Transparency records reveal senior trade officials held dinners and strategy meetings with the notorious lobbying firm even as controversy over its Epstein links deepened, says SOLOMON HUGHES
“FOR socialist municipalism” reads the banner on the website of Beacon, an emerging Liverpool-based political movement made up of left-wing activists, trade unionists, academics and community campaigners.
Last month Beacon applied to the Electoral Commission to become a political party, but the group is not waiting around — and today a member of the movement will provide a socialist alternative for voters in the city’s Kirkdale by-election.
Peter Furmedge will be standing as a non-party candidate but on a Beacon Liverpool manifesto, reflecting the aims of a grassroots political movement looking to “rejuvenate local democracy” through municipalism and work in the community.
LOTTE COLLETT welcomes the arrival of a new party for the left, a vehicle for councils to finally fight for progressive policies on housing, green spaces and public facilities, rather than administering cuts and misery from central government
Deep disillusionment with the Westminster cross-party consensus means rupture with the status quo is on the cards – bringing not only opportunities but also dangers, says NICK WRIGHT
In the run-up to the Communist Party congress in November ROB GRIFFITHS outlines a few ideas regarding its participation in the elections of May 2026
JAMIE DRISCOLL explains how his group, Majority, plans to empower working people to empower themselves



