It was a filler until she got to move on to another question. In some ways that is fair enough, since Butler was nestled cosily up to Corbyn for most of his tenure.

I'm liking Starmer less and less as his campaign goes on, but then I don't like any of the others either.

Yeah he seems to be rather lacking in ideas.

They didn't build a high speed rail link to Manchester.

I agree Brum is overdue for the same sort of urban regeneration, but HS2 isn't it.

Who's the equality minster for your racist party?

Any kind of regeneration will raise house prices, which was seemingly your main argument against HS2.

Fwiw I agree with Hoopie - anyone who pretends to have some special knowledge about if HS2 is worth it is delusional. I'd personally rather see that money spent elsewhere, particularly on transport links north of Birmingham, but that's not to say HS2 won't pay dividends in the long run, especially for Birmingham.

I've thought that about Starmer for a while now. He didn't really cut through or land any blows on Boris when he was Shadow Brexit Secretary.

I think if Boris could pick the opposition leader he'd probably go for RLB, but Starmer wouldn't be far behind.

Still a bit disappointed Thornberry is trailing so badly. I like Nandy, but there is no way she is more qualified for the job than Thornberry.

I thought he was very good but then things like facts didn't matter much when the debates were going on.

This is still my favourite bit of Starmer, not because of him, but because of the sinister way that Milne slithers up to him to ensure that he remains on message:


In other news, looks like the PM might not have been telling the truth again: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51482220

Also, Julian Smith is going to pay for actually achieving something good by being sacked.

9 weeks ago the Labour party was insisting they only had a minor problem with anti-Semitism. Now...

Julian Smith is popular with all sides in N. Ireland and as you said achieved the restoration of devolution.

Bipartisan praise for Leadsom on #metoo and harassment.

Javid has gone

Supposedly Cummings told The Saj he could stay if he fired all his advisors.

Rishi Sunak is in and No 11 Downing Street is effectively closed.

Lol good to see great British democracy being subverted by the unelected shadow prime minister...

So is this all the Leavers getting their reward now?

A former junior housing minister with a strong track record of licking Johnson's corn hole being made Chancellor is the will of the people.

The Julien Smith sacking seems the strangest of the lot. He seems to have done really well in the role and has respect accross the political spectrum.

He was associated with May. Such a heinous crime must not go unpunished.

True.

Braverman. Rancid.

SNP will literally use anything to create division and hate. This is from the justice minister today

I feel like every elected official from the SNP seems like they were bullied at school.

They have such a bizarre need to create grievance and division everywhere that it leads to ridiculous tweets like the one above. Humza has form here.

Nandy was on the Today programme this morning claiming that Women's Place UK and LGB Alliance are 'hate groups' (thus inciting violence against their members and meetings), because that's what it says on the insane 'trans rights' pledge-list she's signed. The sheer incredulity in interviewer Justin Webb's voice as he questioned this was quite something. Nandy of course just doubled down.

Long-Bailey has signed the same pledge-list. Thornberry I think has argued against the pledge-list, but still promoted a similar one. Starmer has signed a different and slightly less insane one, but nobody should be going anywhere near this wokebeard misogynistic drivel. It certainly won't do Labour any good. All the leadership contenders appear to be committed to expelling any Labour Party members who affirm that biological sex is immutable and that, for instance, huge great heavily-bearded hairy-bollocked rapists should not be allowed into women's refuges or women's prisons merely because they claim to be called Stephanie these days.