From the Editor: Our plan for a bigger and better LFF in 2022

I thought I’d write this note to update you on where we are at LFF, our exciting plans for the year ahead and most of all to thank you, for your continued support.

A photo of an NHS protest with the Left Foot Forward logo in the top right corner

To our readers and supporters,

I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing break over the festive period and thank you as ever for your continued support of Left Foot Forward, for without you, our readers and supporters, we wouldn’t be able to carry out the vital journalism that is so badly needed during such challenging times.

I thought I’d write this note to update you on where we are at LFF, our exciting plans for the year ahead and most of all to thank you, for your continued support.

We exist to shine a light on the right, to be a space for open debate among progressives, and to act as an evidence-based balance to the right-wing press. Last year, we published hundreds of stories, including exclusives, news and analysis, as well as op eds from activists, public figures and civil society.

I was sad to see our brilliant co-editor Josiah Mortimer leave LFF last year, to take up a new post as City Hall editor at My London. Yet we’ve also had some new arrivals, Chris Jarvis became  our head of strategy and development, Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead provides coverage for weekends and I took over as editor full-time in October, having been co-editor since May.

Our readership and reach is growing. We’ve recruited a new group of columnists, including former Labour adviser Mike Buckley, director of the independent Commission on UK-EU Relations, as well as Dawn Butler MP and Wera Hobhouse MP. We’re also on the look out for more columnists too to add to our diverse range of progressive voices writing for our publication!

And also, a massive thank you to our existing contributing editors to the site, including Professor Lord Prem Sikka, former Green Party of England & Wales leader Baroness Natalie Bennett, and Unite Assistant General Secretary Tony Burke as well as Simon Sapper.

2022 is an exciting year for us at LFF. We’ve launched a new project, called Right Wing Watch, which will provide monitoring of the mainstream right on a systematic basis: their media, ‘think tanks’, campaign groups and political parties. It will consist of exclusive stories, news and analysis as well as an in-depth email and will be headed up by an investigative journalist.

As last year in particular showed, with all the Tory corruption and sleaze scandals, now more than ever, we need an independent left-wing media, free from the control of billionaires,  to act as an evidence-based balance to the right-wing press. 

We also hope to continue our weekend coverage which we started in the second half of last year so that we can continue our news and analysis for 7 days week.

We’ve also launched a new feature, available every Monday, called Voices on the Left, which provides a roundup of progressive news and going forward we’ll also be collaborating with Ed Miliband’s Reasons to Be Cheerful podcast, featuring a roundup every fortnight.

I’m incredibly honoured to have become editor of LFF at such an exciting time and to be working with such a brilliant team of colleagues as well as with our board.

Please do continue sending us your stories, tip offs, opinions and thoughts and thank you once more for your continued support.

Basit Mahmood

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