The Employment Rights Act marks a major victory for workers, but without stronger enforcement and collective organisation, its promises may fall short, says ALICE BOWMAN
AS LABOUR gears up for a plethora of by-elections it seems a good time to assess the state of working-class representation in Westminster. Sadly, an initial look does not make good reading.
In recent weeks selections forced by boundary changes have seen the loss of colleagues Mick Whitley and Beth Winter.
Parliament will be poorer without both Beth, who worked as a trade union official, housing officer for the charity Shelter and a community worker, and Mick, who worked in the merchant navy and at Vauxhall Motors, eventually becoming the union convener. Their losses are both a blow for the left and for authentic voices of working class in Parliament.
All the areas that cause working people to feel insecure have to be addressed, through a return to unashamedly pro-worker politics, if the horror of a Farage government is to be avoided, writes IAN LAVERY MP
The Gala’s core message of working-class solidarity offers renewed hope and provides the antidote to the anti-worker policies of Reform UK, argues IAN LAVERY MP
The historic heartland of anti-fascist resistance and mining militancy now faces a new battle — stopping Nigel Farage. ANDREW MURRAY meets ex-Labour MP Beth Winter and former Plaid leader Leanne Wood, the two socialists leading the resistance
KATE CLARK recalls an occasion when the president of the Scottish National Union of Mineworkers might just have saved a Chilean prisoner’s life



