Summary

  • Unite leader says the union may reconsider relationship with Labour

  • EU referendum should be brought forward, say two Labour leader candidates

  • Labour facing 'greatest crisis', and needs fundamental rethink, says MP Jon Cruddas

  • Ministers could sack headteachers, and force schools missing targets to become academies, under government plans

  1. Sunday round-uppublished at 16:57

    That's all from us on this fine Sunday. Before we go, here's a recap of some of the bigger stories:

    Unite's affiliation to Labour could be reconsidered unless the party shows it represents working people, the union's leader, Len McCluskey says

    Labour leader hopefuls Andy Burnham and Mary Creagh agree there should be an early referendum on the UK's membership of the EU

    UKIP's deputy chairman Suzanne Evans  tells her boss - Nigel Farage - to take a two-week holiday,  as she insists the party is not a one man band  

    Coasting schools will face quicker government intervention, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan says  

    And when the election exit polls came out, Ed Miliband cried out - "It must be wrong!" (see 15:12 entry)

    Thanks for sticking with us. Good evening.

  2. Analysis: Labour and the unionspublished at 16:24 British Summer Time 17 May 2015

    Andy BurnhamImage source, PA

    The BBC's political correspondent Carole Walker looks at how trade unions might shape Labour's future- from Unite boss Len McCluskey's public fallout with Scottish Labour's Jim Murphy to leader hopeful Andy Burnham trying to shrug off the "union candidate" tag.

  3. Trouble in Europepublished at 15:51 British Summer Time 17 May 2015

    Observer's political editor

  4. Findlay will not make Scottish leadership bidpublished at 15:50 British Summer Time 17 May 2015

    Neil FindlayImage source, PA

    Labour MSP Neil Findlay rules himself out of the running for Scottish Labour leader.

    Quote Message

    I hope to play my full part in that process but I also want to make it crystal clear that I will not be a candidate in the election for the position of Scottish Labour leader.

    Mr Findlay - who stood against the outgoing Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy - says the party needs to rebuild its organisation, the morale of party members and have the policies to restore the faith of the voters in the run-up to the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections.  

  5. How the opinion polls got it wrongpublished at 15:40

    Exit poll

    The BBC's political research editor David Cowling has some sympathy with the pollsters who got the election result so wrong.

    Here, he writes how the mix of anger and contempt showered on the pollsters - who had spent six weeks suggesting a different result - were feelings he understood but did not share.

  6. Turn it off and onpublished at 15:25

    Independent on Sunday columnist writes...

  7. Miliband 'cried aloud' at exit pollpublished at 15:12

    New Statesman writes...

  8. Messy negotiationpublished at 15:06

    On his own government's negotiations with its EU and IMF creditors, Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis says: "We're in the midst of a very tough negotiation which is fragmented. It's a very messy negotiation, and it's important to get it right at all these levels, in all these dimensions, because let's face it, the last five years have proven that agreements that were struck just in order to strike an agreement have not been very good at settling the Greek crisis and making it go away."

  9. Political philosophypublished at 14:32

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    Yanis VaroufakisImage source, EPA

    Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who has himself been involved in lengthy negotiations with the EU over Greek debt repayments, has this advice for David Cameron on negotiating with the EU: "I think that Mr Cameron has to work out precisely what his political philosophy is with respect to Europe. To treat it as simply a single market that Britain wants access to, ignoring the fact that it is a lot more than that, is not a good start I believe."

  10. EU free movementpublished at 14:22

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg says that renegotiation will hinge on free movement of people from the EU to the UK. "The touchstone for renegotiation will be the free movement of people. It's one of the four freedoms of the European Union, and if the EU is willing to give ground on that, it will show that it's willing to consider a fundamental reform, rather than just tinkering at the edges."

  11. Independent English Labour?published at 14:13

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    As part of the process of reforming itself, the Labour party should split, so there is an English Labour party, Jon Cruddas says. "We should have an independent Labour party in England that seeks to contest the very notion of modern English nationhood."

  12. Poll positionpublished at 13:51

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    On why Labour lost the election, Labour MP Jon Cruddas says: "In reality our strategy was based around almost gaming the electorate, around a series of poll leads."

  13. Duracell bunniespublished at 13:48

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    Jon Cruddas says that "phrases thrown around" get in the way of understanding what went wrong for Labour. "I've heard over the last 10 days an awful lot of Duracell bunnies running around shouting 'aspiration, aspiration' even louder and I don't have a clue what they're talking about." On the other hand, people are saying if the party had gone anti-austerity it would have avoided defeat, he says. "Neither of them, it seems to me, amount to much in terms of the scale of the defeat," he adds.

  14. Labour in dangerpublished at 13:44

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    When asked whether the Labour party would always be around, MP Jon Cruddas says: "No political party's got a right to exist." He adds that Scotland, "aspiration" in the south and UKIP in the North are all challenges. "This is fractured in so many different that there's no easy on/off switch in terms of political renewal."

  15. Unite and Labour on the rocks?published at 13:28

    John Pienaar
    Pienaar’s Politics

    The relationship between Unite and Labour is at risk, Len McCluskey told Pienaar's Politics earlier: "It is the challenge of the Labour party to demonstrate that they are the voice of ordinary working people, that they are the voice of organised labour. If they do that in a way that enthuses us, then I don't believe that the mountain that is ahead of us is un-climbable. But it's up to them. If they don't, if they inject more disillusionment in the party, then the pressure will grow from our members to rethink. It's certainly already growing in Scotland."

  16. 'Dark places'published at 13:21

    The World at One
    BBC Radio 4

    On the Labour leadership, Jon Cruddas tells The World This Weekend: "The person who should be the leader is the person who runs towards the defeat, who's prepared to go to the dark places and fundamentally rethink what the Labour party is for, who it represents."

  17. 'Good quality bogeyman'published at 13:20

    John Pienaar
    Pienaar’s Politics

    David Cameron and Nicola Sturgeon must have thanked each other when they met this week, Lib Dem leadership contender Tim Farron tells Radio 5 live. "In these times where politics seems to be about winning an election on the basis of having a good quality bogeyman - and David Cameron and Nicola Sturgeon surely must have said 'Thank you very much' to each other at their meeting this week, because they both won because of the other - we need to realise instead that politics should surely be about unifying values, a tolerant and diverse country." 

  18. Lib Dems' nemesis? Tuition fees, says Farronpublished at 12:48

    John Pienaar
    Pienaar’s Politics

    Lib Dem leadership contender Tim Farron was asked earlier on Radio 5 Live: What did the Lib Dems get wrong in the coalition with the Conservatives? He said: "Tuition fees is a major part of it, but I also think that a lot of it was the inevitability of a junior partner in a coalition coming off worst at the end, and that tends to happen."

    He says: "The party has been absolutely devastated, I thought we were going to do poorly, I think many of us did, I didn't think we'd do this badly."

  19. Lib Dems relevant?published at 12:14

    Norman Lamb

    One of the few remaining Lib Dem MPs, Norman Lamb, is asked: "What's the point of the Lib Dems?" He says: "The Lib Dems are needed more than ever now, and I suspect that the liberal values that I hold very dear will be under threat under this government."

    Mr Lamb, who is a contender for the Lib Dem leadership, says: "I am fundamentally a liberal... I was a campaigning minister." 

  20. Helmer: Nothing to see herepublished at 12:05

    The Daily Politics

    Roger Helmer

    UKIP's Roger Helmer says that the media has "built up some minor issues" in UKIP, and that the party hasn't seen really serious internal dispute since the election. "What row?" he asks. He is reminded that campaign director Patrick O'Flynn said Nigel Farage had become "snarling, thin skinned, and aggressive". Mr Helmer says: "I agree that Patrick O'Flynn made some very unhelpful comments... but we have an issue.. with a couple of staffers who've gone, and one MEP who made some unhelpful comments."