‘We had six MPs and four factions’: inside Your Party’s toxic power struggles

At an early meeting to set the path for what would become Your Party, participants quickly agreed on one thing: given the cliches about leftwingers forever falling out, at all costs they must avoid a descent into factionalism.Six months on and the Liverpool venue hosting this weekend’s inaugural Your Party conference has been warned to expect potential disruption, including stage invasions by disgruntled members representing particular wings. Extra security guards have been hired.How did an idea with so much potential traction and reach – hundreds of thousands of people signed up to support the idea of a movement spearheaded by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana before it even existed – become so quickly and comprehensively bogged down in power struggles and infighting?The slightly simplified answer, one agreed on at least in private by people from all sides, is rooted in escalating tensions between Corbyn, portrayed as indecisive and at times ambivalent about yet another political venture at the age of 76, and Sultana, the combative former Labour MP who has enraged colleagues by making major decisions unilaterally.The ground zero for a split so comprehensive that, insiders say, Sultana has for the past three months mainly communicated with her supposed colleagues through lawyers, came on 3 July, or “terrible Thursday” as one calls it

Peter Mandelson’s lobbying firm hired by company linked to Chinese military

Global Counsel, the lobbying firm co-founded by Peter Mandelson, was brought in to advise the Chinese pharmaceutical company WuXi AppTec in Europe months after it was targeted in a US national security crackdown.WuXi AppTec signed a $3m contract with Global Counsel last year to deal with the international fallout from claims that it had links with the Chinese military and was implicated in human rights abuses in Xinjiang.Global Counsel offered to help WuXi AppTec on “geopolitical risk mitigation” in May 2024, soon after the company was singled out in a US biosecurity bill over its alleged links to the Chinese government.WuXi AppTec agreed to a contract with Global Counsel to soften the impact of the US crackdown on its global reputation, scrutiny of its operations and controls on its suppliers.The lobbying firm said it only worked with Wuxi AppTec on European policy issues, not US ones, and had declared this on the EU’s transparency register

Starmer says budget did not break manifesto tax pledge – as it happened

In an interview Keir Starmer also rejected suggestions Labour broke its manifesto promise on tax.When this was put to him, he told Sky News:We kept to our manifesto in terms of what we’ve promised. But I accept the challenge that we’ve asked everybody to contribute.But he also defended the need to raise taxes. Explaining why, he told the BBC:I tell your viewers precisely why that is: to make sure that we can protect our NHS, which needs to be there for them and their families when they need it

‘Unelected power’ of ultra-rich is reshaping British politics, report claims

Structural corruption and the rise of “conduits for unelected power” are reshaping British politics, according to a stark report from the Equality Trust.Unelected influence has increased over the past two decades, the report claims, driven by the growing political clout of the ultra-rich and the institutions that enable it.Priya Sahni-Nicholas, the co-executive director of the trust, said: “Our new Concentration of Power Index shows that wealth concentration aligns with power. Our index rises almost exactly in step with increases in the top 1% share of wealth. This correlation is strong and statistically significant

Keir Starmer says Labour ‘kept to our manifesto’ over budget tax rises

Keir Starmer has conceded that the budget “asked everybody to contribute” but argued that it had “done it in a fair way” as he sought to rebuff claims that Labour had broken its tax promises.The prime minister said the Labour government had “kept to our manifesto” despite raising taxes by £26bn, including by freezing income tax and national insurance thresholds for an extra three years.Labour had promised during the election campaign not to raise taxes on working people. Asked whether he would apologise for breaking that promise, Starmer said: “I accept the challenge that we’ve asked everybody to contribute. I want to be really clear on why we’ve done that,” he told Sky News

Is Farage right to claim that racism allegations are response to a dislike of his politics?

Nigel Farage has again denied allegations of racism as a schoolboy and repeated his claim that some had been concocted because people disliked his politics.During a press conference, he snapped at one reporter who asked about the issue, saying: “I think we’ve gone quite a long way towards answering all this, don’t you?”Farage, who prides himself on answering numerous questions at press conferences, took 10 this time, but did not include any from the Guardian.So what did he say – and is it true?The claim: Farage said the director Peter Ettedgui is the “one person that said I directly abused him”.He added: “One person says they were hurt, and if they feel they were hurt, then I’m genuinely sorry. But I never, ever, ever would have said or done anything like that directly to a human being