As tens of thousands return to the streets for the first national Palestine march of 2026, this movement refuses to be sidelined or silenced, says PETER LEARY
JULY saw two major new announcements on housing from the Labour Party. But the announcements, from Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and the new Labour Growth Group of MPs, propose very different things.
Rayner wrote an Observer article saying Labour must deal with the housing crisis because it blights people who need decent homes. Rayner said she wanted to help “families struggling to cover soaring rents and meet mounting mortgage costs,” and “tenants paying through the nose for damp, cramped and unsafe conditions.”
Rayner promised Labour would push for “the biggest wave of social and affordable housing in a generation.”
Building is the solution for much of our housing crisis – and will also help to address poverty, ill health, and even anti-social behaviour and alienation, writes KENNY MacASKILL
GLYN ROBBINS celebrates how tenant-led campaigning forced the government to drop Pay to Stay, fixed-term tenancies and council home sell-offs under Cameron — but warns that Labour’s faith in private developers will require renewed resistance
Despite Labour’s promises to bring things ‘in-house,’ the Justice Secretary has awarded notorious outsourcing outfit Mitie a £329 million contract to run a new prison — despite its track record of abuse and neglect in its migrant facilities, reports SOLOMON HUGHES



