Documents which the DWP fought for years to keep hidden have now been released

Pick of the week: SNP claims, scandals and secret documents

A chance for you to catch up on our most-read items of the week.

Five: Labour's handling of the Panama scandal shows they don't have a chance

Our fifth placed item this week suggested that John McDonnell's plans for a consultation on political journalists publishing their tax returns was one of the most inept responses to a political scandal imaginable. Rather than making the most of one of the worst periods the Tories have had for years, all he managed to do was move attention away from the prime minister and his tax affairs.

FourDeported to persecution: The Home Office's Eritrean programme

Next is a piece which revealed that the Home Office is using findings of a rubbished report to send refugees back to Eritrea. This is despite human rights groups arguing that military service remains compulsory and indefinite in the country, and that returned refugees are at serious risk of persecution.

Three: Victory for campaigners as the DWP finally publishes long-awaited Universal Credit documents

In third place is the news that, after a four year legal battle to keep documents relating to the early days of Universal Credit hidden, the DWP has finally released them. The papers revealed that the message coming out of the department in 2012 was quite different to what was happening behind closed doors.

Two: Whittingdale story destroys the last vestiges of Hacked Off's credibility

Next we have an article which argues that the apparent disregard to privacy for the sex worker caught up in the Whittingdale 'scandal' shows that the press campaign group Hacked Off are now no better than the people they criticise.

OnePMQs Factcheck: Does the DWP employ ten times as many fraud inspectors as HMRC?

Just how true was the claim by the SNP's Angus Robertson that there are ten times as many DWP staff looking into benefit fraud than there are HMRC investigating tax fraud? Our most-read item this week took a closer look at the figures.