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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

Labour rules 'misapplied' when Corbyn put on leadership ballot, court told  – as it happened

Supporters of Jeremy Corbyn at a rally on Saturday.
Supporters of Jeremy Corbyn at a rally on Saturday. Photograph: Neil Jones/PA

Afternoon summary

  • The high court has said it will rule on Thursday whether or not Labour’s national executive committee was entitled to fight the leadership contest without getting nominations from MPs like his challenger.
  • Owen Smith, who is challenging Corbyn for the Labour leadership, has accused Corbyn of being like Tony Blair in failing to deliver radical policies. Speaking on the Radio 2 Jeremy Vine Show Smith said that he was “massively to the left” of Blair. He said:

Crucially, I think we need to be less timid, as we speak. I think Jeremy and Tony have got something in common in that respect; neither of them has been very forthright when it comes to really radical policies to change things.

I think Jeremy has shared some of the traits of New Labour in that he’s not been bold enough. We have not put pen to paper on policy in almost any area in the last nine months.

Persuading Labour members that Corbyn is similar to Blair will be quite a hard sell, to put it mildly, but Smith’s argument about Corbyn not developing policy is much better founded. Richard Murphy, the tax campaigner, who last year was an enthusiastic Corbyn supporter, cited this as one reason why he has lost faith in Corbyn in a blog last week. “I had the opportunity to see what was happening inside the PLP,” he wrote. “The leadership wasn’t confusing as much as just silent. There was no policy direction, no messaging, no direction, no co-ordination, no nothing.”

  • London and Dublin are agreed there will be no return to a “hard border” between Northern Ireland and the Republic, Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny insisted after Downing Street talks.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Updated

Here is a Labour leadership contest reading list.

Jeremy Corbyn’s support unites around clear basic principles: the need to break decisively with neoliberalism, in favour of a new egalitarian economic model, and to defend migrants, minority-ethnic people and those on social security from the rising tide of bigotry and the effects of spending cuts.

Conspiracy theories about mass Trotskyist entryism, while (unintentionally) entertaining, are of little help in explaining the huge and enduring support for Corbyn among Labour’s ballooning membership. The real reasons are simple enough – Corbyn represents a head-on challenge to a status quo that a broad swath of left-progressive opinion now considers intolerable. No analytical genius is required to identify his limitations as a leader. The problem is the lack of any credible candidate to carry forward that challenge in his place.

Smith has pulled off a smart early manoeuvre- one that allows him to concentrate on the party core. By hinting at favouring a confirmatory referendum on the Brexit deal, he’s appealed to the party’s right. That gives him freedom to play for the party’s left. And that is how, ultimately, he can win this election (with my three assumptions in place….).

His current argument is that he is a more competent version of Jeremy Corbyn. Undoubtedly, that is true on the basis that it is nigh-on impossible to be less competent. But the ‘I’m a competent version of Jeremy’ relies on the fact that enough of Jeremy Corbyn’s support is driven by ‘competence’ as a virtue. I don’t think it’s too controversial to suggest that the very fact they are backing Jeremy Corbyn suggests that competence in the parliamentary or electoral domains are not their most important concern. Moreover, if he is to win this election has to be more about Smith and less about Corbyn. Currently, that is the mistake that a lot of Labour moderates are making. The road to victory is in Smith convincing- views on Corbyn are already polarised.

Therefore, Smith has to demonstrate some big, idealistic thinking to make his leftwards pitch and that he is authentically left-wing.

Thanks to Facebook and the campaign group Momentum, personal supporters of Corbyn have flooded into Labour. His Facebook page has 250,000 more Likes than the Labour Party page, which recently passed the half-million mark. (Angela Eagle’s page has around 18,900 and Owen Smith’s 6,600.) It is a measure of Corbyn’s online success that the YouGov data on the upcoming leadership election suggests that he would lose if the selectorate were the same as it was last summer, because of the disillusionment of long-standing members. However, he has reshaped the party in his own image, and it now has a pro-Corbyn majority.

High court to rule in Labour party leadership rules case on Thursday

We’re going to get the judgment in the Labour party leadership rules case on Thursday, my colleague Jessica Elgot reports.

Owen Smith, the Labour leadership contender, was on Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show at lunchtime. He said he was “massively to the left of Tony Blair” and that he was “as leftwing” as Jeremy Corbyn.

He also said the party was “heading in the right direction” under Corbyn.

I have got members of my own party in Pontypridd who have joined because they think the party is heading in the right direction, and I agree with them.

A spokesman for Smith later clarified this remark. Smith meant that, under Corbyn, the party was reconnecting with people, the spokesman said. But Smith did not think Corbyn was the right person to lead the party forward, the spokesman went on.

This is from Sky’s Kay Burley.

Here is more from the Labour leadership rules case in the high court.

500 Labour councillors back Owen Smith

More than 500 Labour councillors have signed a joint letter saying they are backing Owen Smith for the Labour leadership.

The initiative was organised by Gedling councillor Michael Payne and Westminster councillor Tim Roca. Explaining why they were backing Smith, they said:

Across the country, Labour councillors are making a real difference for working people and the most vulnerable. They are on the frontline against Tory austerity, and know the effect it has on the people who need a Labour government most. Councillors speak to real voters every day, and understand that winning a general election with Jeremy Corbyn as leader will be nearly impossible.

Here is an extract from the letter.

Owen has convincingly made the case that he knows how to get things done and has the tenacity and skill to advance the cause of working people. He has not shied away from saying our Party has been too timid and that he would increase taxes on the wealthy. He has set out a radical vision for a £200bn investment programme, re-nationalising our railways and putting the decision to make war firmly in the hands of elected MPs, not the Government of the day.

But there is more at stake here. There are militants in both wings of our Party who are determined to carry out a civil war against each other, whether it harms working people or not. We have intimidation and bullying in constituency Labour parties up and down the country. We have those who seem to prefer perpetual division to the job of winning power for the good of those we represent. We need a unifying leader who is principled and competent.

The full text of the letter, and the names of all the signatories, are here, on LabourList.

Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, has stepped up his campaign to get more powers by inviting a commission to come up with new devolution proposals for the capital.

In 2013, when Boris Johnson was mayor, a London finance commission, chaired by Prof Tony Travers, came up with plans to give the mayor direct control of the money raised by certain property taxes in the city.

The proposals did not get implemented, but Khan has asked Travers to reconvene the commission and to report back “with a more comprehensive, wide-ranging suite of devolution requests that will be presented to ministers”.

Khan said:

London needs a stronger voice so that we can protect jobs and growth from the economic uncertainty ahead.

It is vital that we have greater control over how the capital is run – so we have more control over the things we need to improve our city such as skills training, housing, business rates and the tools to tackle air quality, health and crime.

London’s population is the same size of Wales and Scotland combined, but we have far less control over how the capital is run.

A stronger voice for London will be good for the whole country, because when London succeeds, Britain succeeds.

Sadiq Khan poses with Brad Simpson ( far left), James McVey and Connor Ball (far right), members of the British band “The Vamps”, to mark International Busking Day in London last week.
Sadiq Khan poses with Brad Simpson ( far left), James McVey and Connor Ball (far right), members of the British band “The Vamps”, to mark International Busking Day in London last week. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Theresa May and her Irish opposite number, Enda Kenny, have finished their talks in Number 10. They spoke briefly to the media afterwards. Here are the key points.

  • May said she wanted the UK to maintain “the closest possible relationship” with Ireland after Brexit.
  • May and Kenny both said they were determined to maintain free travel across the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. May said there was “a strong will” to keep this. She said:

I recognise that one of the biggest concerns for people is the common travel area. As I said yesterday, we benefited from a common travel area between the UK and the Republic of Ireland for many years before either country was a member of the EU. There is a strong will on both sides to preserve it and so we must now focus on securing a deal that is in the interests of both of us.

Alongside this, we should continue our efforts to strengthen the external borders of the common travel area; for example, through a common approach to the use of passenger data.

And Kenny said:

We both recognised that Ireland is the only EU member state that shares a land border with the UK. We are in agreement that we don’t wish to see any return to the borders of the past on the island of Ireland.

  • May and Kenny both said they would not let Brexit undermine the peace process. May said:

It is in all our interests to work together to safeguard our national security and the outcome of the referendum will not undermine it.

And Kenny said:

We agreed that we would work together to ensure that the benefits of the peace process are preserved in any new arrangements which might emerge regarding the United Kingdom’s future relationship with the EU.

  • May said she and Kenny had agreed that Britain and Ireland must “take time” to find practical solutions to a number of “complex issues” arising from the UK’s decision to leave the EU.
Theresa May and Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny speaking to the media inside 10 Downing Street after their talks today.
Theresa May and Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny speaking to the media inside 10 Downing Street after their talks today. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Back in the high court the Labour leadership rules case is still going on.

Lunchtime summary

  • The Labour leadership challenger Owen Smith has questioned Corbyn’s patriotism. (See 10.06am.)
  • Amber Rudd, the home secretary, has described the increase in the number of hate crimes since the EU referendum as “worrying”. She made the comment in her foreward to the government’s hate crime action plan. (See 11.24am.)
  • Suzanne Evans, Ukip’s former deputy chairman, has backed a little-known councillor who admits that she is not “politically minded”, to succeed Nigel Farage as leader. As the Press Association reports, Evans, who is temporarily suspended from the party, said she has “given up hope” of taking the party’s top job as she endorsed Lisa Duffy. Admitting that her chosen contender is “not a household name”, Evans claimed the Huntingdonshire councillor would help the party move away from its “one-man band image” and make a “clean break with the past”. Duffy, the chief of staff for the Ukip MEP Patrick O’Flynn, is a former party director who was involved in election organisation. The former TK Maxx store manager insisted she is “not a nobody”, but denied being ambitious and said she is not “politically minded”.

Last week’s corrections are a significant revision of the evidence the government has given to my committee and to parliament and call into question the depth of the UK government’s specific assessments of Saudi operations or of the evidence heard by my committee on alleged violations of IHL [international humanitarian law]. I appeal to you to take a different approach from your predecessor, and to now press for a truly independent, international investigation into violations of IHL in Yemen.

Updated

Here is some Twitter comment on the ICM poll. (See 12.21pm.)

From the Labour MP Tom Blenkinsop

From the New Statesman’s George Eaton

From PoliticsHome’s Kevin Schofield

From the Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn

From Marius Ostrowski, an academic

I have asked several members of Jeremy Corbyn’s team this morning for a response to what Owen Smith said about Corbyn’s patriotism (see 8.47am) but they haven’t responded.

But the social media activist LabourEoin has been on the case defending Corbyn.

Here are two Labour leadership articles from today’s papers that are worth a look.

Senior moderate MPs have privately expressed disillusionment with Mr Smith’s early performances in the leadership race. They point to his faltering responses to questions about his past role as a lobbyist for Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant, and his “bizarre” offer to make Mr Corbyn president of the party.

“I suppose we’ve got to take a deep breath, hold our nose and back him,” one said. “But from what I’ve seen so far the idea that Owen can beat Jeremy seems fanciful. It’s a mess.”

Another added: “We’ve not exactly got Rocky in the ring.”

One Labour MP who backed Mr Smith over Angela Eagle in the contest to take on Mr Corbyn said that he now put his chances of success at “less than 1 per cent”.

“I’m disappointed. I expected when he won he would set out a distinct policy platform straightaway but I’ve heard little of substance so far.”

Labour’s soft left retains a spurious credibility because it fended off Militant entryists in the 1980s. Judged on its recent record, it has become a disaster for the party, choosing Ed Miliband over his brother David in 2010, opening the membership to sundry hotheads from other movements and, in no small number, joining them in the Jeremania of 2015. Even now their idea of a solution is Owen Smith, a more elegant vessel for the politics of Mr Miliband. Those of us who see a formal split as Labour’s least bad recourse against Mr Corbyn must reckon with the breakaway party being dominated by these well-meaning klutzes.

Unrepentant supporters of Mr Corbyn at least know their own minds ...

Next to this, Corbynites with buyer’s remorse are a study in confusion. Like those free-marketeers who vote to leave the EU and now blanch at mooted curbs on migration, they cannot believe their succour for brute ideologues has led to power for brute ideologues. They have a good line against unelectable socialism — that it betrays the people it is meant to serve — but the implication, which is that Labour must be led by a plausible winner, and therefore someone more centrist than they would like, is lost on them. Nobody to the left of Tony Blair has won an election since 1974.

ICM poll gives Tories a 16-point lead over Labour

ICM has released a poll today giving the Tories a 16-point lead over Labour. Here are the figures.

Conservatives - 43% (up 4 on ICM two weeks ago)

Labour - 27% (down 2)

Ukip - 13% (down 1)

Lib Dems - 8% (down 1)

ICM says that is Labour’s lowest figure since October 2009.

The tables are here (pdf).

Here is some more from the Labour leadership rules court case.

The first hustings involving Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith will take place in Cardiff on Thursday next week, LabourList reports.

Suzanne Evans, the former deputy chairman of Ukip, has announced that she has given up hope of standing for the party’s leadership. She is currently suspended from the party, and used a news conference this morning to say she now accepted that there was no chance of being reinstated in time to allow her to stand.

She criticised the way she has been treated by the party, but she she would not be leaving it.

I have to face up to reality. There’s no way they are going to allow me to put my name on the ballot paper.

So first I would like to say a heartfelt thank you to all those Ukip members who backed me to the hilt. I have been overwhelmed and deeply humbled by the faith you have shown in me. And so I’m very sorry to have to tell you I have now given up hope of becoming the next leader of Ukip.

Naturally I have questioned whether I should stay in a party that allows and arguable encourages senior figures to behave like this, but the support I’ve received from so many good, decent honest members, as shocked as I am at the way I have been treated, has made me more determined than ever not to give up on Ukip.

Evans was suspended earlier this year following accusations of disloyalty. She has been critical of Nigel Farage, the outgoing leader, and she is an ally of Douglas Carswell, the sole Ukip MP who relationship with Farage is particularly fractious.

Suzanne Evans makes a statement at Mary Sumner House in Westminster this morning.
Suzanne Evans makes a statement at Mary Sumner House in Westminster this morning. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

The Press Association has filed more from the Labour leadership rules court case.

Mark Henderson, counsel for Iain McNicol, Labour’s general secretary, said the rules were not ambiguous or open to serious doubt.

Potential challengers must attain a 20% threshold of support to enable them to stand against the incumbent leader but there was no basis for interpreting this provision as requiring the incumbent to also attain this threshold.

Martin Westgate QC, for Jeremy Corbyn, argued that the NEC’s conclusion was “plainly right”.

He said the court should follow its conclusion as long as it was a reasonable approach to the rule.

“In any case, the conclusion reached by the NEC is entitled to great respect and the court should not interfere with it.”

He said Corbyn was elected as leader with the “overwhelming support” of the general membership and of registered and affiliated supporters, gaining 59.5% of the total votes in the first round.

Michael Foster’s case was that the party could in effect block Corbyn from being considered as a candidate in any future election for leader, even if he continued to enjoy similar support, and less than a year after he was duly nominated and elected.

“If Mr Foster is right then there will be no election and the present challenger [Mr Smith] will be entitled to be elected as leader unopposed.”

Foster’s position that the process would have to be re-run failed to recognise the disruption that this would cause, said counsel.

The Home Office has published its hate crime action plan (pdf) this morning.

In her foreword Amber Rudd, the home secretary, says the increase in the number of hate crimes being reported since the EU referendum has been “worrying”.

The publication of this plan comes at a time when we are seeing an increase in reports of hate crime. In the days after the EU referendum, some European nationals were the targets of abuse, and representatives of other ethnic communities have reported anxiety about a climate of increased hostility towards people identified as foreigners. It is too early to be sure how widespread the problem is, but the trend is worrying. Our response is the same as for any other such crime: it is utterly unacceptable that people should suffer abuse or attacks because of their nationality or ethnic background. We must stand together against hate crime and ensure that it is stamped out.

Amber Rudd.
Amber Rudd. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/PA

And here are some tweets from the Labour court case.

Here is the Press Association story from the opening of the high court case relating to the leadership election rules.

The Labour party’s rules were “misapplied” when its national executive committee (NEC) voted to guarantee Jeremy Corbyn a place on the leadership ballot, the High Court has heard.

Lawyers for Labour donor Michael Foster said on Tuesday that, by bringing his case against the party’s general secretary, Iain McNicol - who is being sued in a representative capacity - and Corbyn, Foster was not seeking anything other than a proper application of the rules.

Gavin Millar QC told Mr Justice Foskett it was clear that the meaning given to the rules by the majority on the NEC on July 12 was wrong. It was not a “reasonable” interpretation.

If the judge decided in his favour and granted a declaration that Corbyn must obtain the requisite level of support before his name could go forward, the party would be required to return to the nomination stage and go through it again.

“The claimant has no wish to deny the second defendant [Mr Corbyn] a fair opportunity, which can be achieved in this way, of obtaining the requisite number of nominations.”

The NEC took legal advice before voting by a majority of 18 to 14 that Corbyn should automatically go on the ballot paper without needing to obtain the backing of 20% of Labour MPs and MEPs - 51 nominations.

Ballot papers will start to be sent out on August 22 with the result announced at a special conference in Liverpool on September 24.

McNicol announced a leadership election on July 11 but frontrunner Angela Eagle withdrew from the race a week ago, leaving Owen Smith to take on 67-year-old Mr Corbyn, who became leader in September last year.

Corbyn was not in court for the hearing, which is expected to last a day.

Theresa May will hold talks with Irish premier Enda Kenny when the Taoiseach comes to London today. Their discussions will focus on Anglo-Irish relations in the light of the Brexit vote.

Among the items on the agenda will be UK-Irish trade (Britain is Ireland’s biggest trading partner), the common travel area between the two countries which predates the EU and border on the island of Ireland.

The prime minister used her trip to Belfast yesterday to emphasise that she does not want to see the re-fortification of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic as a result of the UK leaving the EU. Fears have been raised that the frontier would change from an invisible one at present to a “hard border’ in particular to block migrants using the Irish Republic to enter UK territory.

The new Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire today repeated May’s promise of no hard border being imposed on the island. Speaking this morning he said:

I think that the prime minister had a really helpful exchange with the first minister and the deputy first minister and I think there is a strong will and strong commitment to not see the return of the borders of the past.

James Brokenshire.
James Brokenshire. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

UCATT, the construction union, has announced that it has nominated Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership. Brian Rye, the union’s acting general secretary, said:

UCATT fully endorses Jeremy Corbyn in his campaign for re-election for Labour leader. In the few short months Jeremy has been leader he has demonstrated that he is fully aware of the routine problems faced by construction workers and he is developing clear policies to tackle their workplace experiences.”

This is an unnecessary and divisive election but now it has been triggered it is essential that Jeremy receives an even larger mandate than he did in 2015 and that the Labour party then properly unites behind him.

Updated

At the high court the hearing in the case brought by the Labour donor Michael Foster, who is arguing that Jeremy Corbyn should not be allowed to contest the leadership without getting nominations from MPs and MEPs, is just getting underway.

Here is our preview story.

And here are some tweets from the hearing.

Owen Smith's Newsnight interview - Summary

Here are the main points from Owen Smith’s Newsnight interview.

  • Smith questioned Jeremy Corbyn’s patriotism, saying he thought Corbyn did not appreciate the importance of national identity. (See 8.47am.)
  • Smith said that he felt Sarah Champion’s decision to return to the Labour frontbench was “neither here nor there” and did not undermine his case against Corbyn. He said:

The job of the leader of the Labour party is to lead a united opposition at Westminster or to lead a government at Westminster. He couldn’t do that. Most of those MPs have nominated me overwhelmingly to challenge Jeremy and Sarah deciding to go back in is a pretty minor part of this story.

  • He said Labour was at risk of being “snuffed out”. The party could be “destroyed” if it did not change course, he said.

We have been the greatest force for social good for 116 years in this country and it would be a tragedy if we were wiped out. And parties can be wiped out - it takes a long time for parties to rise but they can be snuffed out just like that.

  • He said he wanted to reduce the involvement of the private sector in the NHS. Asked specifically if he would “row back” on private provision in the NHS, he replied: “I would.” He said:

I fundamentally believe that we should be getting back to a period where we’ve got a very clear sense of what are public goods, public services, and we should be very clear that public service ethos is undermined by allowing it to be diluted ...

I think we need to be really clear that Labour should understand what collective ownership of public goods, what the value of that is. It is one of the very few things, if you like, the NHS, that exemplifies socialism in practice. It’s the greatest institution in Britain that illustrates what we are all about in Labour - pooling our risks, sharing our rewards, having a service that is universal and used by everyone, paid out of everybody’s taxes. It is the essence of labourism.

He specifically criticised the involvement of private providers in commissioning NHS services.

  • He said the NHS was “socialism in practice” and “the essence of labourism”.
  • He said Labour needed to be “much bolder about what the role of the state is”. He said he would be addressing this in two forthcoming speeches, covering issues like taxation, public services and rights at work.
  • He said wages councils should be brought back for workers in particular sectors of the economy, in particular to protect women in the retail and hospitality sectors.
  • He said immigration was too high in some places. Asked if there were too many immigrants in Britain, he replied: “I think it depends where you are.” He went on:

In some places, the way in which we saw rapid influx of - in particular - eastern European migrants after accession of those countries to Europe definitely caused downward pressure on wages, definitely caused changes to local terms and conditions for some workers in some sectors.

Areas affected by high immigration should be given extra resources, he said.

  • He sidestepped a question about whether protecting single market access or controlling immigration should take priority in the Brexit negotiations. He did not accept that “binary choice”, he said. He said that other EU countries had similar concerns about immigration and that the UK should be working with them to identify solutions.
  • He insisted Corbyn was beatable, saying only 50% of members voted for him last year.
  • He said he would be willing to offer Corbyn a job in his shadow cabinet if he became leader.

I think Jeremy could absolutely do a job in the shadow cabinet for me, I would welcome him.

Owen Smith on Newsnight.
Owen Smith on Newsnight. Photograph: BBC

Updated

You can watch Owen Smith’s Newsnight interview here.

Owen Smith’s Newsnight interview with James O’Brien

I will post a summary of it soon.

Good morning. Owen Smith, who is challenging Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership, has until now been been quite complimentary about Corbyn’s values - he has criticised Corbyn’s leadership skills, rather than his beliefs - but there was a change of tack on Newsnight last night when he questioned Corbyn’s patriotism.

Smith said that Corbyn’s “metropolitan” politics meant he did not understand the importance of national identity. He told the programme:

One of the weaknesses we have had recently is that people worry that Labour isn’t serious about security, that it is a lesser issue for Jeremy. I’m not sure that’s right, but he has certainly got a different perspective on some of those things - on patriotism if you like; and on security, on defence I think I have got a more traditional Labour perspective on that - an old-fashioned Labour perspective, if you like.

I think Jeremy, to be honest, doesn’t really understand sometimes the way in which people have a very strong, perhaps socially conservative sense of place, sense of where they are from. I am not sure I’ve heard him talking much about Scotland and identity or about Wales and identity or indeed about England and identity.

I suspect that Jeremy has got a rather more metropolitan sense of that and that’s not one I think is central to the Labour tradition.

Asked if he was calling Corbyn unpatriotic, Smith went on:

I am saying that I think it is something that is not core to his set of beliefs. He has got a set of liberal perspectives and left perspectives on things and nationhood and nationalism and patriotism aren’t really part of his make-up.

I will post more from the interview, and reaction to it, soon.

Later there is a hearing in the high court where a Labour donor is challenging the party’s decision to let Corbyn fight the leadership contest without getting nominated by 51 MPs or MEPs, as Smith was. And Theresa May is meeting the Irish prime minister Enda Kenny in Number 10.

As usual, I will be covering the breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I will post a summary at lunchtime and another in the afternoon.

If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m @AndrewSparrow.

I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time. Alternatively you could post a question to me on Twitter.

If you think there are any voices that I’m leaving out, particularly political figures or organisations giving alternative views of the stories I’m covering, do please flag them up below the line (include “Andrew” in the post). I can’t promise to include everything, but I do try to be open to as wide a range of perspectives as possible.

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