3 October 2025

Labour needs Owen Jones

The left-wing journalist and campaigner was barred from Labour Party conference

Photo by Alice Zoo for the New Statesman

On the third day of Labour Party conference, right before Keir Starmer’s speech, Owen Jones, a Guardian columnist with more than a million X followers, found his press pass rescinded. In an email to him, the party cited concerns regarding “safeguard[ing]” because of “complaints we have received about your conduct”. He was in effect being accused of harassing MPs by asking them questions on camera, especially female MPs, including my favourite, and former boss, Emily Thornberry, who thought his way of questioning women had an “element of misogyny”.

I disagree with the decision and think it will weaken Labour’s calls of cowardice if Reform one day decides to block mainstream media. It is also both a symptom and a cause of Labour’s impotent media strategy. If I see a video of Jones being threatening to MPs, I will take back everything I write here and make sure to side-eye him next time we share a panel. However, the edited videos I have seen do not appear unusual for new-media political interviews. I also doubt a seasoned woke lefty like Owen doesn’t know where the line is when it comes to harassment. Sure, were I the bag carrier of one of the MPs he was tailgaiting I may have been less patient than the current crop of stoic Spads. “Out of the way kid, government of grown-ups passing through.”

Labour needs people like Owen Jones. The party’s new policy is always to send an MP to GB News when it’s asked. That’s good, but may I suggest it starts sending them to Novara Media as well?

At conference this week, Starmer gave a question to Politics Joe, an independent left-wing media group. That’s good! May I suggest he also sends one of his lieutenants (my pick: Shabana Mahmood) to be interviewed by Aaron Bastani? Novara can get 18 million views a month on YouTube, more than 100 million on Instagram.

The reason I identify with Blue Labour as much as I do with the soft left of the party is because, as someone born and raised in the blunt communitarian culture of Greece, I have a visceral need to fight politics like a man. Only cowards throw the rulebook to nullify their enemies. Real men don’t run away from a fist fight.

Keir Starmer’s conference speech finally gave the party the narrative we needed to hear. He did so by being self-deprecating and sharing his actual personal story, not the fake-sounding one we were fed last year. Oh, and he smiled more. Well done Mr Darcy, your troops were craving a wink.

But Andy Burnham is right about the climate of fear. The word I would use is “vibe”. Labour is giving off insecure, petty vibes. The party’s National Executive Committee may say it has good reason to exclude certain MP candidates, journalists and members, but the average member marinating in a semi-permanent environment of safe-space proclamations senses a stifling vibe. The details of each case don’t matter; time isn’t taken to investigate them.

Plus, as the Tories are finding out, and as Nigel Farage knew all along, negative attention is better than no attention. The Labour movement is sorely lacking media stars. We used to have Jones. Despite the current rift, his presence alone at conference could inspire media-savvy Labour zoomers. Bobbing around with a mic and camera crew, Jones could show our youths what it takes to become a big name and attract a followership of millions. If you worry that his presence there is so powerful it disrupts, or worse, turns members away from our party, then the problem is not with the space Labour allowed Owen, but with the space Labour vacated. If his arguments are as weak as some say, then how weak are we if they cannot be rebutted? If our MPs can’t answer questions about Gaza without looking flustered, is there a problem with our policy on Gaza?

If Labour wants to win over Reform voters, we need to understand that Reform voters hate a Karen (a pejorative term for an entitled middle-class woman). If you think Owen Jones is a disingenuous weasel, tell him to his face. It’s manipulative to use the word “threatening”, when the more accurate word is “annoying”.

Obsessive factionalism needs to become a socially stigmatising offence. Some people in Labour, with the self-awareness of a chatbot, will reassure you that their wing is the decent, dignified one. By now, I have been close to all of them for long enough to know it was Dad buying the presents all along. It’s called growing up.

The right – and lefties outside the Labour tent – are thriving because they have the freedom to experiment with their online presence, develop shared, humorous language, and harness shock value. How many Labour Party members can shitpost with immunity? We can’t even call racists racist these days without being asked to apologise. No wonder X, where the British media establishment still gets its news, is dominated by the right. If Labour really believes winning is more important than moralising, it needs to give commentators linked to the party free rein, and MPs need to get used to taking part in confrontational and organic comms.

What did you think defeating the online right was about? Newsnight? Op-eds? Planted PMQs? Losers.

[Further reading: Has Keir Starmer picked the wrong battle?]