Latest editorial
OWEN SMITH was outed as a political chameleon yesterday after he made a left-wing pitch for the Labour leadership — despite previously backing the Iraq war and private involvement in the NHS.
The Welsh MP has positioned himself on the soft left of the party and claimed to offer a “radical and credible” alternative to Jeremy Corbyn.
In an interview, he credited Mr Corbyn with making Labour an unequivocally anti-austerity party but said he was “not a leader who can lead us into an election and win for Labour.”
Preferable to Starmer he may be, but there is scant sign of a sharp political break in Burnham’s policies so far — while left challenges aren’t making much of a running either, finds ANDREW MURRAY. How can socialism be put back on the map?
Martin Taylor, the hedge-fund multimillionaire who has poured millions into pushing Labour rightwards, helped finance Lucy Powell’s supposedly dissenting campaign — suggesting her victory was not the ‘soft-left’ rebellion some have claimed, says SOLOMON HUGHES
The global left must be unwavering in it is support for Venezuela as Washington increases its aggression, and clear-eyed about the West’s cynical motives for targeting it, says CLAUDIA WEBBE
Politicians who continue to welcome contracts with US companies without considering the risks and consequences of total dependency in the years to come are undermining the raison d’etre of the NHS, argues Dr JOHN PUNTIS