Alex Wickham | The Spectator columnists & writers

Greece is the word for Paul Mason and Labour

When Paul Mason was covertly recorded by the Sun newspaper divulging his private view that Jeremy Corbyn does not appeal to the working classes, there wasn’t much surprise in the Labour leader’s office. The relationship between Corbyn and his celebrity guru has always been complex. Kremlinologists point to a meeting of Corbyn’s closest comrades earlier this year at Esher Place, a £6 million, Grade II country house in Surrey owned by Unite. The guest list was a who’s who of the hard left: John McDonnell, Diane Abbott, Len McCluskey, Labour strategy chief Seumas Milne and Momentum boss Jon Lansman were all in attendance. Corbyn had also invited Mason to join this star chamber. Those present saw it as confirmation that the former BBC and Channel 4 journalist is acting as an unofficial adviser to the Labour leadership.

Letting the hard left off the leash

If there is one word that strikes fear and loathing into the hearts of Labour MPs, it is Momentum. This mixed bag of Trots, tankies, cranks and hipsters who delivered Jeremy Corbyn the leadership has become his Red Guards. Its name is synonymous with the new wave of hard-left entryism into Labour, calls to deselect moderate MPs, picketing offices, harassing staff and tweeting bile. So it doesn’t quite fit the public persona that its founder and chief commissar, Jon Lansman, is such an affable fellow. The 59-year-old Lansman is full of contradictions. He is the leader of Britain’s most notorious and divisive political movement, yet Labour colleagues agree he is ‘a lovely man’, ‘a loveable rogue’. He’s a veteran Bennite, but his many company directorships are registered to a million-pound riverside apartment at Shad Thames, described by estate agents as ‘spectacular’.

The good, the bad and the ugly: a guided tour of Westminster’s pubs

My phone vibrates with a three-letter text message heralding another inevitable Westminster hangover: “MoG?”. The Marquis of Granby pub on Romney Street is an old-fashioned sort of boozer: mahogany-panelled bar with a chandeliered burgundy ceiling and a gents you have to wade through. There’s none of your poncey hipster food served on slabs of wood here; if you head to the upstairs dining room you’re having a pie and a pint. You can see why Nigel Farage loves this place for a photo opportunity. I’m meeting another journalist for an ale and a gossip, but this used to be a Tory haunt before Conservative Central Office moved from Smith Square. These days you’re more likely to bump into policy nerds from the wonk world epicentre of neighbouring Tufton Street, or a broadcast pro who’s mastered the art of sinking a couple before heading back to the studio.

Labour’s next great battle

In February, a member of John McDonnell’s team accidentally forwarded his diary to a Labour party colleague. The errant email has been a source of gossip among Corbynistas ever since. Among the mundane schedule of meetings were a series of slots allocated for something rather out of the ordinary: ‘Transition planning.’ McDonnell’s aides swear up and down that these meetings are nothing untoward and warn against ‘putting two and two together and coming up with a million’. But the fact that it even raised eyebrows is telling. The red half of Westminster is rife with rumour that the shadow chancellor covets the Labour leadership — that behind the scenes a repeat of the Blair-Brown psychodrama is being played out, a sort of comic version of the TeeBeeGeeBees.

The SNP run riot at Westminster

Standing on chairs in Parliament’s Sports and Social bar, a band of portly gentlemen are bellowing out Scottish folk songs. A young barmaid, only in her early twenties yet a seasoned veteran when it comes to turfing out unruly Westminster soaks, approaches a new SNP MP and politely asks him to pack it in. Words are exchanged. Multiple witnesses allege a drunken ‘f— you’ is uttered. Defeated, the barmaid retreats behind the bar to mocking male laughter. So upset is she by the incident, she will leave her job a few weeks later. ‘They’re only just getting started,’ sighs a Labour wag as he reaches for his coat. The conquering horde of Scots Nats have come to town and they are making themselves heard. SW1 certainly expected the worst from the new SNP cohort.

MPs grope men too

[audioplayer src="http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_23_January_2014_v4.mp3" title="Alex Wickham discuss Westminster's wandering hands with Miranda Green" startat=790] Listen [/audioplayer]As I walked out of the bar, I noticed a Conservative MP following me. It had been an evening for young political activists, mostly teenage boys, and it was drawing to an end. I pretended to be engrossed in my phone, but the MP — well-liked, universally respected — lurched towards me, placing his arm around my waist and leaning in close. I could smell the whisky and cigars on his breath. ‘I’m just going to the toilet,’ he slurred, winking and gesturing at the gents. I had only worked in and around Parliament for a year, but had been on the receiving end of enough unwanted advances from male Tory MPs to know exactly what he was proposing.

How paranoia and bitter infighting are tearing Ukip apart

For the Tories, it's Europe. For Labour, it’s Blairites against Brownites. The Lib Dems, devoid of principle, go in for limp-wristed back-stabbing. Now Ukip, in a sign of its growing political maturity, has become distracted by cynical, and at times thoroughly unpleasant, infighting as those close to Nigel Farage seek to maintain his leadership cult. Party members do not even have to question their leader’s authority; merely being liked or achieving low level success breeds suspicion. Diane James, the Ukip candidate who came from nowhere to do so well in the Eastleigh by-election, has been on the receiving end of negative briefings in recent weeks. Meanwhile, an entire group of Ukip officials resigned from the party in protest at the treatment of their MEP Mike Nattrass, an outspoken critic of Nigel Farage who was deselected by the party hierarchy.

Tuesday

Greece is the word for Paul Mason and Labour

Greece is the word for Paul Mason and Labour

Thursday

Letting the hard left off the leash

Letting the hard left off the leash

Monday

The good, the bad and the ugly: a guided tour of Westminster’s pubs

The good, the bad and the ugly: a guided tour of Westminster’s pubs

Saturday

Labour’s next great battle

Labour’s next great battle

Saturday

The SNP run riot at Westminster

The SNP run riot at Westminster

Thursday

MPs grope men too

MPs grope men too

Tuesday

How paranoia and bitter infighting are tearing Ukip apart

How paranoia and bitter infighting are tearing Ukip apart