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Tackling the growing inequality in Britain must be at the heart of everything Labour does and says. Not only is inequality at the root of many of our modern social problems, it is also a barrier to growth for our economy.

Failure to tackle inequality will mean we are consigning millions of families to perpetual poverty as well as making the country weaker and poorer in the long run. A fairer more equal society is a more civil and safer society. 

The referendum result was close but clear: Britain is set to leave the European Union. 

The Prime Minister has announced her intention to trigger Article 50 to start the negotiations over Brexit by the end of March 2017. Now the government must set out a clear plan for what happens next and tell the British people what terms they are seeking so we get the best result for Britain.

First and foremost, the TUC’s job is to stand up for working people whichever way they voted in the referendum. That’s why we are calling for a new deal for working people to be put at the heart of the government’s Brexit negotiation strategy. Most people agree that the balance of power in our country has swung too far against ordinary people. They see it in pay packets that are too small, too many jobs that are lousy and rights at work that simply haven’t kept pace with changes in the real world of work, and which Employment Tribunal fees make too expensive to enforce.

As we know, the referendum was all about "taking back control." And now Government ministers and right-wing newspapers seem to want to wrestle back control of the English language from sly "Remoaners."

"There is no such thing as a choice between soft Brexit and hard Brexit," Theresa May has informed us. "We don't recognise this distinction between hard Brexit and soft Brexit...We want the right Brexit," echoed the Chancellor, Philip Hammond.

For the Daily Mail, talk of hard Brexit is the "newspeak of Orwell."

And Michael Gove complains that the label is designed to create nasty associations in the mind of the public, associations with things like "learning hard lessons, facing a hard landing or doing hard labour."

This seems oddly defensive. Is the Brexit project really so fragile that some semantic framing from the defeated Remainers risks derailing it?

And in truth, there's plenty of spin on both sides, as the recent attempt by Brexiteers to talk up a "clean Brexit" demonstrate.

Yet let's meet the Brexiteers halfway. Let's forget labels and talk economic and institutional reality. Below are five different sorts of Brexit arrangements for the UK that could plausibly emerge by 2019.

If we thought 2016 was hard, 2017 could be even tougher. It will be a year of big political decisions for Britain, so there must be no more fudging from Theresa May - she needs to come up with a plan for Brexit, and do so ahead of her March 31 deadline for triggering article 50. Meanwhile out neighbours will have other things beyond Brexit on their minds...

Chinese for Labour won an Award for their dedicated work in combatting the rise in hate crime after the Brexit vote.

The Award was presented by Rt Hon Baroness Angela Smith PC, Labour Leader in the House of Lords at last night's SME for Labour Annual Banquet.

Gala Chinese New Year Banquet 2017 on Wednesday, 8th February 2017 to celebrate the Year of the Rooster

We would be pleased if you would join us to celebrate the Year of the Rooster at our Gala Chinese New Year Banquet 2017 on Wednesday, 8th February 2017.

Notice of the Annual General Meeting of Chinese for Labour

This is notice that the Annual General Meeting of the members of Chinese for Labour will be held on Friday, 28th October 2016 at 18:30 at Civil Service College, 25 Queen Anne's Gate, St James's Park, London SW1H 9BU.Chair 

As a proud British citizen, born in Malaysia and of Chinese descent, 2016 has been a terrifying year. The rise in racist incidents and attacks since the EU Referendum has been well-documented – an outpouring of hate that shocked so many across the country, who believed us to be an open, diverse and welcoming society. I’ve received so many emails from friends in the Chinese community and with ancestors across the world who have experienced abuse in the last six weeks, it makes you wonder what it means to be British.

I was sat across from four Americans on Shanghai’s Bund waterfront when China was beat into second place at the last Olympics.

Along with hundreds of locals we crowded around a giant outdoor screen to witness the moment. Slow motion shots of American gymnast Gabby Douglas vaulting through the air offered visual confirmation of her and her country’s victory.

The gathered expats dotted around the restaurant’s patio expelled a small breath of relief, celebrating respite from the national sense of hubris accompanying what seemed like China’s unassailable journey at the Games.

For us Douglas’ routine represented a melodious art form, the human body conquering its physical realm. For them it represented a missed opportunity for China to project its strength through sporting triumph.

China doesn’t usually do soft power well. During President Xi Jin Ping’s UK visit full page print adverts were taken out by the country’s information ministry to broadcast the leader’s presence. The country’s prowess at Olympic sports is one of the few tools in the box it can, and has successfully, wielded.

For so conflated with a sense of place in the world are the Olympics for China, that the fragile reaction to the prospect of it coming third at this year’s Games is little surprise.

Xinhua news agency, the ruling Communist party’s mouthpiece, tweeted pictures of a splayed and dejected gymnast You Hao to its 5 million followers, accompanied by a choice word: “flop”.

You Hao has, inadvertently and unwillingly, become the poster boy for the impending national sense of shame should China not resume its ‘rightful’ position in second, or indeed first place.

The historical significance of the offending nation being Britain is not lost on the arbiters of state control.

“The country which has never finished above China is about to,” complained Xinhua. This is in spite of China sending its largest ever Olympic team to Rio.

This small nation of quaintness, a forlorn power beating a machine which seizes its athletes at the youngest of ages, moulds and rote trains them to be both medal winning engines and devices of state propaganda will dent the delicate Chinese psyche.

A brief stint as an English teacher in Beijing during the last Olympics quickly taught me the sense of victimhood which still lingered following the ‘hundred years of humiliation’. A century of intervention by Western powers, notably the British, had prevented China from assuming its rightful place as a world power. So the textbooks read.

Remedying this tragedy has been a hallmark of President Xi’s Chinese Dream — an attempt to galvanise the populace behind a vision of a powerful, uncompromising nation. Bonnie Glaser of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a US based think-tank, articulates this vision succinctly: “China will be at the centre, and every other nation will have to consider China’s interests.”

Third place is not one which China sees itself having in the world. But maybe this loss, and it will be perceived as a loss, will force China to re-examine its fragile national ego. Perhaps it will teach the nation that strength can sometimes be best demonstrated in dealing with defeat. And humility in victory is a trait to which we all aspire.

For if President Xi is to have his Chinese Dream, a China with these qualities will be an easier one to live with.

Re-building trust in the economy is essential to a successful post-Brexit future

by Sonny Leong CBE, Co-Founder SME for Labour and Chair, Chinese for Labour and Tom Watson MP, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party

There is no doubt that the 23rd June 2016 was a watershed moment for our country. But what type of watershed will it be? Will Brexit signal the decline of the UK as a global power, a potential break-up of the Union and a voluntary resignation from the world stage with a shrinking economy and a divided population?

Or will it force us to confront some stark realities and bridge some of the deep fissures in our society and in our economy? Can we use Brexit as an opportunity to think afresh about how to create a more united society, a more just economy and forge a new role in the world?