Oxford Union debate "This house does not know what Labour stands for."

"Tonight, the Oxford Union debated the motion "This House Does Not Know What Labour Stands For."  Past Union presidents include Michael Foot, Tony Benn & Tony Crosland, but despite inviting more than 50 Labour figures to oppose tonight's motion, not one agreed to do so."

(Michael Crick on X formerly twitter, in the early hours of this morning.)

I looked up the debate, which took place on Saturday 10th February and is reported in the "Oxford Student." You can read the report at

The Oxford Union does not know what Labour stands for – The Oxford Student

When I read the report I wondered at first whether Michael Crick had got it wrong because the second sentence reads

"The event featured prominent speakers from both the Conservative and the Labour parties, such as Joe Moore and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg."

However, when you look at who the Labour speakers actually were, and with apologies to Joe Moore, who is the the political advisor to Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner MP and to Kate Green MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, it looks to me like Michael Crick's report gives a much more accurate impression of whether Labour figures were queuing up to make the case for their party.

No MPs or former MPs came. The other two named speakers were "in-house" from the student body rather than representatives from the Labour party.

One was the Oxford Union's director of media, and the other was the former co-chair of Oxford University Labour club.

Apparently Joe Moore acknowledged as “disappointing” what was described as the “U-turn” Labour made on the Green Investment pledge.

The motion passed, with 188 members voting in favour and 17 members voting against.

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