A busy week, as NEC considers motion on Corbyn and Yousaf succeeds Sturgeon

Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) will today consider a motion put forward by Keir Starmer that would see members resolve not to endorse Jeremy Corbyn as a Labour candidate at the next election. The former Labour leader responded to the move in a statement on Monday afternoon, accusing his successor of having “denigrated the democratic foundations of our party”. Corbyn declared: “Our message is clear: we are not going anywhere. Neither is our determination to stand up for a better world.” NEC members Jess Barnard and Mish Rahman – whose election to the party’s ruling body last year was backed by Momentum – have both publicly expressed their opposition to the motion, while the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs issued a joint statement stressing that it is the “democratic right” of Labour Party members and affiliates in Islington North to choose their parliamentary candidate and urging NEC members to uphold this right at today’s meeting. The motion is expected to pass, however. Confirming that he plans to back the motion, NEC member Luke Akehurst – part of the Starmer-backing Labour to Win group – told the Sun that it is “vital that voters can see Labour has moved on decisively and irreversibly from the Corbyn era”, arguing that the former leader did “immense damage” to the party “particularly because of his failure to take action to tackle antisemitism”.

If Starmer’s move to block Corbyn’s candidacy wasn’t enough political news for one day, the Scottish National Party announced yesterday afternoon that Humza Yousaf has been elected as the party’s new leader, following a bitter race to replace Nicola Sturgeon. Yousaf alluded to the tensions exposed during the contest in his acceptance speech, telling attendees: “In the SNP, we are a family. Over the last five weeks, we may have been competitors or supporters of different candidates. We are no longer team Humza, or team Ash [Regan] or team Kate [Forbes]. We are one team.” During the speech, Yousaf – who is set to be confirmed as First Minister today – also pledged to launch a grassroots campaign for Scottish independence, declaring: “We will be the generation to win independence for Scotland.” Anas Sarwar congratulated Yousaf on his election, stating that, regardless of their political differences, it was important to “pause for a moment and reflect on the election of what will be the first First Minister from an ethnic minority background”. But the Scottish Labour leader attacked the SNP as a “chaotic and divided party”, adding: “Humza Yousaf has inherited the SNP’s woeful record, but he has not inherited Nicola Sturgeon’s mandate. We need an election now, and Scottish Labour is the change that Scotland needs.”

It’s another busy day today, including a major speech from Ed Miliband on Labour’s climate ambitions. The Shadow Climate and Net Zero Secretary will shortly address business leaders and industry experts and pledge that Labour’s green prosperity plan would be a British version of US President Joe Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act – which seeks to encourage investment in green technology in the US through billions of dollars of subsidies. The Labour frontbencher is expected to declare that ministers need to “stop moaning” about Biden’s Act and “start matching its ambition”, setting out how the opposition plans to provide the partnership, investment and certainty that businesses need to invest in the UK and create jobs in green industries. Miliband will stress Britain’s “unique potential” to “compete and win” in the global transition to a green economy, telling attendees: “We are not neutral about where things are built. Joe Biden wants the future Made in America. We want the future Made in Britain.”