Afternoon summary
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Labour’s national executive committee has agreed the timetable for the new leadership selection process. (See 4.36pm.)
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Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, has said that the prospect of the Greens working in alliance with Labour under Andy Burnham are “souring” in the light of some of the positions taken by the probable next PM. (See 5.30pm.)
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
Polanski has said prospects of Greens working with Burnham 'souring' in light of some decisions taken by next PM
Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, has said that the prospect of the Greens working in alliance with Labour under Andy Burnham are “souring” in the light of some of the positions taken by the probable next PM.
Speaking at the BCC conference, in a Q&A after his speech (see 10.38am), Polanski referred to the well-known joke about Burnham being aligned with different factions in the Labour party. He went on:
We genuinely don’t know which version of Andy Burnham turns up.
I can see versions of Andy Burnham that the Green party could work with really co-operatively.
What I would say, though, is we know that Josh Simons is going to be one of his key advisers. We know that James Purnell – someone who is literally a lobbyist for private companies – I don’t believe those are people that should be advising you or be your chief of staff [if] you have anything like a progressive or socialist agenda.
So I’m still going to be making the case for the Green party. It’ll be up to Andy Burnham to make the case, if he is the leader, for the Labour party.
I’m open to that conversation. But I would say early signs are souring pretty quickly.
In particular, something that’s very important to lots of people in this country is the genocide in Gaza, which Andy Burnham refuses to recognise as a genocide.
Now, I know that won’t be important to everyone. But I think there’s a moral litmus test that if you can’t speak the truth or have moral clarity, then it’s very difficult to work with you. I think that’s a fundamental, basic thing.
Asked if refusing to recognise genocide in Gaza would be a red line that would stop the Greens working with Burnham, Polanski replied “absolutely”, along with Burnham not implementing proportional representation, or not “tackling wealth in this country”, he said.
Make pension tax relief only available to savers prepared to invest in UK, Andy Haldane says
Pension tax relief worth more than £50bn should only be offered to savers who are prepared to invest in Britain, according to Andy Haldane, the president of the British Chambers of Commerce. Phillip Inman has the story.
Jenrick says it is legitimate for media to ask Farage about £5m donation - which he said was none of their business
Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s Treasury spokesperson, has said it is legitimate for the media to ask Nigel Farage about his undisclosed £5m donation from the crytocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne.
On Tuesday, in a series of interviews on the 10th anniversary of the Brexit vote, Farage became tetchy when asked about the donation, which is now being investigated by the parliamentary commissioner for standards.
At one point Farage told an interviewer the donation was none of their business. In another exchange, he claimed “no one cares” about the donation, apart from the media.
Farage did concede that the parliamentary commissioner may rule that, in not declaring the donation, Farage broke Commons rules. But he refused to say what he had done with the money, and insisted there was no need to declare it because it was not linked to his political work.
At the BCC conference, asked by the host, Sophy Ridge, the Sky News presenter, if Farage was right to say people did not care about this, Jenrick replied:
I’ve knocked on a lot of doors, trust me, in the course of the May local elections, the byelection, and in my own constituency, and I have to say, in all sincerity, not a single person has raised that question with me.
It doesn’t mean that it’s not a legitimate question for the media to ask, but it is not one that, in my experience, is on the tip of the tongue of people across the country.
Ridge said that her experience was different, and that people did want to talk to her about the donation.
Jenrick also claimed that no donor to Reform UK was able to buy influence.
Updated
Britain’s six prime ministers since 2016 – ranked!
John Crace has ranked the six prime ministers of the last 10 years. And he’s decided that the worst is …
Labour's NEC confirms timetable for leadership process, with Burnham set to become PM on Friday 17 July
Labour’s national executive committee has agreed the timetable for the new leadership selection process. Nominations will open two weeks today, and if only one candidate gets the required number of nominations from Labour MPs (20% of the PLP, or 81 MPs) they will become leader three weeks tomorrow.
The timetable also includes the relevant dates for getting affiliate (union) nominations, or PLP nominations, and for voting over August – if there is more than one candidate.
If Andy Burnham is the only candidate nominated by 81 MPs, he will still have to get nominations from at least three organisations affiliated to Labour, of which two must be unions, or from 5% of CLPs (constituency Labour parties). He could get both easily. Getting union nominations can happen more quickly, and the timetable has been drawn up on the assumption that he will get the affiliate nominations before 17 July, and there will be no need for CLP nominations.
Unless something wholly unexpected happens within the next fortnight to derail the Burnham candidacy, there won’t be another candidate, and so the August elections parts of the timetable almost certainly won’t be needed.
Here are the dates from the Labour briefing.
Updated
In January Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, announced major plans to restructure the police forces in England and Wales. She said this would include some mergers, and Bernard Hogan-Howe, the former Metropolitan police commissioner, was appointed to lead a review making specific recommendations on this issue.
Now Sam Coates at Sky News has been told that an Andy Burnham government may scrap these plans. In his report, Coates says: “We have been told that the likely incoming prime minister is not keen on combining police forces, which is currently the subject of a review by a former head of the Metropolitan police.”
Draft conversion practices bill will not affect 'legitimate healthcare', minister tells MPs
A trans-inclusive conversion therapy ban will not see healthcare workers criminalised for speaking about sexuality and gender with their patients, a minister has said. The Press Association says the government has unveiled its draft conversion practices bill, designed to stop abusive attempts to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. PA says:
Equalities minister Olivia Bailey told the Commons: “This bill does not remove anyone’s rights to freedom of expression or religion or how to parent – this bill simply prevents abuse.
“And to ensure there is no inadvertent chilling effect on important healthcare, there is an exemption for all healthcare professionals on the face of the bill.”
She faced a question from Lisa Smart, the Liberal Democrat MP for Hazel Grove, who asked how the proposal would stop somebody setting up, for example, “a mental health charity in an attempt to circumvent the aims of this Bill”.
Bailey replied: “It is my view that legitimate healthcare would not fall under the remits of this bill in any way, shape or form, because legitimate healthcare would never be abusing somebody to try and change their identity and causing them serious harm.”
She repeated she had heard concerns a conversion therapy ban could have “a chilling effect” on healthcare.
She continued: “We don’t want that because therapy and good therapy and good conversation is really important. That’s why we put this exemption on the face of the bill.”
Here are some comments on the Greater Manchester mayoral election poll covered earlier. (See 11.26am.)
From Luke Tryl, the More in Common pollster
Have to admit I’m surprised how low the Green share is here. Would imply significant loss of momentum since the locals and/or that prospect of Burnham is already reuniting the left. Regardless if first round is anything close to this looks like a solid Labour hold in the second
From Ben Walker, the New Statesman’s elections expert
FocalData poll for the Greater Manchester mayoralty has Labour on 33%, Reform 30.
Compares to Ref 31% in the May council elections and Lab 23%.
Greens on 13%, down from 19.
Burnham's lead over Farage on best PM twice as big as Starmer's, poll suggests
YouGov has some polling out today that suggests Andy Burnham’s lead over Nigel Farage on who would make the best PM is twice as large as Keir Starmer’s.
Burnham is also ahead of all other main party leaders on this measure – unlike Starmer, who was beaten by Ed Davey, and level with Kemi Badenoch.
YouGov says:
Although the outgoing prime minister consistently held a lead over Nigel Farage when it comes to who would do better at Downing Street, the 10-point margin Starmer holds over the Reform UK leader in our most recent figures from May is half the lead held by Burnham today.
Likewise, Burnham performs significantly better in opposition to his fellow progressive leaders. His 27-point lead over Zack Polanski compares to Starmer bettering the Green leader by just five points, while the public’s view that Burnham would be a superior PM to Ed Davey contrasts with them favouring the Lib Dem leader over Starmer by 27% to 23%.
Burnham’s 4-point advantage over Kemi Badenoch, though, represents a much smaller improvement, as Britons were evenly split 33% to 33% over whether she or Starmer would make the better PM in our May figures.
Climate activist disrupts rightwing Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference
Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.
A climate activist has disrupted an international summit of rightwing politicians activists and their financial backers by infiltrating the venue and interrupting a speech.
The activist was from a group called Fossil Free London, which had been protesting outside the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Conference (ARC) in London.
Backers of the event - encompassing social conservatives, libertarians, far right supporters and others - have included fossil companies that have also backed Donald Trump.
Keynote speakers have included Trump’s energy secretary, a former fracking executive who used a speech at ARC this week to accuse successive UK government of making a “tragic mistake” with net zero policies.
Fossil Free London said:
ARC’s mission is to enrich oil barons, tech executives and corrupt politicians, seeding backward-looking, violence-espousing narratives so people fight it out over characteristics like race and gender.
ARC said that an individual had bypassed security and entered the main stage of the conference at the Olympia, disrupting a speech by the CEO of US company Banylon Bee, Seth Dillon. “He was briefly detained while the facts were established and quickly released.”
In response to the claims against it, ARC said: “Too often we have failed to acknowlegde complex trade-offs or the reality that abundant, reliable and affordable energy are the base layer of martial civilization.”
Minister rejects claim UK prioritised UAE ties over Sudan atrocity prevention
A minister has rejected claims the Foreign Office prioritised its relationship with the United Arab Emirates over preventing “genocidal slaughter” in Sudan, the Press Association reports. PA says:
Chris Elmore said London “acted swiftly” when it learned the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group was likely to attack El Fasher, a city in western Sudan.
An RSF offensive in El Fasher killed more than 6,000 people over a three-day period last year, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at the Yale School of Public Health found in July 2023 that a “full-scale attack” by the RSF was likely. According to evidence submitted to the Commons international development committee, HRL briefed UK Foreign Office staff privately “over two dozen times” about the threat.
But according to the HRL’s executive director Nathaniel Raymond, who gave the evidence, the Foreign Office appeared to have “prioritised the government’s economic, security and diplomatic relationships with the UAE above preventing the intentional starvation, forced displacement, and the genocidal slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians living in El Fasher and its surrounding communities”.
Sarah Champion, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, has written a letter about this to the international develoment miniser, Jenny Chapman. Champion said: “This evidence was profoundly shocking and, if accurate, would be some of the most concerning accounts I have heard of Foreign Office failure to take seriously its commitments to atrocity prevention.”
In response to an urgent question in the Commons on the allegations, Elmore said: “I have to tell the house that we completely reject these claims.
“The UK acted swiftly, including on June 13 2024, when the previous government were in office, that we penned the UN security council resolution – we demanded that the RSF halt the siege on the city.”
Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative cabinet minister, told MPs: “It seems that whoever comes into government, the Foreign Office’s weak policy with regards to the UAE pertains.
“Surely it is time for a British government to stand up and say, ‘Enough is enough – we are going to sanction all of those individuals responsible for the decision-making in the UAE and in other countries providing arms to the rebels’. If we don’t do that, then all the talk is worthless.”
Updated
Badenoch defends jibe about Bridget Phillipson, saying it's her job to 'hold her to account'
Kemi Badenoch has declined to apologise for calling Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, a “spiteful class warrior”. (See 10.20am.)
Speaking to reporters today, the Tory leader defended what she said about the education secretary at PMQs. She said:
Yesterday I said that Bridget Phillipson was spiteful and incompetent. It’s interesting that she hasn’t complained about being incompetent, and Keir Starmer didn’t say that she was competent.
Badenoch claimed Phillipson’s imposition of VAT on private schools had “displaced” 40,000 pupils through school closures or because their parents could no longer afford the fees.
And she said Phillipson had failed to deliver the extra 6,500 teachers promised in Labour’s manifesto, saying there were 2,000 fewer teachers than when the party came to power. She said:
We have gone backwards both years she has been education secretary. That is a failure. It is my job as leader of the opposition to hold her to account.
Badenoch also said Phillipson had been “rude” about the shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, calling him “a racist” during women and equalities questions in the Commons before PMQs.
Phillipson, who is minister for women and equalities as well as education secrtary, said Timothy had “engaged in appalling racism towards Muslims in our country”. She was referring to the way he condemned a mass prayer event held by Muslims in Trafalgar Square as “an act of domination” and “straight from the Islamist playbook”.
Here are some more pictures from the event in Milton Keynes this morning where Keir Starmer was meeting pupils as he promoted the government’s Great British Summer Savings Scheme.
Speaking at the BCC conference today, Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, was asked if he would consider a coalition with a Labour party led by Andy Burnham. He declined to engage with the question, replying:
I’m very confident about when my party is going to be. It will be, I think, [Kemi] Badenoch who will be worried about questions about coalition.
Tim Shipman features what might be one of the most provocative – but original - claims about an Andy Burnham premiership in his cover story for this week’s Spectator. He says:
If there is pressure to have a woman at the Treasury, that opens the door for [Shabana] Mahmood, who though content to stay at the Home Office would surely not resist the promotion, or Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, who is a trained economist.
Either way, there is a strong sense that a Burnham-led government will be female-dominated. One senior figure in the party even describes Burnham as ‘Labour’s first woman prime minister’. This is not a revelation about his policy on self-ID for trans people, but reflects his interests. ‘The reason Labour have always craved, but also been cautious about, a female leader is because, in a Labour government, she could have an unashamedly female agenda, focused on health, education, family finances and issues like safer streets, social care, online safety for kids, that are disproportionately important to women. [This would be] unlike the Tories’ female leaders, who are under internal pressure – and the weight of history – to show how tough they are on traditionally male issues. Along comes Andy, surrounded by female advisers and backers, but more importantly, genuinely passionate about all those traditionally female-oriented issues, and much less so with the bombs and budgets. So could we finally see what Labour has failed to deliver all these years – a female PM in all but sex?’
According to Kevin Schofield from HuffPost UK, the Burnham team consider this theory “daft”.
In his article, Shipman also says Olly Robbins, who was sacked as permanent secretary at the Foreign Office by Keir Starmer because he had not told Starmer about concerns raised during Peter Mandelson’s vetting process, may be offered a job by the Burnham team. Shipman says:
Allies of Burnham, who regard him as ‘an outstanding operator’, have reached out and he is likely to take a senior job. ‘Olly is incredibly well thought of by both Andy and the people around and influencing Andy’s thinking,’ a source says.
While Robbins probably won’t return to his old post, his background is security and he would be a natural successor to Jonathan Powell, Starmer’s National Security Adviser, who is expected to move on. ‘That looks tailor-made for Olly,’ a senior Whitehall source familiar with the conversations reveals.
Starmer claims he has left UK in 'better state' in relation to immigration
Keir Starmer has issued a statement today claiming that he has left the UK in “a better state” in relation to immigration.
He says:
In the first two years of this government, we have made really important progress on immigration.
One of the tests of an outgoing prime minister is whether you leave the country in a better state than what you found it, and I am leaving it in a better state.
Migration has long been a cause for concern.
On lawful migration, which when we came in two years ago, net migration was nearly a million, we got that down to about a fifth of that number, so a huge reduction, over 80% reduction.
On the crossings across the channel, which so many people are understandably concerned about, we brought those numbers down as well. The steps we are taking are beginning to pay off, and at the same time, asylum hotels are closing.
Now those are linked. Fewer crossings mean there are less people that need to be housed. Now there is more to do, but in a much better place than we were two years ago.
The ambition is to close those asylum hotels, reduce those channel crossings. Nobody should be making that crossing. And having got it more under control it’s about keeping it under control and not letting it spiral like the last government.
The Tories have argued that the huge fall in the rate of legal migration seen in the recent figures is primarily a result of much tighter visa rules introduced when James Cleverly was home secretary.
Minister urges pupils to choose degree courses 'carefully', as research shows earning variations by subject
As Richard Adams reports, a quarter of UK graduates can expect to be financially worse off after going to university, especially those who take creative or performing arts degrees, according to research carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The research was funded by the Department for Education, and Jacqui Smith, the skills minister, is urging pupils to consider it before they choose a degree course. In a news release, she says:
Going to university and getting a degree is one of the most transformational things a young person can do. But it is not a universal guarantee of success and not all degrees are equal.
As well as the variation by subject, too many franchised and poor-quality courses do not offer a good deal to young people – selling the dream then leaving students in the lurch.
We’re making the system work better but my message to those thinking about university: choose carefully. Don’t walk into a degree by default.
The IFS report is here. And here is chart showing what earnings have been, by subject, for people who were at university around 20 years ago.
UK to halve tariff-free steel imports to counter glut of cheap Chinese metal
The UK government will halve the amount of tariff-free steel imports allowed in an attempt to counter a global oversupply of cheap Chinese metal and bolster its beleaguered local industry, Lisa O’Carroll and Jasper Jolly report.
Senior Trump official delivers scathing attack on Britain in speech to rightwingers in London mocking 'Yookay'
Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.
A senior official in the Trump administration has likened the UK to a totalitarian dystopia, telling a rightwing conference in London that memes making claims such as that British police were “in league with rape gangs” were not necessarily misinformation.
Sarah B Rogers, who has become the public face of the Trump administration’s growing hostility to European liberal democracies, went on to draw on a far-right memes and conspiracy theories while singling out cases such as the death of Henry Nowak and an incident in which a child was recently badly injured after being thrown into a zoo’s crocodile pit.
Rogers, who has publicly attacking policies on hate speech and immigration by ostensible US allies and promoted far-right parties abroad, centred her speech around the notion of “Da Yookay” - originally a viral meme heavily associated with the online far fight.
“In ‘Da Yookay’ you can be remanded without bail for an inflammatory tweet, while a psychopath who seizes a three-year-old and feeds him to crocodiles walks free,” Rogers told the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) which was addressed this week by Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch.
Rogers went on:
In ‘Da Yookay’ the moral sense of jurors won’t save you, because jury trials for speech crimes are abolished. In ‘Da Yookay’ a girl can escape from a rape gang, flag down a police constable, and discover the cop is in league with the rapists. In ‘Da Yookay’ you get a free car for pretending to be disabled. In ‘Da Yookay’ cops defer to a murderer who calls his victim racist. Then they handcuff you as you bleed to death if you’re white.
Rogers repeatedly quoted George Orwell, claiming that the censorship envisaged by him is “easily imaginable” in the Britain of today.
Updated
Starmer says government has been holding official-level Cobra meetings to discuss heatwave
In his pooled TV clip Keir Starmer also said that officials have been meeting in the government’s Cobra emergency committee to discuss how schools and other public services deal with the heat wave.
Asked specifically about schools, he said:
It is very hot and obviously schools will have to take the appropriate measures and each school will gauge for itself what the measures are.
But it is important that we as a government coordinate this across the country and with all of the countries within the United Kingdom, which is what we’re doing.
We’re having Cobra meetings at the official level to monitor what’s going on, give the appropriate advice.
But obviously it falls to me and others to say take care, be sensible with precautions.
And schools are going to have to decide, and they are deciding. most of them finishing a little bit early, or many of them. But they will gauge that according to their local conditions.
Cobra is the government’s emergency committee. Cobra meetings led by officials are not as serious as those led by ministers.
Starmer says he wants to ensure any disruption during transition to Burnham government 'absolutely minimised'
Keir Starmer has recorded a pooled TV interview at an event in Milton Keynes this morning, where he was promoting the government’s Great British Summer Savings Scheme.
Asked if he would serve in an Andy Burnham government, he replied:
Let me make my position absolutely clear.
I am stepping down after two years, leaving the country in a better position than when I found it.
I will do that with good grace, and I will do that making sure that there is an orderly transition.
I’m going to be professional. I’m going to have foremost in my mind the sense of service and duty that has driven me as prime minister.
I will continue to faithfully serve my country to make sure that any disruption is absolutely minimised. And that’s why I’m taking steps now to ensure that that can be done in a sensible way.
Starmer also said he wanted to make sure “that whatever comes next is a success”. He went on:
I love this country, I want this country to thrive, and I shall do everything I can to make sure it’s a success and thrives. The first bit of that is making sure that there’s an orderly transition and we go on and build on the good stuff we’ve done in the first two years of this government.
Labour and Reform UK almost neck and neck in Greater Manchester mayoral contest, poll suggests
Josh Halliday is the Guardian’s North of England editor.
Labour and Reform UK are virtually neck and neck in the race to replace Andy Burnham as Greater Manchester mayor, according to the first poll since the byelection was confirmed last week.
The poll of 1,143 adults in Greater Manchester, carried out by Focal Data on behalf of the campaign group Hope Not Hate, showed Labour winning 33.2% of the first preference votes with Reform UK on 30.1%. That means Labour’s lead is within the margin of error.
The Green party, which has described the byelection as a two-horse race between it and Reform UK, were third on 12.5%, followed by the Conservatives on 11.1% and the Liberal Democrats on 7.6%.
The byelection will take place on 30 July and is one of the biggest contests of its kind in modern British politics, with more than two million people eligible to vote.
The supplementary vote (SV) system will allow voters to pick a first and second choice. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote when the first preferences are counted, the winner will be decided by counting the second preferences of all those who backed the eliminated candidates.
This is significant in such a tight race and is seen as benefiting Labour, as it is more likely to win the second preference support of Greens and Lib Dems and perhaps some Conservatives.
The polling data suggests that 37% of Green voters would give their second preference to Labour, compared to 25% of Lib Dems and 20% of Conservatives.
Reform UK, meanwhile, can rely on a much smaller pool of second-choice support (26% of Conservative voters and 22% who plan to vote for independents or other minor parties).
That will be small comfort to Labour’s candidate, Bev Craig, who knows she faces an extremely tough contest despite her predecessor’s popularity in Greater Manchester (he won 63% of the vote in 2024).
Nearly half of those polled said they were unhappy with the Labour government, while 54% said they felt Greater Manchester’s growth had been more concentrated in the city than the surrounding boroughs.
Immigration was the fourth most important issue for voters, according to the data, behind the cost of living, NHS and crime.
Reeves says she wants to see Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields approved
In her Q&A this morning Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, confirmed that she wants the government to approve the licences for the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields in the North Sea.
She said:
I’ve been very clear that I think that the North Sea is a crucial asset for the UK, and that oil and gas will be an important part of our energy mix for years to come. And I’m very keen to make sure that we use that resource, to ensure our energy security.
There are decisions to be made shortly on both Rosebank and Jackdaw. Those are quasi-judicial decisions. But in our manifesto two years ago, we committed to honour existing licences, and I hope that we do.
As energy secretary, Ed Miliband is the minister in responsible for taking the quasi-decisions on approving the licences. He is one of the ministers most hostile to oil and gas extraction from the North Sea, but the government is under a lot of pressure to approve the licences. Andy Burnham appears to be less opposed to further drilling than Miliband, although he has not set out a detailed position on this issue.
Yesterday it was reported that Miliband is prepared to approve the Jackdaw application. Jackdaw is a gas field, and it does not alarm environmentalists as much as Rosebank, which is mainly an oil field.
The Institute for Government has a good briefing on the proposals here.
Shevaun Haviland, director of the British Chambers of Commerce, has also called for both licences to be approved.
Polanski says government needs to 'heatproof' Britain
Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, is speaking at the BCC conference this afternoon. According to extracts from his speech released in advance, he is going to reiterate the party’s call for the government to “heatproof” Britain. He will say:
The impacts of the climate and nature crisis are well and truly with us, and no-one knows that better than those trying to keep a business afloat among the chaos and disruption caused by extreme weather. This year, agricultural yields are already down more than 10% on the 10-year average for crops like wheat and oats due to the hot and dry spring and summer we saw last year. Seven in ten UK businesses have seen their annual revenue hit by the impacts of the crisis, whether that’s supply chain issues or flooding.
The impacts couldn’t be starker than what we’re seeing this week. Extreme temperatures leaving trains cancelled, employees unable to get to work – or employers forced to send their workers home because they can’t keep their workplace cool.
And we know this heatwave won’t be the end of the extreme weather. Extreme heat like this makes flooding increasingly likely – and we’ve already seen the devastating impacts of flooding on communities and businesses.
The Greens are calling for a climate protection unit in No 10. They also want a maximum workplace temperature to be introduced.
Phillipson accuses Badenoch of having her own 'unique brand of unpleasant politics' after PMQs insult
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, was on the Today programme this morning. Asked about Kemi Badenoch describing her at PMQs yesterday as “a spiteful class warrior”, Phillipson said:
Next time you see me, I’ll be wearing a T-shirt saying ‘Spiteful Class Warrior’. Because if being a spiteful class warrior means lifting half a million children out of poverty, then I’ll be wearing that T-shirt with pride.
When it was put to her that people like Badenoch opposed to VAT on private school fees might feel that criticising her using strong language was justified, Phillipson replied:
Kemi Badenoch can speak for herself and her own unique brand of unpleasant politics. I’m focussed on better life chances for children.
I think you’re losing the argument when you reduce yourself to that level of abuse.
Just the other week she was comparing me to a Gestapo officer. Frankly, why she thinks that is an appropriate analogy in public life. I do not know. She’ll answer for that one. Nazi comparisons, I think, rarely serve our discourse very well.
Phillipson’s reference to a T-shirt may have been prompted by her thinking of how Badenoch also insulted Andy Burnham. Burnham posted his own response to Badenoch on social media last night. It was mocking, but light-hearted and also a bit self-deprecating – making it generally rather effective. Keir Starmer has always been hopeless on social media, but it’s a space where Burnham is evidently very comfortable.
I’m afraid we are not able to open comments today. The moderators do not have capacity because of demands elsewhere on our website. If you want to contact me directly, you can do so on Bluesky via @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social.
At her Q&A at the BCC, asked if she had any advice for her successor, Rachel Reeves said:
I am not sure anyone wants my advice, but my advice would be: you’ve got a brilliant set of officials at the Treasury who will back you if you are clear about what you want to do, and I’ve been very clear about what I wanted to achieve as chancellor.
I wanted to restore stability to the economy, I wanted to induce investment, both public and private, into the economy, and I wanted to change how the economy works with a regulatory burden that is fairer and more efficient, with a planning system that actually allows things to get built in our country.
I’m really proud of my record, and I hope that whoever is chancellor in the future, whenever that future may be, sticks to what I’m doing because it is beginning to bear fruit, and we are seeing that investment return to the economy, that growth return to the economy, and crucially, that stability, so that businesses can plan and invest in the future.
Reeves insists her changes to fiscal rules already allow more borrowing for defence, as Burnham urged to back 'war bonds'
As Kiran Stacey, Pippa Crerar and Dan Sabbagh report, senior government officials are planning to lobby Andy Burnham during access talks to revive the idea of “war bonds” to pay for higher defence spending when he becomes prime minister.
As the story explains, the Treasury has consistently opposed this idea.
In her Q&A at the BCC, Reeves was asked if she would be happy to allow more borrowing to fund higher defence spending. In response, she said that the defence investment plan, which will be published before Burnham becomes PM, will involve “more money, spent more effectively”.
When it was put to her that classifying this defence spending as investment could allow more borrowing, Reeves replied:
That’s exactly what my fiscal rules allow.
We do treat now, for the first time ever, day to day spending and capital spending differently because of the fiscal rules. Up until now, it was all lumped in together as if it didn’t make a difference. But of course it makes a difference whether something boosts our longer term growth and productivity, which is what capital investment does. So we do have the flexibility within the fiscal rules to do exactly that.
Asked specifically if this applied to defence, Reeves replied:
Yes, because most defence spending is capital investment, whether you’re building new ships, investing in munitions.
Also, what is really crucial is that we get better value for money for our defence spending, which is why cooperation with our Nato allies, especially our European Nato allies, is really important.
Rachel Reeves is speaking at the BCC conference. She is being interviewed by Sophy Ridge, the Sky News presenter.
Reeves said that it was clear that Andy Burnham would keep her fiscal rules and she described that as “a good thing”.
Asked if she wanted to be Burnham’s chancellor, Reeves said that was a decision for him.
Then Ridge tried posing the question in a different way. She asked Reeves if she felt she had “unfinished business”.
In response, Reeves gave a lengthy account of her achievements as chancellor. But she then identified fiscal devolution, and reform of business rates, as areas where she wanted to go further.
Trump calls Burnham a town mayor who's 'extremely liberal', complaining he's unlikely to 'open up North Sea'
Donald Trump has labelled Andy Burnham “extremely liberal”, in his first public comments about the former Greater Manchester mayor since he emerged as the frontrunner to replace Keir Starmer. Here is our story.
In US politics, when rightwingers use the term “liberal”, they do so pejoratively and they use it to mean leftwing.
Reeves hints she accepts Burnham will not keep her as chancellor, and won't say if she will accept more junior job
Good morning. Rachel Reeves now seems to resigned to losing her job as chancellor when Andy Burnham becomes PM, probably three weeks tomorrow. She had reportedly been angling to stay in post, but she has given an interview to the BBC with a tone that is distinctly valedictory.
Reeves says she is backing Burnham to be the next PM. Asked why she did not stand in Downing Street to hear Keir Starmer’s resignation speech on Monday, but did turn up in Westminster Hall for a photocall with Burnham with other Labour MPs, she did not offer an explanation, but said her loyalty to Starmer had never been in doubt. She also said she was proud of her record.
I know that whoever is prime minister and chancellor in the future will inherit a stronger economy than the one I inherited two years ago.
Reeves refused to say whether she would accept a more junior in cabinet if Burnham offers her one (as he is reportedly planning to do). Asked about this, she just said:
Those are the choices that the new prime minister, I hope Andy Burnham, will get to make in a few weeks time. I’m not going to pre-empt those. It is his prerogative as prime minister to make those appointments.
We will hear more from Reeves later because she is speaking at the British Chambers of Commerce conference, along with a series of other senior figures.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9am: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, takes part in a Q&A at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) conference in London. Other speakers during the day include Andy Haldane, president of the BCC at 10am; Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, at 11am; Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader; at 12.10pm; Robert Jenrick, the Reform UK Treasury spokesperson, at 3.40pm; and Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, at 4.30pm.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in London.
9.30am: The Ministry of Justice publishes criminal court figures.
Morning: Keir Starmer is in a visit in Buckinghamshire to mark the start of the government’s Great British Summer Savings scheme.
2.30pm: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions from MSPs.
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