Today's Update From the Waugh Zone Is Titled `JEZ WE KHAN'T'

* Paul Waugh

by Paul Waugh | Politics

Jeremy Corbyn is set to address the PLP tonight and after last week’s elections it will be a real chance for both him and his critics to take the temperature of the Parliamentary party.

Corbyn wants to try to heal the divisions and will no doubt stick to the narrative that the council results were in fact not the disaster many had predicted. The final tally for all seats came in yesterday and it was this: Con -48, Lab -18, LD +45, UKIP +25. The Local Govt Information Unit think tank says that’s effectively a ‘no change’ election given thousands of seats up for grabs. it goes further, saying local councils have come to the rescue of both the two main parties (by doing a good job in the face of Government cuts).

Corbyn may want to ram home Labour’s success in Bristol, where it not only won the mayoralty but yesterday had the seat needed to run the council. But many MPs think last week was just not good enough, with no progress in taking Tory councils and no answer to the UKIP rise.

* Mayor of London: Sadiq Kahn

Sadiq Khan’s election has given the ‘moderates’ the alternative power base they hoped for and the Mayor is certainly using it to warn Corbyn of the need to reach out to non-Labour voters and business. This is the central problem that even some around Corbyn accept needs much more work: just what is the pitch to ensure Labour-Tory switchers?

Speaking of which, we have got some new focus group research among Nuneaton voters which makes grim reading for Jez. The good news is voters don’t like the Tories, and think Osborne is ‘slimy’. The bad news is many think Corbyn is 'scruffy' and not leadership material. As for the PLP, men blame the splits on JC, but women seem to blame the MPs for the divisions. One focus grouper said ‘It’s just a shambles.. how can you vote for someone to run the country when they can’t even sit in the room together?”

As for sitting in the same room, those Jez-We-Khan’t tensions are obvious. While the leader travelled 120 miles to Bristol for a victory photocall with Marvin Rees, no such event could be sorted a mere 3 miles from Corbyn’s home to London’s City Hall. Khan yesterday told Marr ‘I think we are seeing each other tomorrow’. That sounded more like a brush-by in Portcullis House than an actual victory parade. There’s even talk that the first time Khan and Corbyn may meet is actually at the PLP, where the Mayor will get a hero’s welcome as his leader looks on. That would certainly be provocative, if so. 

John McDonnell’s Westminster Hour interview last night had a lovely ice-cream van jingle in the background. And the Shadow Chancellor was offering 99s with double flakes all round, even to Jezza’s critics, suggesting they should all get shadow jobs. Still, he reprimanded Caroline Flint for misquoting him on the local elections. McDonnell also ruled out himself running for the leadership..

As it happens, Ken Livingstone looks like he’s on the BBC Radio London Vanessa Feltz show. You know, the one where he last talked about Hitler and the Jews and got himself suspended…

* Paul Waugh is the Executive Editor, Politics, HuffPost UK.