There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES

THE government is facing extreme difficulties in getting its “stop the boats” Bill through Parliament. Its formal title is the Illegal Migration Bill, but since ministers have decided that the mode of transport you use by itself makes your application illegal, no-one is taken in by their nonsense.
The Bill is not meant to be policy in the sense of a workable plan to cut the number of people arriving on dangerous small boats. Ministers claim that harsh treatment, rejection of all applications made in this way and the threat of deportation will all have a deterrent effect.
This is based on no evidence at all. It completely ignores the levels of desperation that drive people to leave their homes to make this journey on the open seas. It ignores too the fact that most applications are granted.

Our Foreign Secretary now condemns Israel in the Commons, yet Britain still supplies weapons and intelligence for its bombing campaigns — as the horror reaches perhaps the final stage, action must finally replace words, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP

The BBC and OBR claim that failing to cut disability benefits could ‘destabilise the economy’ while ignoring the spendthrift approach to tens of billions on military spending that really spirals out of control, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP

Europe is acquiescing in Trump’s manoeuvrings — where Europe takes over the US forever war in Ukraine while Washington gets ready for a future fight with China. And it’s working people who will be left paying the price, says DIANE ABBOTT MP

DIANE ABBOTT MP argues that Labour’s proposals contained in the recent white paper won’t actually bring down immigration numbers or win support from Reform voters — but they will succeed in making politics more nasty and poisonous