All the evidence shows voters want Labour to shift to the left — but initial signs from Andy Burnham are worrying on that front, cautions DIANE ABBOTT
THE Tory Party is clearly in desperate straits heading into the general election. That has led it into a situation where it is now promoting security and defence as its major campaigning issues.
In a recent speech, Rishi Sunak effectively launched the long general election campaign with a series of wild claims and promises on military spending and state security. There is a right way and a wrong way to respond to these claims.
Every school pupil knows the saying that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” But we should understand the power of this type of messaging. Of course, there is no mileage in chasing the vote of the jingoists, xenophobes and outright racists. Labour is always likely to come second-best (or worse) in the contest for their votes. But there is a reason that politicians in trouble so often reach for the flag and the defence budget when they are in difficulties.
DIANE ABBOTT exposes Keir Starmer's doublespeak on Britain’s involvement in the Iran war but takes heart from the growing organisation of the opposition to it
The 2025 Budget shores up the PM’s political position with headline-grabbing welfare U-turns, but with no improvements on offer to declining public services or living standards, writes MICHAEL BURKE
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


