Apart from a bright spark of hope in the victory of the Gaza motion, this year’s conference lacked vision and purpose — we need to urgently reconnect Labour with its roots rather than weakly aping the flag-waving right, argues KIM JOHNSON MP

WHAT happens to former Labour general secretaries when they retire? It turns out they join up with former Tory ministers to work for lobbying companies that regularly represent corporations and foreign authoritarian regimes.
At least that is what happened to Iain McNicol. He was general secretary of the Labour Party from 2011 to 2018.
Last December he got a new job as an “adviser” to what he calls a “strategy consultancy” called Actum. It is a relatively new US-controlled lobbying firm. McNicol was hired alongside former Tory minister Ed Vaizey.

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

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

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

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