Greater use of private rental properties would form part of PM’s plan to spread accommodation more evenly across UK
Ministers are considering paying higher prices for housing asylum seekers in private rental properties as part of Andy Burnham’s plan to spread accommodation more evenly across the country.
Using more private rental accommodation, known as “dispersal”, as well as former military barracks, is cheaper than expensive hotels for asylum seekers.
Continue reading...Health secretary praises more collegiate style under Andy Burnham and says previous No 10 sidelined her from key policy launch
Yvette Cooper admits Labour has “not done government very well” in the last couple of years, and accused Keir Starmer’s No 10 of sidelining her during the launch of a key immigration policy when she was home secretary.
Speaking on the Political Currency podcast with the former Conservative chancellor George Osborne, Cooper highlighted some of the difficulties ministers faced with Starmer’s leadership, which she summarised as “bring me solutions, not problems”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Ministers explore diverting male prisoners serving short terms or on remand away from tougher jails
Ministers are examining a possible upgrade of security at men’s category C and women’s prisons to deal with an overcrowding crisis across the England and Wales estate, the Guardian understands.
Officials have explored diverting prisoners on remand or serving short sentences away from category B “reception” prisons such as HMPs Liverpool, Manchester and Pentonville in north London.
Continue reading...Anna Turley backs up Andy Burnham’s suggestion that affluent areas should house more asylum seekers in future
Just 20 staff are working on climate adaptation within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the part of government tasked with protecting the environment and maintaining food security, a freedom of information request has revealed. Sandra Laville has the story.
On his visit to Stevenage, Andy Burnham also said he would visit the town on Remembrance Day to mark its 80th birthday.
I’m going to come back to Stevenage on 11 November. We will pay our respects for Remembrance Day around that time, but I’ll be here because if I’m right, that will be 80 years to the day that the post-war Labour government created the first new town right here in Stevenage.
Continue reading...The prime minister’s money-saving policies are popular but they are yet to convince voters he can take on the big things
It was last year that Martin Lewis, the money-saving guru, advised the government to find “100 small things that piss people off” and set about sorting them out.
That approach has been adopted almost immediately by Andy Burnham since entering office, as he began his programme of “everyday fixes” to tackle problems that can be dealt with through minor policy tweaks.
Continue reading...Reform says it will free up space in jails in England and Wales by rapidly deporting all foreign offenders
With parts of Britain set to experience their fifth heatwave of the summer this week, Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, has accused the government of not recognising the severity of the crisis.
In a statement, he said:
We are now facing the fifth heatwave in months following the recent deaths of 3,000 people in our country from extreme weather conditions.
This is the greatest crisis this country has faced since the second world war and to complacently dismiss the demands for immediate action by saying everything is under control is gross negligence, blatantly untrue and misses the severity of the crisis.
Continue reading...London mayor points to ‘terrifying scenes’ this summer amid speculation Burnham may back Jackdaw and Rosebank projects
Sadiq Khan has called on the government to commit to revamped climate action and to reduce the UK’s reliance on oil and gas, as the UK endures a summer of drought, wildfires and heatwaves.
Writing in the Guardian, the mayor of London said that Andy Burnham’s administration must reaffirm its commitment to net zero and make clear it will continue to reduce the UK’s reliance on oil and gas “to get Britain back on track.”
Continue reading...Some want the chancellor to exploit newly flexible fiscal rules – others want a more creative approach, such as borrowing from markets
With just 12 weeks to go until his first budget, new chancellor John Healey is seeking ways to ramp up public investment, without busting the Treasury’s fiscal rules – and some economists are urging him to be bold.
As he settles into No 11 Downing Street, the former defence secretary’s most immediate challenges concern day-to-day government spending.
Continue reading...Some want the chancellor to exploit newly flexible fiscal rules – others want a more creative approach, such as borrowing from markets
With just 12 weeks to go until his first budget, new chancellor John Healey is seeking ways to ramp up public investment, without busting the Treasury’s fiscal rules – and some economists are urging him to be bold.
As he settles into No 11 Downing Street, the former defence secretary’s most immediate challenges concern day-to-day government spending.
Continue reading...Burnham said his wife, Marie-France van Heel, took some persuading after he ran and lost in contests in 2010 and 2015
Andy Burnham has revealed his wife’s dismayed reaction when he told her he wanted to make another attempt at becoming Labour leader.
Burnham said that his wife, Marie-France van Heel, had been surprised by his decision to run, having lost contests in 2010 and 2015 to Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn respectively.
Continue reading...Government revises plans to tackle prison overcrowding amid pressure from MPs and victims but domestic abusers and killers could still be released early
Some 86,495 people were in prison in England and Wales as of 3 August, according to the latest data published by the Ministry of Justice.
This is 2,026 below the record high of 88,521 reached on 6 September 2024, just before the current early release scheme began.
Continue reading...Chancellor says the government wants to prevent shoppers being ‘taken for a ride’ at the pump or till
The chancellor, John Healey, has said the government is standing by to prevent the public from “being taken for a ride at the pump or the till” as the Iran war continues to hit prices.
While he said there had been “no significant evidence of so-called price gouging” during the crisis, he used a weekend column to tell the big retailers that ministers were “watching closely” for any signs of profiteering.
Continue reading...Labour veteran is said to relish role that requires careful negotiation of Trump and impending G20 leadership
Extraordinarily, given the importance of geopolitics, the office of foreign secretary has sometimes appeared a consolation prize in British politics, perhaps reflecting the transfer of responsibility to Downing Street or the Cabinet Office.
That is not how Ed Miliband views the job. His allies say suggestions that he nurses resentment after he was deprived of the chance to be chancellor misunderstand his grasp of the policy challenges ahead. “Ed has an immense appetite to get things done and is relishing being in this job,” one says. “Ed will be a policy-driven foreign secretary.”
Continue reading...Labour politicians say mutualised model puts public in control without adding debt to government’s balance sheet
MPs and mayors close to Andy Burnham have told the prime minister there is a “third way” to gain more control of failing companies, as the row over whether or not to nationalise Thames Water rumbles on.
Burnham is said to be concerned about the increase in government debt that Treasury projections show could be a result of nationalising water companies.
Continue reading...Both MPs have had the parliamentary whip restored following separate independent disciplinary processes
MPs Diane Abbott and Joani Reid have been readmitted into Labour and had the parliamentary whip restored, just under two weeks into Andy Burnham’s premiership.
The party confirmed that this followed separate independent disciplinary processes, although Labour said the leadership played no role in either decision.
Continue reading...Local leaders say plan will transform funding so English regions no longer rely on Whitehall handouts for projects
England’s regional mayors will be able to break out of the “death grip of the Treasury” by borrowing to invest in big projects under “transformational” plans to shift power out of Whitehall.
For the first time, mayors will keep a share of income tax generated in their area from 2028, as well as business rates totalling tens of millions of pounds by April 2027.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Electoral Commission urged to look into donations made by mother of convicted fraudster
Labour has accused Reform UK of being “up to its neck in sleaze” as it called on the Electoral Commission to urgently investigate substantial donations made to the party by the mother of a convicted fraudster.
Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s new chair, called on the commission to examine whether any rules had been broken, after revelations in the Guardian that George Cottrell transferred more than $2m to his mother in the days before her donations to the party in 2024.
Continue reading...Green party said it was ‘obvious from the start’ that Polanski had not committed an offence
At his press conference Robert Jenrick has just finished his opening statement, which was a long speech about what he claimed was Andy Burnham’s plan for a “death tax”.
The first question came from a GB News reporter who pointed out that the “death tax” was just one option that Burnham was considering. She asked if it wouldn’t be better for Reform UK to attend the cross-party talks and make the case of its own plans.
Let’s say, for argument’s sake, I just said ‘yes, we will by 2030 meet 3%’.
The inevitable next question is how will you fund it? And the trap that I’ve seen so many previous, particularly Conservative, governments fall into is setting out what they would spend or the taxes they would cut, without at the same time, saying how they would pay for it.
Continue reading...Introducing the legislation would be ‘very challenging’ until care system improved, PM says
Andy Burnham has said the assisted dying debate needs to wait until palliative care and social care are fixed, as he set out his path to resolving one of the most intractable problems in British politics.
The prime minister said he was not opposed to having the debate on assisted dying, but told reporters it would be “very challenging” to introduce the controversial legislation until the care system was in a better place.
Continue reading...Labour’s 2024 manifesto did not include any specific commitments on council tax but two models are being floated
James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, has accused Andy Burnham of planning “more ways to tax Middle England”. Responding to reports that Burnham wants to change council tax (see 10.03am), Cleverly said:
Andy Burnham and Labour are just looking for more ways to tax Middle England, and raise taxes on people’s homes.
Replacing council tax and stamp duty with a new house price tax would not be a tax cut for hardworking families – quite the reverse: people across England would end up paying more.
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