On by-election day there’s a new favourite in the race for next Labour leader – Hilary Benn
A speech that could have great significance
Of all the speeches in the long commons debate yesterday one stands out – the winding up in a packed chamber by “Wedgie-Benn’s son”, Hilary, who is now Labour’s shadow foreign secretary.
If you didn’t see it the little clip above is quite extraordinary with Benn getting huge applause from across the chamber. What’s striking is that throughout his leader, Mr, Corbyn, was sitting alongside and he, of course, has a totally different view of the issue at hand – air strikes on Syria.
All the bookies responded by adjusting their prices to reflect the sentiment that Benn generated. You can get 4/1 with Skybet and 7/2 with Ladbrokes.
The problem with a bet like this is that you have no idea when it is likely to come to fruition. Mr. Corbyn is leader and Labour’s rules make it difficult to oust him.
But you can foresee the media narrative starting to run in Benn’s favour. Thus I wouldn’t be surprised to see poll questions being asked comparing support for him with that for Corbyn and you’d get headlines like “LAB would be doing X% better” with Hilary. For until now one of Corbyn’s great strengths has been that there has been no obvious alternative.
And so we move to today’s Oldham by-election which of itself has the potential to impact on Labour’s direction.