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 perfect opportunity for Labour to develop bold new policies
The result in Batley and Spen ought to galvanise the party leadership to set out its vision for the future – but there are few signs this will happen any time soon, says IAN LAVERY MP
Keir Starmer with Kim Leadbeater in Clackheaton Park after she won the Batley and Spen by-election
Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
DR DYLAN MURPHY looks at a Big Brother Watch report which exposes the government as an enabler of DWP secret spying on benefit claimants
The EU faces a critical choice: will it remain in the shadow of an increasingly unreliable US ally, or will it forge its own path in a multilateral world where co-operation with China is essential, asks MARC VANDEPITTE as leaders meet for the EU-China Summit
A lot of discussion about how the left should currently organise – including debate on whether the Green Party is a useful vehicle for advance – runs the risk of refusing to engage with or learn from the reasons the left was defeated previously, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE
In the early hours of this Friday morning it was announced in a ‘shock’ result that Kim Leadbeater had done enough, and that Labour had held on to Batley & Spen.
Kim’s popular local appeal alongside an energetic campaign that was deeply rooted in the local community and omnipresent on the doorsteps thanks to an army of party activists was enough to hold – not win - a seat in that in 2017 backed Labour with a majority just shy of 9,000.
The result comes in the backdrop of an aggressive campaign resulting in thousands of votes, mainly assumed to be from Muslim communities disillusioned with the current direction of the Labour Party and feeling their vote has been taken for granted for too long, going to third parties.
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