be threatened by several dark clouds hanging over Brighton.

On Radio 4's Today programme this morning, McDonnell dismissed as "absolute rubbish" a report in The Times that there is a "secret plot" to target MPs who disagree with Jeremy Corbyn's left-wing agenda.

McDonnell also had to deal with a Sunday Telegraph accusation that he had in the past advocated "insurrection" and praised rioters who in 2010 had "kicked the shit" out of the Conservative party's HQ.

As for Jeremy Corbyn, he has been severely embarrassed by a conference decision NOT to debate the scrapping of Trident. This means that renewal of the nuclear deterrent remains official Labour policy – against the personal wishes of the party leader.

McDonnell's 'new economics'

The shadow chancellor will attempt to prove today that "socialist economics does not imply fiscal irresponsibility", the Financial Times reports.

John McDonnell has already vowed to match Chancellor George Osborne's plan to run a surplus by the end of the parliament. But as the FT reports, he "believes he can fill the fiscal gap through a crackdown on tax avoidance and by imposing tax rises on the wealthy and on big corporations, rather than through cuts to spending".

The Daily Mail put it differently: McDonnell plans to "redistribute wealth from the better off to those on benefits".

As well as mapping out his "new economics", says the FT, McDonnell was expected to announce "a radical review of the national institutions that manage our economy" – in particular, the Bank of England and HM Revenue & Customs.

Labour's promise to use quantitative easing to fund infrastructure projects – 'People's QE' as it has been dubbed – would in effect end the independence of the Bank of England, says the FT, while HMRC is held partly responsible by McDonnell for failing to collect enough tax revenue from rich individuals and corporations.

Those who fear a 60p tax rate under Labour – something McDonnell has advocated in the past – can apparently relax: Jeremy Corbyn told the Andrew Marr Show yesterday that Labour would reposition the top income tax band at 50p from 45p, but there were no plans to go higher.

In a bid to "boost the credibility" – in the words of the FT – of his "new economics", McDonnell announced at the weekend the appointment of six economists who will meet four times a year to help him write Labour's economic policy.

They include Thomas Piketty, the French author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate, and Anastasia Nesvetailova, a professor at City University.

Mass council house programme

Labour under Jeremy Corbyn should embark on a mass building programme of 100,000 new council houses and housing association homes a year, John Healey, the shadow housing minister, will tell the party conference today.

Corbyn's idea is to reduce the state's spending on housing benefit, which Healey says will amount to £120 billion over the next five years, almost £50 billion of which goes to private landlords.

The Guardian says Healey's plan – which is not yet official Labour policy – would almost quadruple the number of affordable homes currently being built.

'Plot' to target moderate MPs

The Times bases its report of a "secret plot" on the emergence of an email sent by a senior official at Unite, the country's biggest trade union.

The paper claims the leaked email represents "the first concrete evidence of moves to mobilise Mr Corbyn's supporters against moderate MPs".

The email was sent the day after the announcement of Corbyn's victory by Tony Woodhouse, a member of Unite's executive council, who told fellow officials that the "hard work starts now".

Woodhouse wrote: "We should do a massive recruiting drive in the CLPS [constituency Labour parties] where MPs have said they wouldn't serve in his shadow cabinet."

Asked by The Times about the email, a spokeswoman for Unite said: "As we have made consistently and regularly clear, Unite does not and will not support any moves to target MPs."

Woodhouse himself did not reply to The Times's request to explain the email.

John McDonnell told the Today programme the "plot" claim was "absolute rubbish", adding: "I don't know where these fantasies are coming from."

Corbyn himself has denied that he wants local parties to be able to deselect MPs like Tristram Hunt, Chuka Umunna, Yvette Cooper and Chris Leslie who have made their feelings clear by refusing to serve in his shadow cabinet.

However, Len McCluskey, Unite's general secretary, did nothing to dispel the suspicions of a plot when at a meeting in Brighton yesterday he talked of Labour going on "an exciting journey over the next couple of years" and reportedly added: "We may lose some people along the way. All I can say to that is 'good riddance'. I've got a little list here in my inside pocket with names of people I'd like to see go."

'Insurrection' claim against McDonnell

The Sunday Telegraph claims to have found evidence that Corbyn's "inner circle" has frequently condoned or justified violence. The paper points the finger at Corbyn's new political adviser Andrew Fisher, a "close ally" John Ross and shadow chancellor John McDonnell.

The Telegraph says that on at least three occasions between 2010 and 2012 McDonnell called for "insurrection" to "bring down" the government.

Also, when a student who threw a fire extinguisher from the roof of the Tory HQ received a jail sentence of 36 months, McDonnell told a rally: "He's not the criminal. The real criminals are the ones that are cutting the education services and increasing the fees."

Jeremy Corbyn told the Andrew Marr Show yesterday that McDonnell was only questioning what he saw as a disproportionate jail term. McDonnell told the Today programme that he did not advocate violence, but defended the use of non-violent direct action in some circumstances.

As an example, he said the last coalition government only started to address the issue of corporate tax avoidance after members of UK Uncut took direct action, organising street protests and occupying the offices of companies that were not paying their taxes.

Trident 'defeat' for Corbyn

Conference delegates yesterday overwhelmingly rejected the idea of a debate and vote on Trident, just hours after Corbyn had made it clear on the Marr Show that he wanted the issue to be debated. He hoped to persuade conference that the costly nuclear deterrent was an anachronism and should be scrapped.

The rejection of a debate means that the renewal of Trident continues to be official Labour policy. It was "a humiliating defeat" for Corbyn, said The Times, while even The Guardian described it as "a major blow to his authority".

Furthermore, it was "a severe embarrassment" to Corbyn because the trade unions, which had backed him in the leadership election, were already deserting him, putting shipyard jobs ahead of pacifist principles.

John Woodcock, Labour MP for Barrow and Furness, where replacement Trident submarines would be built, said: "This is a welcome sign that many rank-and-file Labour supporters want to keep us focused on the immediate concerns of the public rather than re-running old battles that risk splitting Labour apart."

But in getting his aides to lobby for a vote, Corbyn was accused of misreading the mood of conference. "Chaos and confusions rule the day", an anonymous Labour front-bencher told The Guardian.

Corbyn's advisers were swift to claim it was not a setback, but a victory for one of the main themes of his leadership campaign – that party members and trade union activists should decide what issues are debated at conference. If they prefer to debate the shortage of housing and the refugee crisis instead of Trident, so be it.

Jeremy Corbyn: grim poll on eve of Labour conference

25 September

Jeremy Corbyn prepares for his first – and possibly last – keynote speech at a Labour party conference with the odds stacked against him.

He is the first Labour leader ever to score a negative satisfaction rating in his debut Ipsos- Mori poll: minus 3, compared with Michael Foot's plus 2 and Ed Miliband's plus 19.

Meanwhile, Peter Mandelson, writing in a private paper seen by The Guardian, says that because Labour has chosen Corbyn to replace Ed Miliband, "the general public now feel we are just putting two fingers up to them, exchanging one loser for an even worse one".

One of the few positives Corbyn can take to Brighton is that he scores far better than David Cameron in the Ipsos-Mori poll when it comes to honesty.

The Ipsos- Mori poll

Corbyn's satisfaction rating is minus 3, according to Ipsos- Mori: in short, 33 per cent are satisfied with the way he is doing his job, but 36 per cent are dissatisfied. Michael Foot (in 1980) scored a debut satisfaction rating of plus 2, while Ed Miliband (in 2010) scored plus 19.

Compared with David Cameron, Corbyn scores poorly on competence: only 32 per cent think he's a capable leader, while Cameron gets 62 per cent. As for being "good in a crisis", Corbyn scores 23 per cent against Cameron's 51 per cent.

"This means that Mr Corbyn is reliant on his first speech to Labour conference for an early bounce in his ratings," The Times comments.

However, when it comes to honesty, Corbyn is the runaway winner: 54 per cent believe he is more truthful than most politicians, with only 30 per cent thinking the same of Cameron.

He also has a better understanding of the concerns of ordinary people, according to Ipsos- Mori's respondents: 64 per cent say Cameron is "out of touch", while only 39 per cent say the same of Corbyn.

The Peter Mandelson verdict

None of which impresses Peter Mandelson, whose stark warning, contained in a private letter to "political associates" seen by The Guardian, is that "We cannot be elected with Corbyn".

However, the former minister and co-architect with Tony Blair of the New Labour project says now is not the time to oust Corbyn, even if many Labour backbenchers are itching to do so. Instead, moderates need to regroup, settle in for the "long haul" and wait for Corbyn to self-destruct.

The mood among many grassroots moderates, says Mandelson, is that "we'll come back when the party gets its act together and is serious again".

Nobody will replace Corbyn, says Mandelson, until "he demonstrates to the party his unelectability at the polls. In this sense, the public will decide Labour's future and it would be wrong to try and force this issue from within before the public have moved to a clear verdict."

Corbyn's honest answers

The public admires Corbyn's honesty – though it can bring him negative headlines.

Giving what he described as "an honest answer" to ITV News yesterday, Corbyn said he had not yet decided whether he will kneel before the Queen when he becomes a privy counsellor.

The Daily Telegraph headed its report: "Jeremy Corbyn might still snub the Queen' and quoted Owen Paterson, a Tory privy counsellor since 2010, saying of Corbyn: "He is being completely beyond childish – you grew out of this sort of nonsense in your first year at university."

In another honest answer, Corbyn, who is more used to addressing rallies with a loudhailer, admitted he had never used an autocue before.

A conference speech was "quite different" to what he is used to, he said, because "you're appealing to your own party and trying to give a message and direction to your own party and at the same time you're trying to deal with political debate and appeal to wider a national and international audience.

"I have to say I have never used an autocue in my life before. It's an interesting challenge. I have tried it out."

Jeremy Corbyn 'undermines Northern Ireland peace'

25 September

Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of undermining the Northern Ireland peace process after saying he supports a united Ireland.

It is party policy – and indeed the policy of the UK and Irish governments – to maintain an even-handed approach to this question, based on the principle that the final choice must be one for the people of Northern Ireland.

Instead, the Labour leader told the New Statesman in the course of a wide-ranging interview that a unified Ireland was "an aspiration that I have always gone along with".

The Times reports a shadow cabinet minister saying that Corbyn's comment was a "very serious" matter because it came just as Vernon Coaker, the shadow Northern Ireland secretary, was visiting Belfast.

Never mind unifying Ireland, can Corbyn find unity within his own shadow cabinet? His New Statesman interview, coupled with the publication of a pamphlet setting out the steps Labour needs to take to win the next election, has exposed several rifts.

Northern Ireland

Vernon Coaker, says the Times, accepted the job as shadow Northern Ireland secretary "on the understanding that Labour would maintain an even-handed approach in the province".

Corbyn's remark necessitated a statement from Coaker's office saying that "Labour's position had not changed and that the party remained committed to a bipartisan approach based on the consent of the people and set out in the Belfast agreement and subsequent agreements", The Times reports.

The paper quotes a DUP source saying: "With the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, we feel the prospect of a united Ireland is further away than ever."

Power to the party

Many senior members of the shadow cabinet disagree fundamentally with Corbyn that the Trident nuclear deterrent should be abandoned. They are therefore worried about a possible debate on the issue at next week's party conference because Corbyn is insisting that any vote by conference delegates should be binding.

Asked whether unilateral nuclear disarmament would become Labour policy if a motion was approved at the party conference, he told the New Statesman: "Well, it would be, of course, because it would have been passed at conference."

However, as The Times points out, votes on "contemporary resolutions" are currently not binding and are simply fed into the policy-making process. The pro-Trident faction's best hope is that trade unions dependent on shipyard jobs will vote to keep Trident.

Another issue that will cause problems if conference backs it is the return of 'mandatory reselection' – the process used in the 1980s to throw out MPs whose views were considered too moderate or right-wing.

Corbyn says that personally he's against mandatory reselection. But in his New Statesman interview he conceded that it would "absolutely" become "party rules" if Labour activists were to vote in favour of the process at conference.

The benefit cap

Corbyn told the New Statesman that the cap on what any one family can claim in state benefits would be opposed by Labour from now on. "It's what I've put forward as leader and I've made that very clear," he said. "We will now oppose completely the Welfare Reform and Work Bill."

Corbyn said that in his own constituency, "the benefit cap has had the effect of social cleansing, of people receiving benefit but the benefit is capped; therefore, they can't meet the rent levels charged and are forced to move. It's devastating for children, devastating for the family and very bad for the community as a whole."

Yet both Owen Smith, shadow work and pensions secretary, and Kate Green, shadow equalities minister, have said that party policy is not to scrap the welfare cap, but simply to oppose the latest Tory plan to reduce the cap from £26,000 to £23,000 (£20,000 outside London).

Anti-austerity platform

Asked about his "divisive decision" to appoint his close friend John McDonnell as shadow chancellor, Corbyn told the New Statesman: "He's a brilliant guy on economics and the ideas that go with it. I think it's very important that the leader and shadow chancellor are thinking in the same direction and we're certainly doing that. John has made a great start, setting out what his economic policies are."But a sign of how unsure some of his colleagues are that anti-austerity measures will prove a vote-winner in 2020 comes with the publication of a pamphlet co-authored by Heidi Alexander, the newly appointed shadow health secretary.The Red Shift pamphlet sets out the steps Labour must take to win back power. "We have to weave into our language, our narrative and our political mission a fundamental respect for taxpayers' money, something that is clearly missing given our current reputation for profligacy. Labour will not and cannot get elected unless we're trusted with the public's hard-earned money. This failure of trust is an existential threat to the whole Labour movement.

The Guardian calls it "the starkest document yet to emerge from Labour's election rubble". With Heidi Alexander contributing, "it underlines how hard it will be for Corbyn to send out a cohesive message when MPs, including those in his administration, are fundamentally opposed to his ideology".

On military action against IS in Syria

David Cameron is expected to return to the Commons next month seeking a mandate to join the US in targeting Islamic State jihadists inside Syria – and the shadow cabinet is divided on the issue. Will Corbyn allow his front-benchers a free vote?

"We haven't reached that stage yet, because we don't actually know what, if anything, the government is going to bring before parliament… I will obviously attempt the best unity I can get on this… My views on military interventions are very well known and they haven't changed."

On remaining party leader

The New Statesman's George Eaton says that privately MPs from "all wings" of Labour have told him they expect Corbyn either to resign or be ousted by 2020.But when Eaton asked Corbyn whether he is committed to remaining party leader until the next election he replied "Yes" and declared "unhesitatingly" that Labour could win. He cited the enthusiasm of those "alienated" young people and working-class Labour supporters who didn't vote this year and said that even Ukippers and Tories he had met on the campaign trail were open to discussing "a different way of doing politics, which is about class politics, rather than consumer politics".

He did not address the fear of the majority of Labour MPs – that while there might be indeed be enthusiasm for Corbyn's ideology among those who didn't vote in this year's general election, there won't be enough of them to ensure a Labour victory in 2020. Without policies designed to attract former Labour supporters who deserted to the Tories in 2015, Labour won't stand a chance of victory.

Employment rights

Nothing is more likely to turn off those Labour-turned-Tory voters than the prospect of a return to 'flying pickets' and 'solidarity' strike action. But that, says the Daily Telegraph, is likely to be the result of Corbyn's promise to the New Statesman that if he wins in 2020 he will scrap Conservative anti-strike legislation dating back to Thatcher's day.

Corbyn also said that if Labour wins power in 2015 he will establish a department for employment rights to sit alongside the Department for Business.

What else did Corbyn tell the Statesman?

On being Labour leader: "It's fascinating: a lot of pressure, a lot of different things to do all the time. And I'm enjoying it."

On media intrusion: he attacked the "appalling" behaviour of the media towards his extended family. "I have asked them [the media] to respect the privacy of people. They don't. I just find it depressing."

On Prime Minister's Questions: The "crowdsourcing" used to put questions from members of the public to David Cameron at Corbyn's first PMQs was "absolutely fascinating" and he intends to continue with the experiment. However, there will be fewer questions in future so that he can ask follow-up questions himself.

On the threatened Army 'mutiny': Responding to the anonymous general who told the Sunday Times that he would face a mutiny if he came to power pledging severe defence cuts or withdrawing from Nato, Corbyn said: "I don't know who this general was and apparently he's been told off by his superiors already and I hope so. We live in a democracy… I find it surprising that they haven't been named."

On piggate: On the allegation contained in Call Me Dave, Lord Ashcroft's unofficial biography of Cameron, that while at Oxford the PM put "a private part of his anatomy" into a dead pig's mouth, Corbyn had "absolutely no response at all". However, he was "concerned about the alleged knowledge, or not, of the non-dom status of some of his [Cameron's] friends in the House of Lords".

On his favourite Arsenal players: The Emirates Stadium falls within Corbyn's North Islington constituency. Strikers Ian Wright and Dennis Bergkamp are his all-time favourites – though the one he "really enjoyed talking to" was goalkeeper Jens Lehmann. "I like him very much."

On music and books: Asked for his favourite book and band, he gave Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary and the Sixties hit-makers The Animals (House of the Rising Sun, We Gotta Get out of This Place).

On his allotment: "I was there at the weekend and I have a large supply of potatoes fresh from my allotment and vegetables and many other things, so my allotment is fine. My allotment holders are very happy. All of my fellow allotment holders are very happy people. We get along just fine."

Jeremy Corbyn: hedge fund boss welcomes People's QE

23 September

Jeremy Corbyn and his shadow chancellor John McDonnell have been given a slap on the back by a most unlikely supporter. Paul Marshall, one of Britain's wealthiest hedge fund managers, has welcomed their idea of "people's quantitative easing" to fund infrastructure projects, the Financial Times reports.

However, the Labour leader faces a tough party conference next week because of another contentious issue – Trident. The nuclear deterrent is on a list of subjects that delegates could choose to debate in Brighton, says The Times and it's a vote Corbyn will hope to avoid because he stands to lose either way.

If the conference votes for Trident, Corbyn's authority will be dealt an early blow. If it votes against, it will expose a serious split in the shadow cabinet.

A warm welcome for People's QE

Amid the "brickbats" thrown at John McDonnell, says Paul Marshall in an article for the FT, there is a "nagging failure" to accept that the shadow chancellor is right to criticise the recent use of quantitative easing to "bail out bonus-happy bankers" and make "the rich richer".

Bankers, asset managers and hedge funds have all benefited from QE, while property owners "have made out like bandits", says Marshall, co-founder of the $22bn hedge fund Marshall Wace. "In fact, anyone with assets has grown much richer."

So it comes as no surprise, says Marshall, that the left is angry about this and looking for "alternative versions of QE that do not so directly benefit bankers and the rich".

What Corbyn and McDonnell are advocating – against the wishes of the CBI, several economists and some senior Labour colleagues ­– is to target QE at infrastructure projects. "The central bank would buy bonds direct from the Treasury on the understanding that the funds would be used to improve housing and transport infrastructure," Marshall explains.

While he favours the notion, he has one proviso: it should not be introduced at a time when the Bank of England judges that QE is unnecessary, but kept for the next emergency. "If the idea were kept as something to implement the next time the country faces a financial crisis, it would carry quite a lot of respectability."

McDonnell gets a further pat on the back from the Daily Telegraph columnist Mary Riddell. She says that public revulsion over his "foolish words" about the IRA – for which he apologised on Question Time last week – has obscured his "unexpectedly fluent start" as shadow chancellor.

"Far from seeming a Marxist menace, Mr McDonnell has outlined a growth model that interests Labour's wiser centrists as well as the 'really respectable experts' whom he will supposedly unveil in his conference speech as architects of Labour's economic prospectus."

An unwelcome debate on Trident

Trident is on a list of 12 issues – including housing, refugees and the NHS – from which delegates can choose on Sunday up to eight debates later in the week. If they choose Trident for debate, it will be the first time in living memory that Labour has voted on whether Britain's nuclear deterrent should be renewed or not – and it will put Corbyn on the spot.

While the Labour leader wants Labour policy to be decided more democratically – with his front-bench colleagues bound by party members' wishes – he has made it very clear that he is opposed to Trident. Will conference fall in behind him – which, says The Times, will require a two-thirds majority – or go against him?

The problem is, 50 per cent of the votes at conference are held by trade unions some of whom, like Unite, want to keep Trident because of the large number of shipyard jobs it feeds.

As Gary Smith, the GMB's acting secretary in Scotland, said to The Times: "The 40,000 defence workers in Scotland are as vital to our national security as the armed forces. Without the skills of the workforce in the yards on the Clyde and Rosyth, the Royal Navy could not defend the nation.

"It makes no sense to abandon our long-standing overall defence strategy unilaterally for solely political reasons. That goes for Trident and the jobs at Faslane and Barrow."

Arguing for Corbyn's position, Kate Hudson, general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said: "This is an enormous and urgent opportunity for the Labour party to have an open debate on Trident, and to bring its policy in line with the needs of the age and of the British people.

"If conference decides to scrap Trident, it will also bring party policy in line with the approach of its new leader, who received a huge mandate from party members on an anti-Trident ticket."

A vote against Trident would not only upset the unions. It would expose the rift between Corbyn and senior colleagues like Tom Watson who are convinced Britain's security depends on keeping the deterrent.

Jeremy Corbyn dragged into Cameron's piggate

22 September

Jeremy Corbyn has been dragged into the prime minister's 'piggate' scandal after a tweet comparing David Cameron's alleged actions as an Oxford undergraduate with Corbyn's "brief fling" with Diana Abbott in the 1970s appeared on the Labour leader's official Twitter feed.

"Which is worse? F****** a pig or f****** Diane Abbott?" read the message from Xyzanic, which turned up yesterday morning alongside Corbyn's picture on Twitter, the Daily Mail reports.

A spokesman for the Labour leader confirmed that the tweet had been accidentally 'favourited' by Corbyn or one of his aides. "It's obviously completely un-intended, accidental," said the spokesman. "Jeremy or somebody else has obviously accidentally pressed the favourite button. It's very easily done."

There's no danger of the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, becoming a Corbyn favourite. In what the Financial Times calls "a blistering attack", the Italian prime minister said publicly that Corbyn's left-wing policies are a recipe for electoral defeat.

Renzi said members of the Labour party seemed to "delight in losing", comparing them to the Washington Generals, the basketball team that plays against the Harlem Globetrotters in exhibition games and always lets them win.

"It's not a question of being Blairite or anti-Blairite," said Renzi, "it's a matter of understanding whether you want to go to elections like you go to the Olympics, to win or [just] to participate."

The remarks are highly unusual in that serving prime ministers rarely comment on foreign opposition politicians in case they have to deal with them one day. Also, Renzi's Democratic party (PD) and Labour are allies on the European stage, both belonging to the Party of European Socialists.

Critically, however, Renzi is from the moderate wing of PD and has had many run-ins with the Italian trade unions since taking office in February 2014.

His remarks about Corbyn came in a speech last night in which he tried, once again, to persuade dissidents on the left of PD to accept sweeping economic reforms.

It is not the first time Renzi has expressed "a sense of exasperated frustration" in the wake of Corbyn's victory, The Guardian reports.

Last week, he told a radio programme: "The last one called 'Red' was Ed Miliband, who took a mighty slap in the face from Cameron. I don't think people who want to get out of Nato want to win elections."

Nor is Renzi the only Italian politician to comment on his British counterpart, the Guardian adds.

Last month, Matteo Salvini, leader of the ultra-right Northern League, praised David Cameron for showing "balls" in his tough line on immigrants, while Beppe Grillo, leader of the anti-euro Five Star Movement, has commended Ukip's Nigel Farage for his sense of humour and irony.

It can only be a matter of time before Silvio Berlusconi congratulates Cameron on piggate.

Jeremy Corbyn faces Labour split over Syria airstrikes

21 September

Jeremy Corbyn faces a serious split in his shadow cabinet unless he offers all Labour MPs at Westminster a free vote if David Cameron tries again to secure parliamentary backing for airstrikes within Syria.

Two senior members of Corbyn's team, Lord Falconer and Hilary Benn, both made it clear yesterday that they could be persuaded to vote with the Conservatives if the government can show a strong military and legal basis for intervention.

They are apparently not alone. Up to half the shadow cabinet are said to be sympathetic to the government view that Europe's refugee crisis can only be solved by attacking Islamic State targets in Syria and helping bring the civil war there to an end.

Pressure on the Labour leader to abandon his personal anti-war position came as an Army general appeared to threaten a military coup if Corbyn ever became prime minister.

Even Corbyn's popular proposal to re-nationalise the railways came under fire this weekend, with critics saying the process he outlined to the Independent on Sunday was too slow.

The only public expressions of warmth towards the Labour leader came, paradoxically, from the City, where there is talk of a "charm offensive" to persuade him they're not all evil, and from the Tory government, which said it would trust Corbyn with top-secret intelligence from Syria, even if military chiefs didn't.

The Syria conundrum

David Cameron has always said he will not go back to the Commons with this issue unless he can be sure of a majority, having lost in 2013 when Ed Miliband ordered Labour MPs to vote against military action and 30 Tories voted with them.

But with the Islamic State threat barely diminished, and with the Syrian refugee crisis spreading across Europe, a Commons majority looks far more likely now. Corbyn, a long-time pacifist, just needs to be persuaded to give all Labour MPs a free vote.

Appearing on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show yesterday, shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn could not rule out backing airstrikes if the government makes a strong case.

On the BBC's Sunday Politics show, shadow justice secretary Lord Falconer said he would be in favour "if there is a proper military basis for us doing that and it assists the national interest, and in particular national security".

Falconer listed several issues on which he differs from Corbyn – including Nato, the EU, independence for the Bank of England, renewing Trident and the welfare cap – but said he was able to serve because the new party leader is "very, very pluralistic".

Deputy leader Tom Watson made a similar point when he was quizzed about Labour policy splits on Radio 4's Today programme this morning. Corbyn "wasn't elected king of the Labour party," he said, "he was elected leader of the party".

Can Corbyn be persuaded?

A Tory cabinet minister has confirmed to The Guardian that in an effort to persuade Corbyn of the case for airstrikes, he will be allowed access to Syria-related intelligence files.

The anonymous minister said the view was that the government had to treat Corbyn as "trustworthy unless he proved himself otherwise".

This was said in the light of weekend reports that security chiefs are reluctant to give Corbyn access to secret information, given his anti-war rhetoric and the fact that he has been known to share platforms with enemies of the state.

The Sunday Times quoted an anonymous serving general saying that if Labour were to win the 2020 general election under Corbyn, "There would be mass resignations at all levels and you would face the very real prospect of an event which would effectively be a mutiny.

"Feelings are running very high within the armed forces. You would see a major break in convention with senior generals directly and publicly challenging Corbyn over vital important policy decisions such as Trident, pulling out of Nato and any plans to emasculate and shrink the size of the armed forces.

"The Army just wouldn't stand for it."

Today, the Ministry of Defence moved to quell any further talk of a military coup, saying the general's comments were "unacceptable".

Even some Conservatives expressed disquiet, reports The Independent. Daniel Hannan, a right-wing Tory MEP, described the general as an "idiot", adding: "We're not Bolivia for God's sake."

Renationalising the railways

Corbyn will make renationalisation of the railways his number one official policy and is establishing a task force to work out how best to implement the plan.

However, as the Independent on Sunday explained, the process will take a very long time because franchises will only be taken back under state control "line by line" when contracts come up for renewal.

If Corbyn were to be elected PM in 2020, only five of the 16 franchises would be back in public hands by the end of his first parliament in 2025.

"After watering down his approach to Trident and the EU last week, this represents a compromise with political reality but it may not be the revolution his supporters thought they were voting for," said Tim Shipman of the Sunday Times.

Although renationalisation of the railways is popular with the general public – a YouGov poll in 2013 found 66 per cent in favour, including 52 per cent of Tory voters – the government is dead set against the idea and not all Labour politicians believe in it either.

Tom Harris, a former Labour rail minister under Tony Blair, says Corbyn's plan will cost billions and offers only "a solution to a non-existent problem", The Times reports.

Writing for Rail Magazine, Harris claimed said it was a "great frustration that the success story of Britain's railways in the 21st century is simply not being told".