3 december 2016, the other hilary

From the leadership vacuum that is today's british labour party, step forward hilary benn, after a stonking speech in yesterday's totemic debate about whether or not to extend british bombing of islamic state into syria. Joining 60-odd other labour members to support the government, against his leader and the rest of the party, benn established himself overnight as the principled, strong orator, independent-minded bulwark from within against jeremy corbyn, should the party ever want such a thing. With a combination of this year's general election and the subsequent party leadership contest taking out a whole generation of post-corbyn potentials, it was inevitable that one of the next crop would establish themselves alongside the refuseniks of chuka umunna and tristram hunt as the weathervane leader-in-waiting on whose shoulders the future of the party may yet rest if they ever get to the point of taking the fight for centre-left social justice outside labour altogether. The princely former cabinet minister and shadow foreign-secretary is of course the son of one of the left's greatest modern orators (best interview ever) and joins a worryingly-long list of party dynasties, including will straw, tamsin dunwoody, stephen kinnock, the millibands (if brothers count) and (oh yes) emily benn. Meanwhile, talking of heavyweights in the making, tonight is the oldham west and royton byelection, contested by the ex-council leader jim mcmahon with whom I had the pleasure of working alongside on a number of occasions...