Transparency records reveal senior trade officials held dinners and strategy meetings with the notorious lobbying firm even as controversy over its Epstein links deepened, says SOLOMON HUGHES

Inspectors have uncovered systemic failures at a Tory-linked institution in London, where students pay thousands but standards are undermined. SOLOMON HUGHES reports

The former Nato chief stirred up dark historical undercurrents with his call to cut welfare for military spending, says SOLOMON HUGHES

The British outsourcing giant quietly deleted mention of training US immigration agents after killings in Minneapolis intensified scrutiny of its controversial contracts. SOLOMON HUGHES reports

SOLOMON HUGHES says even electoral defeat isn’t a deterrent to right-wing MPs: pro-corporate policies might lose elections but they can be lucrative nonetheless

SOLOMON HUGHES recommends Sunjeev Sahota’s recent novel set in a trade union election campaign for its fresh approach to what unites and divides workers, but wishes the union backdrop was truer to life

SOLOMON HUGHES uncovers government documents showing hidden dinners and meetings between Labour figures and disgraced Peter Mandelson’s lobbying firm, which collapsed after links to Epstein and sleazy influence operations came to light

Ministers say scrapping Ofwat will toughen oversight of scandal-hit water firms. But merging environmental and economic regulation and openly courting private investors suggest the failures of privatisation are set to continue. SOLOMON HUGHES reports

The Starmer-linked group’s hiring of a lobbying firm to peddle a bogus ‘Russian hack’ smear against journalists has erupted into scandal — but outrage has surfaced only because the target was the mainstream press, says SOLOMON HUGHES

The PM says Mandelson 'betrayed our values' – but ministers and advisers flock to line their pockets with corporate cash, says SOLOMON HUGHES

A Vatican photo-op, a hard-right donor and a rhetoric of mass deportations reveal how appeals to ‘Christian values’ are being reshaped by Reform and Tory MPs, says SOLOMON HUGHES

The Labour Growth Group and its think tank partner, the Good Growth Foundation, have taken funding from major lobbying firms linked to housebuilders, banks and Heathrow – raising questions about corporate influence at the heart of Starmer’s pro-growth project. SOLOMON HUGHES reports