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

LEE ANDERSON is a comically right-wing MP, blurting out ludicrous reactionary brain-farts whenever he can. In Lee World, nurses use foodbanks because they can’t manage “their own finances.”
Anyone else uses foodbanks because “you’ve got generation after generation who cannot cook properly” and “cannot budget.” Because decent meals only cost “30p a day.”
Other greatest hits from “30p Lee” include accusing the National Trust of being “coloured by cultural Marxist dogma” — colouring reds-under-the-beds hysteria with an anti-semitic tinge — calling Black Lives Matter a “political movement whose core principles aim to undermine our very way of life” and claiming footballers who took to one knee in protest against racism were “alienating traditional supporters.”

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