Andy Burnham has had a secret meeting with Keir Starmer to discuss the transition (see 12.43pm, 1.01pm. 1.18pm, Oliver Wright from the Times reports. He says:
double quotation mark Andy Burnham is understood to have held secret talks with Sir Keir Starmer. as the prime minister pledged to smooth his transition to power.
Starmer was said to have left Downing Street for an hour-long “off-site” meeting with Burnham – the first time the two men had spoken since he returned to Westminster.
UPDATE: Pippa Crerar has had this confirmed.
Andy Burnham has had a secret meeting with Keir Starmer to discuss the handover of power to the new MP for Makerfield. (See 12.43pm, 1.01pm, 1.18pm and 3.22pm.)
Cabinet ministers loyal to Keir Starmer have said they will not back any candidate against Andy Burnham. urging the chief secretary to the prime minister not to run in a contest.
Labour has announced. Bev Craig is its candidate to replace Andy Burnham in the election for a new Greater Manchester mayor. Announcing the news, Labour said:
double quotation mark Bev is the current leader of Manchester city council. deputy mayor for economy, Business and Inclusive Growth for GM and has promised to set out a bold vision to build on the progress made over the last decade and deliver the next chapter for the region.
A former council estate kid whose family endured unemployment, ill health. financial hardship, Bev said Greater Manchester transformed her life after she moved to the city-region at 18.
Now, after 15 years of delivering for local communities, leading Manchester city council,. fighting for Greater Manchester she says she wants to ensure every person, every community, and every borough shares in Greater Manchester’s success.
Bev has vowed to build a Greater Manchester that works for everyone – with cheaper travel, more council. affordable homes, safer neighbourhoods, thriving high streets supported by a new High Streets fund and world-class opportunities for people in every borough.
Peter Murrell has been sentenced to five years. three months in jail after he admitted embezzling more than £400,000 from the Scottish National party while he was its chief executive.
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.
Lisa O’Carroll is a senior Guardian correspondent covering post-Brexit affairs.
EU relations minister Nick Thomas-Symonds has said he is confident the new prime minister will conclude the deal to reset relations with the EU later this year. even though the 22 July summit has been cancelled in the wake of Keir Starmer’s resignation.
He said “all leadership candidates” had “committed to the 2024 manifesto”. that included Starmer’s pledge to get closer to the EU post Brexit.
Speaking at a UK in a Changing Europe conference on Brexit. 10 years after the referendum, he said it was vital that Labour demonstrated to voters ahead of the next election that it delivered the change promised.
double quotation mark I think that the summit package, which is broadly agreed with the European Union, which is around the food. drink agreement, the emissions trading system linkage and the youth experience scheme is going to happen, and I think it will happen at some point this year, because that’s what we’ve agreed to do with the European Union.
We have to have this package of negotiation in place, delivering, showing what the tangible benefits are of a close relationship with the UK. the EU, and I think that’s the important step towards the debate.
Thomas-Symonds also said he was conscious that there was a cliff edge for electric car manufacturers both in the UK. the EU over the 31 December deadline for tariff-free exports to each others’ markets.
He said the government would not “take our eye of the ball” on this. work would continue to prevent 10% tariffs on UK exports of EVs to the EU.
Yesterday Keir Starmer became the sixth prime minister to leave office in a decade. As this Financial Times chart shows, other leading democracies have been much stable.
Many people have said this is just down to Brexit. But. in a speech to the UK in a Changing Europe conference today, Prof Sir John Curtice, the BBC’s lead elections expert, said it was more complicated than this. He said:
double quotation mark I don’t think you can say. Brexit is simply the reason why we’ve lost so many prime ministers. You can say it’s true of [David] Cameron, you can say it’s true of [Theresa] May. With all due respect, I don’t think it’s true of Johnson, I don’t think it’s true of Truss,. it’s certainly not true of Sunak. One had their somewhat loose relationship with the truth. One didn’t listen to their civil servants … and the other lost an election. That’s what’s meant to happen,. if by turbulence we mean: has Brexit been important in creating our much more fragmented political body? I would say it’s helped to crystalise some of those forces that globalisation was helping to create.
In an interesting thread on social media yesterday. Luke Tryl, director of More in Common UK, rejected the claim that Britain has become ungovernable. He said prime ministers who had to quit mainly had themselves to blame. He concluded:
double quotation mark Are the public angry/frustrated with a status quo they don’t think works for them. Absolutely. But the idea the changing is their fault is for the birds, we’ve had a series of PMs who’ve made fatal mistakes. being unable to show they’re delivering change - that doesn’t mean rushing, but being able to take public on a journey.
double quotation mark If anything this should give Burnham (or Badenoch, or Farage) hope. All of our convos with the public suggest enough will engage with tough choices, but it has to be couched in a vision for the sort of country we’re going to build. delivered in a way that commands confidence.
In his latest Substack article. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, claimed he had managed to force out four of the PMs who have quit. “We’ve gone through six prime ministers in seven years. I saw off four of them – Cameron, May, Sunak, Starmer – myself,” he said. Farage is probably entitled to take some of the credit for David Cameron, Theresa May. Starmer going, but Rishi Sunak was taken down by the record of his own party in office.
In a good FT article on this topic, Chris Smyth argues lack off economic growth, the increasing rebelliousness of backbenchers. the nature of the UK media are also factors in the rapid turnout of leaders in the UK.
( Lisa O’Carroll contributed to this post.)
Rajeev Syal is the Guardian’s home affairs editor.
Lord Hermer, the attorney general, has today accused Elon Musk’s social media site X of being a platform that “constantly descends to racism. misogyny”.
Explaining why his department became the first in Whitehall to abandon the site formerly known as Twitter, he said other departments feel they “need to be on the pitch engaging with people. that is not where the attorney general’s office needs to be”.
The Guardian disclosed last week that Hermer’s department had left X,. this is the first time he has explained why.
Appearing before the Commons justice committee, he said the decision to leave X was his.
double quotation mark I can understand why other departments feel they need to be on the pitch engaging with people,. that is not where the attorney general’s office needs to be.
I think for the work that I can do, I can engage with people in serious debate, detailed debate, respectful debate, without being on a platform that constantly descends to racism. misogyny. I think my department can do better than that.
Jim O’Neill. the economist tapped by Andy Burnham to be his chief economic adviser, has called for billions of pounds more borrowing to pay for investment in infrastructure, in a sign of how Burnham may seek to break from the policies pursued by Keir Starmer. Kiran Stacey has the story.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has published his latest long essay on his new Substack blog. It is his third in less than a fortnight. This one is about why he believes “the political class betrayed Brexit”.
double quotation mark If you listen to one fierce critic of the last Conservative government. this is precisely the failure mode for how it failed to seize the benefits of Brexit. They didn’t “use our regulatory system to exploit [our] competitive advantage”, or seize the “opportunities in areas like tech,. AI, even in farming”. It’s a shame that Kemi didn’t live by these words when she had the chance to do so. Instead, she chose a different maxim: “it is not the bonfire of regulations – we are not arsonists”. Indeed not. And it’s not surprising: the Conservative chose to conserve EU laws.
The More in Common polling out today shows. a lot of people are open to the idea that Brexit might have worked. It suggests that, while 35% of people think it was never going to work, 46% of people believe it might have worked well. was badly handled by politicians.
Anna Turley. the Labour chair, has claimed that Nigel Farage’s answers in interviews today about his undisclosed £5m donation show that he holds the public in “utter contempt”. (See 10.27am.)
In a statement she said:
double quotation mark This morning Nigel Farage seemed to change his story over his secret £5m “gift” every other minute. First it was described as a “reward for Brexit”, then it was apparently for security,. now Farage says it is a “wholly private matter”.
If Farage has nothing to hide, he should stop dodging questions and come clean. Despite what Farage may think, the British public have a right to know who is bankrolling a man seeking high office. what influence, if any, that money buys. The fact he thinks it’s not the public’s business to know shows what utter contempt he truly holds for the British people.
Here is our story on the Farage interviews by Jessica Elgot and Rowena Mason.
Jonathan Haskel, a politics professor at Imperial College London. a former member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, has been named as the government’s preferred candidate for chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Announcing the proposed appointment, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, said:
double quotation mark Jonathan Haskel is an outstanding nominee for chair. His depth of expertise in economics. his track record of independent, rigorous analysis make him exactly the right person to lead the OBR – supporting the credibility of our fiscal framework and ensuring our economy is underpinned by sound public finances.
Commentators have welcomed the appointment.
This is from Faisal Islam, the BBC’s economics editor.
double quotation mark Professor Jonathan Haskel appointed as Chairman of OBR by Chancellor (needs to be approved by treasury Select committee) - well respected replacement for Richard Hughes, thoughtful ex Bank of England MPC member, expert on productivity. AI…
OBR likely to remain tough independent feature of governance whoever is in Downing Street.
double quotation mark There may have been a slight angle here a few months back, because some of the people in Burnham’s economic orbit (and even on the party’s right too) had also begun to make an argument that more pro investment reform of the OBR was required… all that seems parked now,. Haskel will prove credible and independent, while also an expert on the determinants of productivity and low investment.
This is from Gus O’Donnell, the former cabinet secretary, and former head of the Treasury.
double quotation mark Congratulations to Jonathan Haskel, new chair of OBR. Great to see excellent, independently minded economist in this vital role who also knows a lot about productivity.
And this is from Ben Zaranko, economics editor of the Observer.
double quotation mark Jonathan Haskel has been nominated to be the next Chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility. Currently a Professor at Imperial, he’s done lots of research into productivity (including the role of AI), economic inactivity,. various other issues highly relevant to the OBR.
Peter Walker is a senior Guardian political correspondent.
Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, has praised Andy Burnham as a “fantastic communicator” providing a “different. compelling story”, as she urged potential rivals to the former Greater Manchester mayor to avoid triggering a formal leadership contest.
“I don’t want a contest,” said Reynolds. who was a close ally of Keir Starmer, who put her in the cabinet just 14 months after she returned to the Commons following five years out.
Speaking in an interview with the Times, she said:
double quotation mark I’ve lived through many different contests as an MP and as a party member. I don’t want to do that in government. I don’t think we should spend the summer turning in on ourselves.
She added: “Frankly nobody else has got the numbers.”
Andy Burnham has had a secret meeting with Keir Starmer to discuss the transition (see 12.43pm, 1.01pm. 1.18pm, Oliver Wright from the Times reports. He says:
double quotation mark Andy Burnham is understood to have held secret talks with Sir Keir Starmer. as the prime minister pledged to smooth his transition to power.
Starmer was said to have left Downing Street for an hour-long “off-site” meeting with Burnham – the first time the two men had spoken since he returned to Westminster.
UPDATE: Pippa Crerar has had this confirmed.
Lisa O’Carroll is a senior Guardian correspondent covering post-Brexit affairs.
The UK could rejoin the EU on a “short” timeline because of the remaining alignment on regulation. Michel Barnier, the EU’s former Brexit negotiator has said.
He also said the UK could also join a new European security. defence council, which he is promoting to allow more formal cooperation with non-EU European countries such as the UK and Norway.
Speaking at the UK in a Changing Europe conference, Barnier declined to put a timeline on potential timetable for a potential re-entry into the EU. said: “It could be short.”
However. he predicted that “it would take much longer” for the UK government “to decide to rejoin” than it would to become a member again. Barnier restated his familar warning from the Brexit talks that there would be “no cherrypicking” for the UK. It could get back into the EU quickly but there would be “no indivisibility of the four freedoms” of the single market which covers free movement of labour, capital, services. goods, he said.
Jakub Krupa has more coverage of the conference on his Europe live blog.
More in Common has released some detailed polling today on Brexit. In line with most polling on this topic. it shows that by a margin of about three to one people are more likely to say Brexit has been a failure (59%) than to say it has been a success (17%).
The polling also shows that 42% of all Britons say Brexit had made them worse off. And the poorest voters are most likely to say this,. most likely to say Brexit has made them “much worse off”.
double quotation mark Over 4 in 10 Britons (42 per cent) say they are financially worse off because of Brexit. Just as many say it has made no difference. less than 1 in 10 say it has made them better off.
The most financially insecure Britons perceive the greatest impact from Brexit with around 6 in 10 saying that leaving the EU made them worse off. 4 in 10 of those saying much worse off.
Only the most financially comfortable are more likely to say. leaving the EU made them better off (36 per cent) than worse off (24 per cent).
Much analysis after Brexit showed that poorer people were more likely to support Brexit than wealthier people. But there is also research making a counter argument. that wealth made people more willing to tolerate what they saw as the risk associated with voting leave.
The More in Common polling also suggests that 49% of people say they would back a referendum to rejoin the EU. against 34% who would be opposed.
Sienna Rodgers from the House magazine has the full details of the timetable for the election of the new Labour leader. She says these are the date that have been agreed by the officers group on the party’s national executive committee. They have to be signed off by the full NEC, but that is normally a formality.
double quotation mark EXCL: Full details of Labour’s leadership timetable revealed
– MPs nominate: Thursday 9 July to Wednesday 15 July
– MP hustings: Monday 13 July
– Affiliated organisations nominate: Wednesday 15 July at 6pm to Thursday 16 July at 6pm
– Special conference to confirm result on Friday 17 July
– Burnham expected to become PM on the same day
– Even if he is the only candidate, he needs both MP and affiliate nominations
– Even if all MPs nominate before 15 July or more than 80% back Burnham, the window won’t be shortened
Ten years on from Brexit – and our European friends are still wondering what’s gone wrong with Britain. Michael Savage has been looking at how the continental papers are covering the news. we’ve just had our sixth prime ministerial resignation in a decade.
Rafael Behr, the Guardian political columnist, is holding a Q&A with readers later today. There are details here, where you can also submit questions BTL.
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