Show Hide image The Staggers 21 November 2016 Labour staff up for snap election The party is match-fit for an early contest, Jon Trickett will tell the ruling NEC. Print HTML Labour is fighting fit for an early election, Jon Trickett will tell the party’s ruling national executive committee tomorrow. Trickett, who as well as being one of Jeremy Corbyn’s appointees to the NEC, is charge of the party’s election campaign, will lay out the party’s plans to move to bigger offices as it bolsters its campaign apparatus in preparation for an early election, which, sources say, have “accelerated” the leadership’s progress in changing the internal workings of the party. Digital campaign tools have been significantly upgraded, thanks to the knowhow gathered in two leadership campaign in quick succession. The party will invest in the technology developed during Corbyn’s re-election bid, and is rolling out a new campaign tool, Labour Promote, which will enable local activists to upload campaign adverts directly onto Facebook. Several close aides to the Labour leader believe that Facebook will be second in importance only to the BBC by the time of the next election. The party has also brought in external consultants to bolster and sharpen its campaigning. The pollster BMG will provide polling and guidance, while Krow Communications, the advertising agency that includes Unicef, Virgin Trains and Team GB athletes among its clients, will assist with shaping and selling the party’s message. It adds to the feeling of optimism around the leader’s office that, despite the poor position in the polls, they can turn around the current malaise. “We know that when people are asked about our policies they like them,” a Labour source explained, “and the improvements we have made to our campaigning infrastructure will help the party gets its message out more effectively.” › Yes, you should care about Donald Trump attacking "Hamilton” Stephen Bush is special correspondent at the New Statesman. His daily briefing, Morning Call, provides a quick and essential guide to British politics. More Related articles Don't believe the letting agents - banning fees is good for renters Hey, Philip Hammond, where's that £350m for the NHS? When the Autumn Statement shows the Tories are vulnerable, why can’t Labour hurt them?
Show Hide image The Staggers 23 November 2016 Philip Hammond's modest break with George Osborne could become more radical The new Chancellor softened, rather than abandoned, austerity. But Brexit could change his course. Print HTML The age of the imperial Chancellor is over. Gordon Brown and George Osborne relished in the theatricality of the Autumn Statement, springing policy surprises and roaming across departments. Philip Hammond today drew the curtain on this era. As he paid tribute to a watching Osborne, he added: "My style will, of course, be different from his." He would "prove no more adept at pulling rabbits from hats" than "[the] Foreign Secretary has been at retrieving balls from the back of scrums" (a jibe which visibly unsettled Boris Johnson). The new Chancellor was true to his word. His only surprise announcement was an anti-rabbit: the abolition of the Autumn Statement. Hammond has ended what was a second Budget in all but name. The effect was slightly undermined by the announcement of a Spring Statement (responding to the OBR's forecasts). But the change in style was unmistakeable. Hammond promised to avoid "a long list of individual projects being supported", casting himself as the nation's accountant, rather than an aspirant prime minister. But what of the substance? Osborne vowed in 2015 to deliver a budget surplus by the end of this parliament. Since then, as Hammond understatedly remarked, "times have moved on." The Leave vote, and the £59bn hit anticipated from Brexit, has ended what little hope there was of eliminating the deficit. The dry Hammond is no Keynesian but he recognises that the facts have changed. The ambition of a surplus has been postponed until the next parliament, with cyclically-adjusted borrowing only required to fall below 2 per cent by the end of this one (a looser target than Labour's). The national debt, which will peak at 90.2 per cent in 2017-18, is similarly not due to decline until 2020. In an age of uncertainty, Hammond has insured himself against economic calamity. But he deployed little of his potential firepower today. Though he explicitly borrowed to invest (as Ed Balls, rather than Osborne, proposed in 2015), he did so modestly: £23bn over five years. Austerity, Hammond made clear, has been modified, rather than abandoned. The departmental spending cuts announced last autumn remain in place and planned welfare reducations were softened, not scrapped. There was no new money for the NHS despite an ever-greater funding crisis. Osborne is gone, but Osbornomics endures. At Prime Minister's Questions, immediately before the Autumn Statement, Theresa May declared: "Austerity is about us living within our means". Yet Brexit, and all that could follow from it, could force its abandonment. If the "just managing" can manage no more, it would take a brave government to impose further deprivation. The sober Hammond is hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. George Eaton is political editor of the New Statesman. More Related articles Theresa May's government will do well to do more than just manage Don't believe the letting agents - banning fees is good for renters Hey, Philip Hammond, where's that £350m for the NHS?
