‘While Nigel Farage argued with a bin, Andy Burnham started working enhancing folks’s lives’

‘Having wasted £250,000 of taxpayers’ money on an unnecessary poll, Farage is right back where he started: facing a Parliamentary standards investigation’, TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak writes

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An intergalactic space warrior with a bin on his head, pledging to install Wayne Rooney as host of Eurovision. In any other by-election, he would be the joke candidate.

But not in Clacton this week, where Count Binface went up against the biggest clown in British politics – Nigel Farage.

That more than one in four voters backed the leader of the planet Sigma IX over Reform is testament to just how much of a farce Farage has become.

Remember that this by-election didn’t need to happen. It was imposed on the good people of Clacton by their often absent MP.

Facing a Parliamentary probe into his finances, Farage tried to kick the problem into the long grass by triggering a by-election.

It was inevitably going to be a circus. And that’s why all of the major parties declined to stand a candidate.

Now, having wasted £250,000 of taxpayers’ money on an unnecessary poll, Farage is right back where he started: as the embattled MP for Clacton facing a Parliamentary standards investigation.

A quick refresher on how we got here. Shortly after telling his colleagues he’d need “a million a year” to cover his lost earnings if he stood for Parliament, Nigel Farage was “gifted” £5 million.

You’d think that an honest fella like Nigel would make sure that he declared such a sizeable wad of cash. Especially when the money came from a crypto tycoon, and his party has pledged to cut taxes and regulations on cryptocurrency.

But instead, Nigel tried to keep the £5m under wraps. The gift was reported to the National Crime Agency. And now Parliament’s standards watchdog is investigating whether Farage broke the House of Commons code of conduct.

If he’s found to have broken the rules, Clacton could face yet another by-election. And Farage knew that from the start.

To think, this is a man who aspires to lead the country. It beggars belief. The contrast with our new Prime Minister couldn’t be more stark.

While Farage has spent the Summer arguing with a bin, Andy Burnham has got to work cutting energy bills, capping bus fares, and reducing business rates for pubs and clubs.

He’s pledged to fix social care, to end rough sleeping, and to support young people back into work.

No gimmicks. No dodgy donations. Just honest work to improve people’s lives up and down the country.

The new PM will have to go further in the months ahead – for example by taxing the big banks to bring down household energy bills.

But I’ll take my fellow Evertonian over Clacton’s comedy candidate any day.

‘Zero hour contracts ban a sensible change’

The usual suspects were up in arms this week about plans to ban exploitative zero hours contracts.

Their problem? Bad bosses will no longer be able to cancel shifts last minute without compensating workers. And workers will now have a right to guaranteed shifts – no longer going from week to week not knowing the hours they’re going to work or how much they’ll be paid.

These are sensible changes which will give workers in every corner of the country more security.

Too often, actual costs to workers are ignored in favour of handwringing over hypothetical costs to bad employers. So let’s spell it out: 1 in 3 insecure workers face a financial hit of £3000 a year from cancelled shifts. This has to end.

Most businesses already do right by their staff. These plans will help to level the playing field for good employers – and stop the cowboys undercutting them.

‘Reindustrialising creates secure jobs’

Whether it’s reindustrialising Britain, building affordable homes or delivering nuclear power stations and wind turbines, Andy Burnham is going to need a lot of cement to deliver on the promises he’s made. And I know where he can get some.

This week, I met workers at Heidelberg Materials in North Wales at a world-leading project to capture and store carbon produced when making cement. Good, secure, unionised jobs in the green transition. That’s what reindustrialisation is all about.

‘Jeff Bezos reminds me of James Bond villain’

Amazon now controls the Bond franchise and is hunting for the next 007. Casting the bad guy should be easy. Bond villains usually have a private rocket programme, global intelligence operation, plans for world domination and an exploited workforce.

Jeff Bezos is even trying to buy my football nemesis – Liverpool. The only thing he needs now is the white cat.