Londoner’s Diary
Is the Evening Standard endorsing Labour, a whole year out from the expected general election? Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator magazine, seems to think so. “Labour wins Evening Standard endorsement,” Nelson wrote on his Twitter/X feed yesterday, “and campaigning starts early.” Accompanying his post was an image of our Tuesday front page, which splashed a photo of Sir Keir Starmer and Lady Starmer at the breakfast table with the headline “I’m Ready To Serve”.
But Nelson has got his wires a little crossed. Like most other newspapers, our judgement on that questions remains entirely reserved until we see the manifestoes next year.
Labour wins Evening Standard endorsement - and campaigning starts early… pic.twitter.com/TIgj4V9107
— Fraser Nelson (@FraserNelson) October 12, 2023
On the subject, The Londoner would point out that we are not the ones who threw a cocktail party at Labour party conference in Liverpool this week, complete with “Keir Royales”. That was The Speccie.
Nelson has lately been heard disavowing the term “Tory Bible”, an old short hand for his magazine, ostensibly because it publishes lots of journalism that has nothing to do with conservative politics (fair enough). But is there another reason? Is the magazine manoeuvring into a slightly more nimble position before a likely Labour win at the next general election? We shall see.
Undoubtedly the magazine has more influence over the Tories than any other – Nelson’s predecessor but one as editor was Boris Johnson and its last political editor, James Forsyth, recently left to become Rishi Sunak’s most influential advisor.
And while the mag’s recent leaders suggest Nelson is deeply unconvinced by Sir Keir and Labour, making more friends in the likely next party of government would be a shrewd move.
