Labour will find increases in the state pension age are unacceptable, just as cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance, personal independence payments and universal credit are — it needs to change direction immediately, writes PCS general secretary FRAN HEATHCOTE

JOURNALIST, author and Nato PR flack Paul Mason now wants to add member of Parliament to his CV.
After unsuccessful bids to be selected for seats in Manchester and London, he is now in contention for the Labour nomination in Sheffield Central. His views and conduct should therefore be subject to special scrutiny.
Mason’s political career has so far constituted a weary trudge from orthodox Trotskyism to hard-line Starmerism. Mason’s full-on embrace of the “Remain” cause and his championing of a second referendum to reverse Brexit — policies which contributed mightily to the debacle of the 2019 election — brought to an end his flirtation with Corbynism, a movement he felt did not appreciate his qualities sufficiently.