Newslinks for Wednesday 2nd December 2015

Syria vote: Don’t line up with Corbyn and his ‘terrorist sympathisers’, Cameron urges

‘David Cameron triggered a blazing row with Labour last night by urging wavering Tory MPs not to vote against bombing Syria alongside ‘Jeremy Corbyn and a bunch of terrorist sympathisers’. The Prime Minister made the controversial remarks amid indications that support for military action is slipping. Some Tory and Labour MPs voiced significant doubts over a key claim by the Prime Minister that there are 70,000 ‘moderate’ forces on the ground in Syria ready to help.’ – Daily Mail

The case:

• The motion – Daily Telegraph
• I’ll vote with the Government – Dan Jarvis, New Statesman
• We must challenge this evil – The Sun Says (£)
• Cameron will open the ten and a half hour debate – The Sun (£)
• He deserves to win – Daily Telegraph Leader
• The Cabinet is unanimous – The Times (£)
• We cannot run away from this fight – Roger Boyes, The Times (£)

The questions:

• The Prime Minister hasn’t made a strong enough case – Jeremy Corbyn, The Guardian
• Bombs will kill people, Corbyn warns – Daily Mail
• Where are these 70,000 moderates? – Daily Mail Leader
• That’s the essential question – Con Coughlin, Daily Telegraph
• Wishful thinking and poor information – Patrick Cockburn, The Independent
• We risk repeating old mistakes – Adam Holloway, Daily Telegraph
• Public support falls for extending military action – The Times (£)
• Corbyn has botched this fight – Mary Riddell, Daily Telegraph

On the ground:

• ISIS builds new stronghold – The Times (£)
• We don’t fund them – Mohammed bin Nawaf Al Saud, The Times (£)
• Putin must be brought into the fold – Dennis Ross, FT
• Jordan is fighting these outlaws, too – King Abdullah II, Daily Telegraph
• We should talk to them – Jonathan Powell, The Guardian

Security at home:

• Armed police trained to ignore the wounded while attacks are underway – The Times (£)
• Anti-terror drills in London – The Sun (£)
• GCHQ officially acknowledges it hacks computers for the first time – FT
• Labour MP in row over tweeting security briefing – The Times (£)

>Today: Comment: Bernard Jenkin: Why the Commons should vote for air strikes against ISIS today

>Yesterday: ToryDiary: Almost four in five Party members back air strikes on ISIS in Syria in our monthly poll

The Mail splashes on Nick Timothy’s ConHome immigration column

‘Mr Timothy, who worked for Home Secretary Theresa May until earlier this year, said rising levels of net migration were proof that the ministers had given up trying to control the numbers of people coming to Britain. ‘The trouble is, as the Autumn Statement made plain last week, other than in the Home Office the Government is no longer trying to cut net migration – and we can expect the numbers to keep going up and up,’ he wrote on ConservativeHome.’ – Daily Mail

• Osborne seeks to meet one promise by breaking another – Daily Mail Leader
• He’s driven by the hunt for growth – The Guardian
• The Chancellor hopes to remove students from the net migration count – Daily Telegraph
• National Insurance rise set to squeeze wages – Daily Mail
• Don’t touch our pensions, George – Daily Telegraph Leader
• Public sector redundancy payouts to be cut – The Times (£)

>Yesterday: Nick Timothy’s column: The Government as a whole isn’t aiming to cut immigration – and the Autumn Statement proved it

Osborne reveals the Government is making no Brexit contingency plans

‘George Osborne has revealed that the government will not make any contingency plans for a Brexit, insisting that ministers were focusing on keeping Britain in a “reformed” EU. The chancellor made his comments to MPs as he and David Cameron prepare for a final diplomatic push to secure a new British deal in Europe, ahead of an EU summit in Brussels on December 17-18.’ – FT

• Labour launches its pro-EU campaign – The Guardian Leader
• What nonsense – Daily Mail Leader
• New lurches towards federalism – Daily Telegraph
• Greece threatened with Schengen expulsion – FT

Early hints about the British Bill of Rights

‘The right to family life will be drastically curbed when used as a ploy by foreign criminals and terrorists to avoid deportation, under proposed changes to human rights laws. Judges will be urged to give greater priority to public safety than allowing criminals to remain with families under a UK Bill of Rights being drawn up by the government, The Times has learnt. At the same time, the bill will protect the armed forces from being subjected to human rights claims from war zones abroad, although they will remain subject to international human rights laws.’ – The Times (£)

• Sensible changes – The Times Leader (£)

Cameron’s letter to Elliott Johnson’s family

‘The prime minister wrote to Ray Johnson last month after the suicide in September of his 21-year-old son Elliott, who alleged that he had been bullied by senior party aide Mark Clarke. The letter, dated November 12, said: “I would like to extend my personal and heartfelt condolences to you and your whole family on Elliott’s tragic death. “I know from my own experience of losing a child what an indescribable shock it is. I also know that there are no words — no matter how well meaning — that can possibly dampen the profound pain and grief you will be experiencing at this time. My heart goes out to you all.”’ – The Times (£)

• CCHQ explores possible reforms – Daily Telegraph
• Does the youth wing have a future? – The Independent
• Shapps is a scapegoat, argues CF activist – Daily Mail

>Today: ToryDiary: Lord Feldman falls to the bottom of our Cabinet League Table in the largest drop ever recorded

>Yesterday: ToryDiary: The Party concedes the independent inquiry that ConHome and others called for

Corbyn confident of holding off UKIP in Oldham

‘Labour believes it will win the Oldham West by-election — although with a sharply reduced majority that could still pile pressure on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the party. The UK Independence party has targeted the hard-left Labour leader as it strives to prove it can break his party’s lock on former industrial towns in the north. Nigel Farage, Ukip leader, paid his fifth visit to Oldham West and Royton on Tuesday.’ – FT

• My Party doesn’t realise the damage the Purple Peril is doing – Daily Telegraph
• UKIP’s operation on the ground – Rod Liddle, The Sun (£)
• The demographics will decide it – Ian Warren, The Guardian
• In Oldham, Corbyn is just another ponce – Rafael Behr, The Guardian
• Double blow to the Opposition’s finances – FT
• The slow death of the Labour Party – FT Leader

Finkelstein: Labour’s leader is locked in a fight to the death with his own MPs

‘This week should teach him one thing. This is a fight to the end. It’s either his enemies or it is him. The mainstream of the parliamentary party does not wish him to succeed as leader and their aim is to make him look weak and confused so that ultimately even his friends won’t want him any more. He can’t just sit there and let that happen. George Galloway, despite swimming in a sea of wrongness, was right about one thing: Mr Corbyn made a strategic error this week in compromising with members of the shadow cabinet. The one thing Mr Corbyn cannot afford is to lose the support of activists.’ – Daniel Finkelstein, The Times (£)

• Labour MPs have a free vote…with menaces – The Times (£)
• Creasy targeted for deselection – New Statesman
• Corbynites celebrate Mike Gapes’ illness – Daily Mail

>Yesterday: LeftWatch: Corbyn’s seven serious errors of leadership

BMA postpones strikes – and is accused of selling out

‘The British Medical Association was forced to defend itself against charges of “selling out” to the government after an eleventh-hour decision to resume negotiations over a new contract, instead of taking to the picket lines. Some junior doctors used social media to claim that the union had capitulated to ministers and “sold doctors down the river” by calling off strikes. However the BMA insisted that the overriding aim was a better contract and not “delivering a fantastic strike action”.’ – The Times (£)

• Patients still face longer waits thanks to the strike threat – Daily Telegraph

England cannot build enough houses, warns former Bank expert

‘England’s housebuilders will not be able to build the homes the country needs, even by 2020, a former Bank of England policymaker has warned. Speaking before a House of Lords committee, Dame Kate Barker said that the country needed around 300,000 new homes a year, but admitted the industry would not have the capacity for years to come. “I think the industry would not be capable of going from here to 300,000 [homes a year] in short order,” Dame Kate said.’ – Daily Telegraph

• Lammy attacks plan to sell off public land – The Guardian
• Ministers mull £6 billion Peak District tunnel – Daily Mail

News in Brief

• Zuckerberg to give away $45 billion – Daily Mail
• Unpaid water bills rise – FT
• Ill socialite granted the right to die by court – The Times (£)
• Paxman’s war on litter – Daily Mail
• Cotton comes back to Manchester – FT
• New boxing champion celebrates with 10,000 calorie Nando’s feast – The Sun (£)
• Explosion at Istanbul metro station – Daily Telegraph
• Yorkshire Ripper deemed well enough to be moved to prison – The Times (£)

Please use the thread below to provide links to news topics likely to be of interest to ConservativeHome readers and to comment on political topics that haven’t been given their own blog. Read our comments policy.