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.
Key events
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
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.
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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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