Left Foot Forward

The Labour party is on course to retain the Greater Manchester Mayoralty, after Andy Burnham vacated the seat to return to Parliament, a new poll has found. Reform had made winning the Manchester mayoralty a major objective, yet they are still trailing the Labour Party in the latest poll.

Bold promises of radical change lacked coherence, yielding disjointed and contradictory results Tom Brake is the Chief Executive of Unlock Democracy Keir Starmer’s approach to House of Lords reform tells you almost everything you need to know about his premiership. He came into office having promised to abolish the House of Lords. Peerage appointments would be taken out of the hands of politicians, he said.

Andy Burnham has made his first speech after being crowned as Labour leader at a special conference in London this morning. In it, he vowed to make the party “the Labour people once knew”. To the country at large, he said that the UK had “turned its back” on the working class and pledged to give people “hope back”. Here are the five key things we learned from the speech.

Bev Craig, Labour’s candidate for the Greater Manchester Mayoral election on 30 July, is standing not only to replace the soon-to-be prime minister Andy Burnham but also to build on his record. At the heart of her pitch to voters is a commitment to expanding the now publicly-controlled bus network, arguably Burnham’s most popular achievement during his nine years as mayor. She has emphasised her close working relationship with Burnham since becoming leader of Manchester City Council in 2021.

More than a quarter of MPs have signed an amendment calling for a national commission on electoral reform, as pressure grows on incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham to follow through on his previous pledges to support the cause. The amendment to the Representation of the People Bill, tabled by Labour MP Alex Sobel, has attracted more than 160 signatures, with 96 Labour MPs having signed the amendment.

Words by Carenza Muggleton-Arnold, Head of Campaigns, Women for Refugee Women, Gee Manoharan, Co-Director, Association of Visitors To Immigration Detainees (AVID) and Kate Alexander, Director at Scottish Detainee Visitors. For years, women who have experienced immigration detention have been telling us the same thing: detention deepens trauma, damages mental health, and separates them from the people they love.

With Andy Burnham set to become Prime Minister on Monday, after securing the backing of an overwhelming chunk of the Parliamentary Labour Party, attention continues to turn to his policy platform and whether he can deliver the bold and radical change he has promised.

Louise Haigh, a key ally of Labour’s Prime Minister in-waiting Andy Burnham, reportedly advised him not to appoint Ed Miliband as chancellor, as the Westminster rumour mill on who Burnham will appoint to Number 11 goes into overdrive. Burnham is all but guaranteed to move into Downing Street on Monday after 349 of the party’s MPs nominated him to replace Sir Keir Starmer. It is now mathematically impossible for a rival to run against him.

The UK’s shortest serving former prime minister, Liz Truss, opened CPAC GB this morning to an almost empty hall. CPAC GB is the UK version of America’s largest annual gathering of conservative activists and is strongly supportive of Donald Trump. Truss, who previously said the UK needs a Make America Great Again-style revolution, has imported a UK version of the conference to London, which is taking place from 16-18 July.

Robert Jenrick has defended Nigel Farage forcing a by-election in Clacton in response to mounting scrutiny over his finances. The Tory turned Reform MP told BBC 5 Live’s Matt Chorley earlier this week that “it is for the people to determine who is your Member of Parliament”. Chorley said “On that logic, everyone, every time they face a political criticism would call a by-election. It doesn’t make any sense.” Jenrick reacted by saying: “If they did, in one sense, good for them”.