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

A LABOUR government can deliver a step change in relations with the labour movement and deliver much-needed investment in working-class communities, Durham Miners’ Association president Stephen Guy believes — but it needs to be much more ambitious to achieve that.
“Ministers have been inviting trade union leaders in for discussions within a matter of days, so that’s welcome. But it’s not at the point where we want it to be.”
We meet in the County Hotel on the morning of the Miners’ Gala, in a special year given it is the 40th anniversary of the miners’ strike.

Ben Chacko talks to RMT leader EDDIE DEMPSEY about how the key to fixing broken Britain lies in collective sectoral bargaining, restoring unions’ ability to take solidarity strike action and bringing about the much-vaunted ‘wave of insourcing’

Incoming Usdaw general secretary JOANNE THOMAS talks to Ben Chacko about workers’ rights, Labour and how to arrest the decline of the high street

Durham Miners’ Association general secretary ALAN MARDGHUM speaks to Ben Chacko ahead of Gala Day 2025