The UK Prime Minister may have the regal touch in northern England, but he’s been wrong-footed on the constitutional challenges posed by the Celtic Alliance of first ministers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, argues KENNY MacASKILL
CORRUPTION is not a charge that should be laid lightly against any individual or government. Misdirected, it can besmirch individuals who have done nothing wrong and it can devalue politics altogether if baseless charges are thrown around.
So it is with considerable care that the claim that this government is corrupt should be made: in this case, it is fully justified. This is not about the actions of one or two rogue individuals — it involves a large number of ministers and ex-ministers, or even law officers and it is on a grand scale.
Crucially, it involves those at the very top. It is widely asserted, without rebuttal, that the reason Boris Johnson wanted to ditch the entire regulatory system and the regulator for MPs’ conduct was not to save Owen Paterson. This Prime Minister does not do personal loyalty in any sphere of his life.
The government’s latest asylum proposals abandon labour movement values and fuel division by aping Reform UK, writes DIANE ABBOTT MP
Only an ambitious programme of state-led investment can restore growth and improve living standards, argues MICHAEL BURKE
DIANE ABBOTT warns that Shabana Mahmood’s draconian asylum proposals fuel racist scapegoating and risk demoralising Labour’s base – potentially paving the way for Farage to No 10
The 2025 Budget shores up the PM’s political position with headline-grabbing welfare U-turns, but with no improvements on offer to declining public services or living standards, writes MICHAEL BURKE


