Democracy matters. Trump’s dishonest and dangerous take on the US election

Labour has opened up its biggest lead over the Tories since Keir Starmer became Labour leader. A new YouGov poll shows the opposition party on 40% with the Conservatives behind on 35%. Coming out a little over 24 hours into lockdown 2.0 for England, a measure the PM assured us would not be needed, the latest numbers suggest the emphasis on ‘competence’ has gone down well. Labour is benefitting from the the contradiction between a Prime Minister who repeatedly says he is ‘following the science’ while rejecting for weeks calls from his own experts to introduce a lockdown. And, as Starmer highlighted at PMQs this week, no one is buying the argument that the facts “suddenly changed”.

But Labour knows it needs to avoid attaching Tory failure over Covid to Boris Johnson alone. Over the past few days we have seen the Labour leader blame Rishi Sunak for not implementing a two- to three-week national lockdown earlier as “his decision”, and Anneliese Dodds yesterday slammed the Chancellor for the “last-minute” U-turn on extending the furlough scheme. Venting frustrations seen across the country, the Shadow Chancellor told the Commons that he “can change his mind at the last minute, but businesses can’t”. As the current favourite to replace Johnson at the top of the Tory Party, Sunak is firmly in the Labour Party’s sights.

The poll released this morning comes as the Labour leadership tries to maintain control of the row over the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn. General secretary David Evans issued a warning to local parties last night, saying there should be no discussion or motions on individual disciplinary cases. A similar instruction was circulated by his predecessor Jennie Formby in 2019. The latest directive comes after allegations emerged earlier in the week that a motion expressing solidarity with the former Labour leader was blocked by party officials at a meeting of the London regional executive committee.

Across the pond, Donald Trump gave a dishonest and frankly dangerous take on the US election overnight. The President made a number of unfounded claims of vote tampering and being barred from overseeing counts. He declared, without any evidence: “We have so much evidence, so much proof.” Several news networks cut their feed of the press conference and the rambling 16-minute speech has been roundly condemned, including by numerous Republican politicians. In a cringeworthy interview this morning, Tory minister Nadhim Zahawi repeatedly refused to condemn Trump’s comments. Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy, in contrast, slammed “attempts to attack and undermine”, tweeting: “Democracy matters and we should not be silent when it is threatened.”