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

JULY saw two major new announcements on housing from the Labour Party. But the announcements, from Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and the new Labour Growth Group of MPs, propose very different things.
Rayner wrote an Observer article saying Labour must deal with the housing crisis because it blights people who need decent homes. Rayner said she wanted to help “families struggling to cover soaring rents and meet mounting mortgage costs,” and “tenants paying through the nose for damp, cramped and unsafe conditions.”
Rayner promised Labour would push for “the biggest wave of social and affordable housing in a generation.”

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