LabourList

What would a more ambitious approach to nature recovery look like? Well, in some parts of Britain, it could mean bringing back an animal that has been absent from our woodlands for hundreds of years. The idea of reintroducing the lynx to Britain is bound to attract attention. For some, it is an exciting opportunity to restore part of our natural heritage. For others, it raises legitimate questions about conflicts with farming and livestock, and how we manage our countryside.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has two years to make a real change in people’s lives, and his first few weeks in office suggest he is taking the task at hand seriously.

Just as the turquoise Tories gather in Birmingham for their annual conference, Nigel Farage and Reform UK have been rocked by yet another scandal over money. Undercover footage, broadcast last night on Channel 4, showed Farage and others celebrating secret foreign donations – with two aides arranging with a fictional ‘off the books’ backer to fund three influential polls commissioned by the party, while appearing to plot ways to avoid electoral laws on foreign donations.

Andy Burnham’s pledge to the country is “good growth in every postcode and hope in every heart”. What would this look like in practice? The answer lies in the economic success stories of British companies – big, medium and small – across the UK and in building on these successes across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

MPs are preparing to vote on a renewed attempt to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales, in a division likely to go down to the wire. Labour MP for Rochester and Strood Lauren Edwards has introduced identical legislation to Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill to Parliament, after the Spen Valley MP’s proposed law was killed off in the House of Lords due to an unprecedented number of amendments.

It was a busy summer for the Labour government. Andy Burnham hit the ground running, combining progress on 2024 manifesto commitments with his own priorities. Here are seven of the most exciting breakthroughs and announcements from the past few weeks that you can use, whether you’re on the doorstep, sparring on social media, or debating in the pub. Labour is cutting the tax from 1 October. It’ll save the typical household around £45 a year once the next Ofgem price cap lands.

Andy Burnham has promised to rewire Britain by pushing power outwards from Whitehall to places and people across the UK. There is another less visible concentration of power that deserves the same attention. Britain’s pension system now gives millions of working people a financial stake in the economy. Through automatic enrolment, introduced by a Labour government in 2008, people who own few other financial assets now have savings invested in companies across Britain and the world.

The cheers that greeted the PM two days in a row were deafening. As Andy Burnham made his first and second commons appearances this week his backbenchers were keen to voice their newly positive feeling. Burnham had been away from Parliament for over a decade and the government dispatch box for 16 years. He was clearly keen to make up for lost time.

Every year, the state must rent thousands of homes for people in desperate need. Councils are required to find temporary accommodation for those at risk of homelessness. The Home Office needs properties for destitute asylum seekers awaiting a decision. Homes are needed for prison leavers, older people with support needs, and women at risk of domestic violence. The amount of taxpayers’ money involved in this crucial activity is enormous – and has grown in recent years due to the housing crisis.

There is a hidden threat in and around many British homes that wouldn’t even occur to most of us to watch out for: lead. It is easy to imagine this is a problem of the past, and no doubt progress has been made, but unfortunately lead poisoning and pollution hasn’t gone away. Out of sight should not be out of mind: we urgently need a national screening program to understand the scale of the problem, and identify where to intervene.