Author: Miles Donavan

Candidates would then need to seek local party and union/affiliate nominations between Sept. 13-27 followed by a ballot of members from Oct. 8-23. That is the timetable being put before the NEC. The starting gun for Labour’s Deputy Leadership contest following Angela Rayner’s resignation hasn’t even officially been fired and yet the rumour mill on who is running and who isn’t is in overdrive. With the NEC reported to meeting today at noon to set out a timetable for the contest, Playbook has compiled a list of MPs already reported to be jostling for the position, with the bar to…

Paul Nowak called for the government to scrap the two child benefit cap The general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Paul Nowak has called on Keir Starmer’s government to ‘show working people whose side’ he is on. He made the call at his keynote address to this year’s TUC Congress in Brighton. Nowak began his address by highlighting the changes that had been made since Labour came into office last year. He told the Congress: “The Tories anti-strike legislation – now gone. Our right to strike protected. Hundreds of disputes across the public and private – won. A…

The aim of Mainstream, the group says is to ‘develop and champion a popular left alternative’. A number of Labour Party MPs, from across the party, are forming a new network with backing from Andy Burnham, in a bid to change the direction of the party, following Keir Starmer’s reshuffle last week. The network, called Mainstream, has been set up just before the timetable for the deputy leader contest is set out, and will likely seek to influence its outcome. The Guardian reports: “Mainstream has been steered by Compass a centre-left thinktank, and Open Labour and is backed by Burnham,…

‘What we can do is build a system that works for the public good – one that saves money, boosts security, fights fraud, and unlocks economic growth.’ Patrick Hurley is the Labour MP for Southport I used to be against the idea of a Digital ID. Like many, I worried it would open the door to a surveillance state, with government keeping tabs on every move we make. But I’ve come to realise that ship has sailed. Between social media companies, online retailers, and credit agencies, vast amounts of our personal data already circulate every second of the day. The…

She didn’t pull her punches The Green Party MP Sian Berry has said that the current government is ‘one of the worst versions of the Labour Party we could possibly imagine’. Berry made the comments at a panel at the ‘Workers’ Planet’ event being held on September 7 to coincide with the annual Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Brighton. The panel’s was advertised as follows: “Traditional Labour Party voters now face a choice. Either continue as loyal foot soldiers in an increasingly narrow party project, or help build an alternative politics rooted in solidarity, community power, and working-class agency. This…

Trade unionists have backed a national education service ‘free at the point of use from cradle to grave’ Trade unionists from across the UK are gathering in Brighton this week at the annual Trades Union Congress (TUC). On the first day of the Congress, delegates unanimously supported a motion which called for the introduction of a ‘fully funded national education service ensuring decent pay, secure employment and professional autonomy’. The motion also called for the TUC to lobby the government to reverse cuts in higher education and abolish tuition fees. The passing of the motion will see the TUC produce…

Whatever your views are on Rayner and her tax affairs, it’s clear she’s long been a target of media animus, not just for her politics, but for who she is. Angela Rayner’s resignation as deputy prime minister and housing secretary marks the end of one of the most aggressive smear campaigns in recent political memory. Within an hour of her announcement, the Telegraph was already claiming credit, emailing readers with the triumphant headline: “How the Telegraph led to Rayner’s downfall.” It has the hallmarks of the Sun’s infamous ‘It’s the Sun wot won it’ headline, when it claimed credit for…

Her case has become a lightning rod for the British and American right. As well as JD Vance and his MAGA-allies’ descent on the Cotswolds, something else alarming happened over the ‘silly season’ too. Lucy Connolly was elevated to hero-like status.Connolly, the wife of a former Conservative councillor, was jailed for inciting racial hatred after she took to X to urge people to “set fire” to hotels housing asylum seekers during the Southport riots last summer. She pleaded guilty to the offence of distributing material with the intention of stirring up racial hatred. Yet her case has become a lightning rod…

The open letter condemns the far right’s “racist lies” under the guise of protecting women and girls. In response to the wave of protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers, a coalition of women has issued an open letter urging politicians to stop linking immigration to sexual abuse. The letter, titled Women Against the Far Right, challenges inflammatory claims made by political figures such as Nigel Farage and shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick. Farage has attempted to tie rising rates of sexual offences in the UK to government immigration policies. Meanwhile, Jenrick, who recently joined anti-refugee protests outside asylum seeker accommodation…

“Why isn’t this headline news? The implications are horrifying …” A new study has concluded that the collapse of a vital Atlantic Ocean current, which was once thought to be a low-likelihood risk, can no longer be considered unlikely. Yet, despite the potentially catastrophic implications, this alarming finding has barely been mentioned in mainstream media coverage. The current is known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc), and is a key part of the global climate system. It carries warm water from the tropics northward, where it cools, sinks, and flows back south. But global warming is disrupting this cycle.…