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

PETER MANDELSON, a key Labour figure and pro-EU campaigner, was in 2019 organising a caviar-and-oysters dinner for Tory cabinet minister Michael Gove to meet “investors” and “corporates” to discuss “to what extent is Brexit an opportunity.”
Mandelson is currently a semi-official adviser to Keir Starmer’s team. Morgan McSweeney, who was Starmer’s chief of staff and is now Labour’s “elections director,” is particularly close to Mandelson.
Mandelson was one of the leaders of the “people’s vote” campaign, which persuaded Labour to run on a second referendum on Brexit policy in the December 2019 election.

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