Election results – live: Thornberry denies calling Labour Leave supporters ‘stupid’ as Tories and SNP clash over Indyref2

Excl: Jeremy Corbyn must resign within maximum of two months after Labour’s devastating election defeat, Neil Kinnock says

Jeremy Corbyn must resign as Labour leader within a maximum of two months and “own” the party’s worst electoral defeat of the post-war era, Neil Kinnock has said. 

As Boris Johnson was returned to Downing Street on Friday with the greatest Tory majority since Margaret Thatcher’s 1987 landslide, the former Labour leader warned party members not to “seek excuses or alibis” in an attempt to explain the crushing defeat, Ashley Cowburn, Andrew Woodock and Lizzy Buchan report.

And in comments apparently intended as a warning to the party not to select another leader in Mr Corbyn’s mould, Mr Kinnock said his successor must embody “patriotic” values and restore Labour’s credibility as a “party of security”.

Thornberry calls Flint's assertion she called Labour leave voters stupid 'a total and utter lie'

Caroline Flint, who lost her seat on Thursday, has claimed that shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry said that Labour supporters who voted Leave were “stupid”.

Responding to the claim, Ms Thornberry said: "This is a total and utter lie. I have never said this to anyone, nor anything like it, and I hope needless to say, it it not something I would ever think."

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McDonnell plays down suggestion he wouldn't back Nandy as next Labour leader

The shadow chancellor has sought to clarify his response to Andrew Marr when asked if he would back Lisa Nandy becoming the party's next leader, after the Huffington Post's Paul Waugh suggested several reasons why she may not be his preferred option.

But Mr McDonnell, who also tried to take ownership of his party's defeat, claimed Mr Waugh was "over interpreting" his response.

Lawyer in Labour antisemitism probe calls Corbyn's Observer article 'par for the course'

Adam Wagner, a human rights lawyer who assisted with the EHRC's antisemitism probe into Labour has described Corbyn’s Observer article as “infuriating” but “par for the course”, as the battle heats up over the future of the party.

He claims the Labour leadership’s “denial, alternative facts, striking out, lack of empathy” in its handling of the antisemitism crisis shows a “pattern of behaviour”, urging that electing another “hard left” leader would be "a crushing mistake".

Writing in The Observer, Mr Corbyn said: "I am proud that on austerity, on corporate power, on inequality and on the climate emergency we have rewritten the terms of political debate. But I regret that we did not succeed in converting that into a parliamentary majority for change."

While extending a little beyond the remit of UK politics, the UN’s climate change conference is being labelled a disaster.

The annual meeting was largely seen as the last chance for countries to shore up their targets in order to honour their commitments under the Paris Agreement before the five-year grace period ends in 2020.

Activists accused richer countries of not doing their fair share to avoid the devastating three to four degrees of warming currently predicted.

While Extinction Rebellion branded the talks "a pile of shite", dumping a pile of manure to illustrate their point, the co-founder of 350.org, Jamie Henn, describes the talks as "a hostage crisis in a burning building".

Read more from Joe Sommerlad here:

Thornberry restates comments about 'stupid' Labour Leave voters a 'total and utter lie'

The shadow foreign secretary has dismissed claims by former MP Caroline Flint that she once told a fellow Labour MP: 'I'm glad my constituents aren't as stupid as yours."

Stormzy addresses Gove's attempt to discredit him: 'They do it to young people, they do it to black people'

Stormzy has broken his silence over a tweet in which Michael Gove appeared to mock his lyrics, Ellie Harrison reports.

The Conservative politician bizarrely quoted the grime star’s lyrics after Stormzy expressed his support for Labour and Jeremy Corbyn in the general election. 

Mr Gove had told Talk Radio that Stormzy is “a far, far better rapper than he is a political analyst”.

“It’s the classic, ‘You’re just a rapper,’” he told The Observer Magazine. “Using ‘I set trends dem man copy’... No one was talking about that. I wasn’t talking about music, I wasn’t talking about 'Shut Up' – I was talking about politics. So him saying that is like he said: ‘Oh, no, forget politics. This is what he does. He’s a rapper.’ It’s a weaponised tactic.

“They do it to young people, they do it to black people, they do it to rappers, they do it to entertainers: ‘Just shut up and rap.’ Stay in your lane.

"It’s very telling of who these people are. As much as I’m a rapper, I’ve also done X, Y, Z. But they’re dismissing everything else. They just look at me and say: ‘No.’ They reduce us to whatever they need us to be and dismiss it.”

Labour can succeed again – but only if shuns the kind of unbridled arrogance we saw in the Thatcher era

The thing I remember most politically about living through the 1980s was the arrogance. Everywhere.

I think we may come to taste it again in the 2020s as we enter another decade of deeply traumatic economic experimentation feebly resisted by a divided and incompetent opposition, writes Sean O'Grady. 

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Talks about Scotland's role in post-Brexit trade negotiations 'gone backwards' since Gove's involvement, top MSP says

Holyrood's Constitutional Relations Secretary Mike Russell hit out at the PM's de-facto deputy, who succeeded David Lidington in the role as the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster shortly after Boris Johnson became PM.

Mr Russell claimed that while Mr Lidington had been prepared to consider a formal role for the Scottish government in trade negotiations with Europe following Brexit, his successor had offered "no more than consultation".

Mr Russell branded this "completely and utterly wrong".

Speaking on the BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland programme, he warned such an approach could see the UK negotiating on issues which they know "hee haw" about.

With Boris Johnson's election victory making it likely the UK will formally leave the EU at the end of January, Mr Russell spoke about the Scottish government's need to be "represented in terms of our devolved interests in whatever negotiations take place", following Brexit.

This election was a masterclass in dodging blame – we need to tear up the political rulebook

The left is currently trying to tear itself apart figuring out what the hell happened in the election, writes Rik Worth.

Its hallmark tribalism has divided itself along the lines of Brexit, policy and Jeremy Corbyn. About the only thing they can agree on is that something went massively wrong. In that, they’re all incorrect. This is politics as usual.

Read more here: