Many Skilled Worker visa holders sold everything to come here and care for our elderly and vulnerable. They work tirelessly, pay their way, and have no recourse to public funds. Now, after building their lives here on the promise of a five-year route to indefinite leave to remain, they could see that goalpost moved to 15 years. Frankly, it is a disgrace. We should not be treating workers like this. I've been working closely with @UNISONEastern on their Fair Visa campaign opposing the change. And I've now signed Neal Duncan-Jordan MP's parliamentary motion calling on the Government to retain the five-year ILR pathway for all existing Skilled Worker visa holders. These workers deserve fairness, not broken promises.

The extractive state vs the productive state: The real litmus test for any essential public service is simple: who owns it? Social care reform that ducks this question will repeat the mistakes of privatised water, haemorrhaging billions into management consultants, shareholder returns and financial extraction instead of frontline care. The same story is playing out in children’s services. In just two years, care costs have risen by 37% to £3.7 billion. Private equity now dominates much of the sector. Firms buy up children’s homes, strip out costs, drive up prices and extract ever greater profits, while too many children’s needs go unmet. That is the difference between an extractive state and a productive one. One channels public money into financial returns for the 1%. The other invests it in the 99% the service exists to support.

I recently joined more than 100 parliamentarians in writing to the Foreign Secretary, urging the Government to stop the so-called "Great Israeli Real Estate Event" from taking place in London. Despite those warnings - and despite serious concerns that allowing the event to proceed could place the UK in breach of its own obligations under international law - the event was allowed to go ahead. That is deeply wrong. An event facilitating the sale of property in Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory should never have been allowed to take place on UK soil. While ministers claim to oppose illegal settlements, their words mean little if they are unwilling to act when those settlements are being sold in London.

The many takes flying around about John Healey, resignation gossip and national security spending miss a fundamental point. In Finland, where people have a strong social safety net and a real sense of shared national purpose, around 80% say they would be prepared to defend their country. In the UK, that figure is closer to 30%. That should tell us something. Until we change the financial architecture of our economy and bring the essentials of life out of the grip of corporate extraction and into public ownership, we will always be told to choose between bombs and butter. But the reality is we need both. Modern hybrid warfare means every public service is part of our national resilience. Energy, water, housing, health, transport, food security and social care are not separate from defence. They are defence. If we want people to defend the country, we have to build a country people believe is worth defending. A thriving state. A fair economy. A society where everyone feels they have a stake. I spoke about this on Peston on Monday night.

I’ve held back from commenting on the revelations about Nigel Farage’s past racism. Not because the story shocked me. For many in this country, it merely confirms what we’ve suspected for years. But some will be hearing these allegations for the first time, and it’s to you that I want to speak. Most of us have said or done things when we were young that we look back on with regret. That’s part of growing up. We make mistakes, we cringe at our former selves, we learn, we change. Some of those early attitudes fall away. Others become the foundations of who we later become. What’s now emerging about Nigel Farage isn’t a single stupid comment or one heated moment. Former classmates are describing a pattern of behaviour. Not just a bully. A racist bully of the ugliest kind. That doesn’t automatically mean he holds every one of those views today. But look at his politics. Look at his rhetoric. Look at the company he keeps and the division he trades in. It paints a picture of a man whose worldview didn’t appear to grow out of those foundations, but grew from them. So what does that mean now? If you already oppose Farage, this only hardens your resolve. If you adore him, nothing I say will shift you. But there’s a group of people I do want to reach: those considering voting Reform. I’m not going to patronise you. I understand why many are thinking about it. If you’ve watched your pay stall, your bills rise, your community decline, and your politicians shrug for years, you might well think: what have I got to lose? Why not give the system a kick? Why not try something different? And you may feel the country has taken a wrong turn. That we’ve lost something precious and need to put it right. Those instincts aren’t wicked. They aren’t racist. They come from frustration, disappointment, and a desire for dignity and control in your own life. But here’s the truth that cannot be dodged. Most people in this country are good, decent, fair-minded. They don’t want to see hate imported into the heart of their politics. They don’t want their children growing up in a country defined by fear and division. So ask yourself this, quietly and honestly: is Nigel Farage a changed man? Has he shown any sign that he regrets the person he was? Or has he built a career by sharpening those same instincts into a political weapon? Because if he hasn’t changed, then every vote for Farage isn’t a protest. It’s permission. It hands real power to a man whose teenage cruelty seems less like a phase and more like a blueprint. This country is far from perfect, but it is worth fighting for. And once a politics of hatred takes root at the top, a country doesn’t easily come back from it. You know this in your gut. We all do. Nigel Farage is not fit to lead this country. A vote for him, or for those who still cheer the views he held as a teenager, would stain the country we love with something we may never fully wash away. And to the Reform diehards who will now pile into the comments with abuse: crack on. You’ll only prove the point.