Durham Miners’ Association chair STEPHEN GUY speaks to Ben Chacko about the Reform threat, what’s needed from Labour and why the Big Meeting will never lose its politics
ONE of the most remarkable reactions to Labour’s twisting and turning over its position on Israel’s savage assault on Gaza has been the defection of local councillors away from Labour to sit as independents.
Perhaps a hundred or so councillors have left, and in some cases have cost Labour control of the council — such as in Hastings, Oxford and Burnley.
Labour shows an apparent indifference to losing councillors and councils, some in parliamentary seats covering the former mill towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire that must be won back for it to form the next government.
The electoral cost of Labour’s stance on Gaza is impossible to ignore – the new leadership must take heed, argues PETER LEARY
JAMIE DRISCOLL’s group, Majority, with an inclusive approach and supportive training, aims to sidestep many of the problems afflicting Britain’s progressive movement
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
The New York mayoral candidate has electrified the US public with policies of social justice and his refusal to be cowed. We can follow his example here, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE


