Feeling blue. Joe Biden edges towards a victory in the 2020 US election

We are edging towards a result, and a Democrat win is expected. Both candidates have polled staggering numbers, with more than 140 million votes between them. Joe Biden has a projected 264 electoral college votes and Donald Trump 214. (Depending on who you read for Arizona). Four swing states remain undecided: Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Any one would give Biden enough to reach the winning 270-seat threshold, while Trump would need to win all four. The President is not taking it well. He has demanded access for observers to vote counts and started legal proceedings in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, while decrying among a series of tweet the damage the election has done to the “integrity of our system. LabourList is looking forward to his reaction when a Biden win is declared.

MPs voted yesterday afternoon to overwhelmingly approve lockdown 2.0 for England, with only 38 against (34 of them Tories). The motion was expected to pass easily as Keir Starmer made clear several times that Labour would be voting with the government. But the Labour leader used yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions sessions to issue Boris Johnson with a deadline: use the four-week period to fix NHS test and trace. He also told the Commons it would not be “sensible” to reopen at the end of the lockdown if the R rate remains above one. Meanwhile, Johnson told MPs that the restrictions will “expire automatically” on December 2nd with parliament to “decide thereafter what to do”. This could spell trouble for the Tory leader if Downing Street decides an extension is needed since, as Conservative backbencher Steve Baker MP told Sky News, the next rebellion could exceed 80 MPs. An early Christmas present for the PM.

18 Socialist Campaign Group MPs last night issued a statement declaring that they oppose the suspension of Jeremy Corbyn and calling for the disciplinary action to be “quickly reversed”. The call from left MPs comes as Starmer was warned in a meeting with Jewish community groups yesterday that the actions of leading figures on the left and within the trade union movement risked hindering his attempt to win back trust over antisemitism. And many remain concerned that, as Jewish Labour Movement national secretary Peter Mason has argued, the suspension of the former Labour leader continues to distract from discussion of the Equality and Human Rights Commission report and its recommendations.