Sickness and disability benefits should be made as "easy as possible" to claim as the current system is too "stressful", the long-awaited Government review by Sir Stephen Timms has said.

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Hospitality businesses are warning of a jobs bloodbath as Andy Burnham launches a huge 'tourist tax' raid, with England's mayors and local councils given new powers to impose uncapped levies on overnight stays.

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Climate catastrophe is on our doorstep – yet Labour’s impending approval of further drilling will bring more pain for negligible gains

Pinch yourself, it’s happening again. Here is a Labour government spending a vast amount of political capital to earn tiny material gains while risking huge political losses. It occurred repeatedly under Keir Starmer, and now – with the impending decision to approve further gas and oil drilling in the North Sea – it is happening under Andy Burnham. You rack your brains to explain it, but no rational explanation comes.

Burnham is studiously cryptic about his reasons. His clearest statement to date goes as follows: “There is a resource there. When people are struggling, we can’t ignore that.” Does he mean that oil and gas workers are struggling? If so, this decision will be of little use to them. The Jackdaw gasfield, likely to be approved this week, will generate a grand total of 27 direct full-time jobs. The Rosebank oilfield, whose approval is likely to follow soon, will support 450 UK-based jobs during its lifetime. Yet the UK’s net zero economy directly employs 300,000 people, and a further 400,000 jobs are planned. The rest of the green economy employs more than 600,000. A just transition for fossil fuel workers, securing jobs in the green economy, is better for everyone.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist