The Mandelson scandal reveals a political settlement in which democratic choice is curtailed and the power of markets eclipses the will of voters – only the left can challenge this, writes JON TRICKETT 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.
Martin Taylor, the hedge-fund multimillionaire who has poured millions into pushing Labour rightwards, helped finance Lucy Powell’s supposedly dissenting campaign — suggesting her victory was not the ‘soft-left’ rebellion some have claimed, says SOLOMON HUGHES



