Politics

Before the budget, Left Field set three tests: relief for the lowest paid, a fair share from the wealthiest and fair funding for care. Healey scored two partials and a fail.

Unite called Healey’s jobs plan “a press release” and frozen tax thresholds a “noose” on wages, while the TUC hailed a bank tax ‘win’ and campaigners said billions were left on the table.

Union says borrowing to invest is nothing like Truss’s unfunded tax cuts and urges the chancellor to tax the super-rich rather than settle for “managed decline”.

Working-age adults in the north now die at rates 42% higher than in the south, a new study finds. Next week’s budget must start reversing that, not just managing it.

As John Healey prepares his first budget with the biggest taxes already off the table, Daniel Emmett-Gulliver argues that the real debate isn’t how much we pay – it’s what our taxes should deliver.

Muddled plenaries and a guessing-game agenda left members at this autumn’s conference all but shut out of policymaking. Liam Jones sets out how the party can give every member a real voice.

Chancellor John Healey has ruled out raising the big three taxes and promised to meet the fiscal rules. That leaves a straight choice – tax wealth or squeeze those least able to pay.

Since the ‘Zionism is racism’ motion passed in Brighton, Green party members have been branded extremists, entryists and infiltrators. El Donnellon argues that the labels say more about the accusers than the accused.

Andy Burnham’s Labour conference speech handed the left real gains and real fights. Crying betrayal squanders both – and says more about the critics than the prime minister.