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Bombs and Blairites - the continuing adventures of New Labour's old boys
SOLOMON HUGHES reports on the reappearance of Peter Mandelson and the arms company former defence minister Geoff Hoon would like you to forget
Peter Mandelson

PROGRESS, the Blairite faction inside the Labour Party, has a new financial backer — Peter Mandelson.

Progress has been New Labour’s shock troops since its foundation in 1996, but its members and supportive MPs have become marginalised since Jeremy Corbyn’s rise.

Last year their former “sugar daddy” Lord Sainsbury announced he was stopping his regular donations of £260,000 a year, so it has been looking for new financial backers.

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Features / 3 October 2025
3 October 2025

The new angle from private firms shmoozing their way into public contracts was the much-trumpeted arrival of ‘artificial intelligence’ — and no-one seemed to have heard the numerous criticisms of this unproven miracle cure, reports SOLOMON HUGHES

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Features / 19 September 2025
19 September 2025

It is rather strange that Labour continues to give prestigious roles to inappropriate, controversy-mired businessmen who are also major Tory donors. What could Labour possibly be hoping to get out of it, asks SOLOMON HUGHES

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5 September 2025

Keir Starmer’s hiring Tim Allan from Tory-led Strand Partners is another illustration of  Labour’s corporate-influence world where party differences matter less than business connections, writes SOLOMON HUGHES

Defence Secretary John Healey (third left) and his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu (second left) view a long-range air-launched Storm Shadow cruise missile, during a visit to MDBA in Hertfordshire, July 9, 2025
Features / 22 August 2025
22 August 2025

MBDA’s Alabama factory makes components for Boeing’s GBU-39 bombs used to kill civilians in Gaza. Its profits flow through Stevenage to Paris — and it is one of the British government’s favourite firms, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES

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