Isabel Hardman:

May needs to do more than hang on for dear life



Theresa May has been a wounded leader for more than a year now, and has survived extraordinarily long. But the attention will turn this autumn to who her successor will be.

Her survival has largely been as a result of the decision of the Conservative 1922 Committee of backbenchers to keep her in place so that there is some stability in the Brexit negotiations. But those are nearing their conclusion, and so the campaigns of would-be successors will become even less subtle than they already are.

In order to stop the party descending into an embarrassingly vain scrap over the next leader, May does need to maintain her authority with a strong autumn conference performance.

It will hardly be difficult to surpass her disastrous speech last year, but the prime minister does need to give a sense that she wants to achieve things while she is still in the role, rather than that she is just planning to hang on for dear life.

• Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of the Spectator

George Eaton:

Corbyn’s goal is an election-winning agenda



Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Team Corbyn’s priority remains triggering a new general election.’ Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Labour has endured a summer of discontent. The leadership’s Build it in Britain campaign was marginalised by intractable rows over antisemitism and the spectre of a party split. But Corbynites stoically point out that the party’s poll ratings are little changed and that the Tories’ Brexit wars will soon re-erupt. At this month’s party conference, the left will entrench its hegemony through rule changes to give members greater power over policymaking and to reduce MPs’ role in leadership elections.

Meanwhile, like a dark star, Brexit will absorb much energy. Labour has not ruled out backing a “people’s vote” but will do so only if politically essential.

Team Corbyn’s priority remains triggering a general election, and the party is all but certain to oppose any exit deal Theresa May achieves. Away from the technicalities of Brexit, Labour will seek to shift the focus towards the alternative economic and social model it aspires to build.

• George Eaton is political editor of the New Statesman

Mark Pack:

The outlook is rosy – if they get the right breaks



Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Distinctively different’: Vince Cable. Photograph: John Phillips/Getty Images

In theory, the political landscape looks remarkably promising for Liberal Democrats.

Leaders of the two main parties are both deeply unpopular, with “neither” being the most popular choice when voters are asked who they would like as prime minister? Check. Lib Dems have a distinctively different position from both Labour and Conservatives on the biggest issue of the day? Check. Membership at record levels? Check. Raising as much in donations from non-trade union sources as Labour? Check. Regularly gaining seats at council byelections? Check.

The reality is, of course, not quite so rosy – only just approaching regular double figures in the polls, 12 MPs and self-inflicted mistakes such as over that recent Brexit vote.

The challenge now is for the party both to make its own luck and to seize the lucky breaks that others offer up to turn that opportunity into reality.

• Mark Pack is editor of Liberal Democrat Newswire