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

CHRISTIAN WAKEFORD, the Tory MP who crossed the floor to become a Labour MP, got a long profile in the Guardian which managed to expose not just what is wrong with Wakeford, but the corrupted state of Westminster itself, drawing a picture of shallow, unprincipled careerists grabbing what they can from corporate lobbyists.
It’s all the more surprising because the Guardian profile is very sympathetic to Wakeford.
Wakeford was a newly elected Tory MP in 2019, with a very slim 402-vote majority in a typically Labour seat. A small shift to Labour would see his MP’s career stopped.

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