Risk-Based

This evening, Natalie Elphicke voted for the first time as a Labour MP. Labour won by one vote with the support of eight Conservatives, including Theresa May. But Dan Poulter has still yet to vote as a Labour MP. In nine days' time, he will not have voted in a month. Why, then, should he have any party's whip? Why should he have his seat?

Although the question would arise of parliamentary representation for an excluded MP's constituents, I am glad of Labour's victory. George Galloway voted for it and it passed by one, so he is no "rape apologist". Neale Hanvey of Alba did so, although, had Alex Salmond been an MP at the time, then he would have been excluded under this provision. Both of those votes give the lie to any suggestion of "wokeness".

But having yesterday been outflanked on the left by Suella Braverman over the two-child benefit cap, which has spread poverty in this country more than any other measure this century, Labour has today been outflanked on the left, both by Jacob Rees-Mogg on democratic political control of monetary policy, and by Mr Justice Humphreys of Belfast over the Rwanda Plan.

Still, when I tell you that there is going to be a hung Parliament, then you can take that to the bank. I spent the 2005 Parliament saying that it was psephologically impossible for the Heir to Blair's Conservative Party to win an overall majority. I predicted a hung Parliament on the day that the 2017 General Election was called, and I stuck to that, entirely alone, all the way up to the publication of the exit poll eight long weeks later. And on the day that Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, I predicted that a General Election between him and Keir Starmer would result in a hung Parliament.

I have no plan to join the Workers Party of Britain, although nor would I expect to stand against it. But if it did not contest North Durham, then I would. To strengthen families and communities by securing economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends, including national and parliamentary sovereignty, we need to hold the balance of power. Owing nothing to either main party, we must be open to the better offer. But there does need to be a better offer. Not a lesser evil, which in any case the Labour Party is not. We have made a start.