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Burnham should launch leadership bid ‘really quickly’ if he wins byelection, says Labour MP Rachael Maskell
Josh Halliday
Josh Halliday is the Guardian’s North of England editor.
The talk in Westminster has turned to the timing of a leadership challenge to Keir Starmer if, as expected, Andy Burnham wins in Makerfield tomorrow. Will Burnham call immediately for Starmer to step down? Or should Labour focus first on fighting Reform UK in what would be a fierce contest for Burnham’s job as Greater Manchester mayor?
I was out all day in Makerfield yesterday and bumped into the Labour MP Rachael Maskell looking very upbeat as she headed out campaigning.
She was very clear that Burnham should launch a leadership challenge immediately, saying:
We need to move forward. This country is crying out for [Burnham’s] leadership. He needs to get sworn in and after that we need to look at the leadership and make sure we can form a good cohesive Labour government on the back of it.
Asked whether she wanted to see Burnham in No 10 before Labour conference in September, she hinted that it could be sooner than that: “I’m optimistic that can happen really quickly.”
Before any leadership challenge, Burnham has to win the Makerfield byelection. The polls suggest he is on course for a relatively comfortable victory, thanks in part to his own profile, the backing of an anti-Reform coalition of Lib Dem and Green voters, and Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain splitting the vote on the right.
Maskell said the mood in the Burnham camp was “really positive”:
This whole campaign … people are smiling in the party again and [feel] that Labour has found its values and purpose once again.
I’ve had people take down Reform posters and come behind Andy because they can see it’s become so divisive. People are now in the last minute of reaching a decision, turning to Andy because he’s bringing people together and doing politics in a different way.
Key events
Unison leader Andrea Egan says next Labour leader will ‘crash and burn’ unless they ‘break with establishment consensus’
The next Labour leader will “crash and burn” unless they have the confidence to repair public services and stand up for progressive values, a union leader has warned.
Andrea Egan, general secretary of Unison, said fixing the country required huge investment in schools, hospitals, councils and transport, the Press Association reports.
Speaking at Unison’s annual conference in Brighton, she said:
Whoever the next Labour leader is will crash and burn just like this one unless they have the confidence to break completely with the establishment consensus.
The next prime minister must repair our broken public services through massive public investment and bringing everything back in house.
Major sectors brought back fully under national public ownership. Not just publicly controlled or regulated a bit more actively.
They must stand up for progressive values, end the attacks on migrants, protect hard-won freedoms and invest in our communities.
That means investing in schools, hospitals, councils and transport. Not spending more money on American weapons and wars abroad.
Egan also strongly condemned the plans from Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, to double, or even triple, the amount of time migrant workers have to wait until they can qualify for indefinite leave to remain in the UK.
She said:
I’m not sure if politicians like the home secretary thought we’d just look away when they decided to come for migrants.
When they decided to scapegoat them, strip away their rights and deepen exploitation.
Because if they did, they couldn’t have been more wrong.
An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.
It doesn’t matter where we come from or what we look like.
Workers stick together and that’s why the entire union is four-square behind our migrant members in this fight.
Government to publish Timms review into future of Pip before summer recess, McFadden tells MPs
Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, told the work and pensions select committee this morning that the review being led by Stephen Timms into the future of Pip (the personal independent payment – a disability benefit) will be published before the summer recess, which begins at the end of next month.
The government announced the review last year when it shelved plans to cut Pip in the welfare bill. At the time ministers said that it would report in the autumn. If it is going to report ahead of schedule, that may indicated a renewed enthusiasm in goverment to press ahead with a fresh attempt at reform.
This is from the Labour MP Phil Brickell, who has a different view from Rachael Maskell (see 2.23pm) as to what Andy Burnham should be prioritising if he wins the Makerfield byelection.
As a Greater Manchester MP, let me be clear.
If Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield by-election tomorrow his immediate priority should be ensuring Labour goes on to also win the Greater Manchester mayoral by-election which has to take place by 6 August.
Andy is uniquely placed to lead that campaign.
List of 20 private members’ bills presented to parliament today
Twenty MPs won the right to bring forward a private members’ bill in the ballot. They have now chosen the topics for their bills, and all 20 were formally presented to the Commons after PMQs today. This is just a formality and texts of the bills are not yet available.
Here is a list of all 20 bills issued by the Commons. But only the first seven on the list are guaranteed time for a second reading debate on a Friday, and so they are the only ones with a realistic chance of success. Bills lower down the list are only likely to get through if they are so uncontroversial that they might get approved with minimal debate.
1) Desmond Swayne, Conservative (New Forest West) – Infants, Parents and Carers Bill
2) Lauren Edwards, Labour (Rochester and Strood) – Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
3) Mike Wood, Conservative (Kingswinford and South Staffordshire) – Heritage Public Houses Bill
4) Andrew George, Liberal Democrat (St Ives) – Homes and Planning Bill
5) Luke Evans, Conservative (Hinckley and Bosworth) – First Cousins (Prohibited Relationships) Bill
6) John Whittingdale, Conservative (Maldon) – Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation Bill
7) Jessica Toale, Labour (Bournemouth West) – Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (Amendment) Bill
8) Neil Shastri-Hurst, Conservative (Solihull West and Shirley) – Emergency and Life-saving Skills (Schools) Bill
9) Gareth Snell, Labour (Stoke on Trent) – Ceramics (Country of Origin Marking) Bill
10) Lincoln Jopp, Conservative (Spelthorne) – Northern Ireland Troubles (Criminal Investigations etc) Bill
11) Patricia Ferguson, Labour (Glasgow West) – Fireworks Bill
12) Robert Jenrick, Reform UK (Newark) – Group-based Child Sexual Offences (Mandatory Life Sentences) Bill
13) Damian Hinds, Conservative (East Hampshire) – Automated Online Software (Access and Transparency) Bill
14) Alistair Strathern, Labour (Hitchin) – Relationships and Sex Education (Further Education Sector) Bill
15) Clive Jones, Liberal Democrat (Wokingham) – Cancer (Reporting and Strategy) Bill
16) Victoria Atkins, Conservative (Louth and Horncastle) – Planning (Solar Power Generation) Bill
17) Munira Wilson, Liberal Democrat (Twickenham) – Child-like Sexual Abuse Dolls (Offences) Bill
18) Steff Aquarone, Liberal Democrat (North Norfolk) – Coastal Communities (Health) Bill
19) Paul Foster, Labour (South Ribble) – Hospice Funding Bill
20) David Pinto-Duschinsky, Labour (Hendon) – Work Experience (Schools) Bill
Starmer says new assisted dying private member’s bill won’t get extra government help even though last one blocked by Lords
Alexandra Topping
Alexandra Topping is a Guardian political correspondent.
Keir Starmer has dashed the hopes of assisted dying campaigners by confirming he won’t change tack and back a new private members bill on the topic.
As Jessica Elgot reports, the Labour MP Lauren Edwards, who came second in the ballot for private members’ bills, is introducing the assisted dying bill that was blocked by the House of Lords in the last session of parliament.
The government was neutral on the last assisted dying bill, despite supporters suggesting the PM should make government time available for it to be debated after a majority of MPs backed it at second reading and opponents resorted to delaying tactics.
Today Starmer said he would adopt the same approach again. He said:
I’m deeply conscious that there are different and strongly held views, not just in my party, but actually across parliament on this, as we’ve already seen.
But the approach of the government will be the same in relation to this bill as it was in relation to the bill that fell as a result of the king’s speech and the new session.
Burnham should launch leadership bid ‘really quickly’ if he wins byelection, says Labour MP Rachael Maskell
Josh Halliday
Josh Halliday is the Guardian’s North of England editor.
The talk in Westminster has turned to the timing of a leadership challenge to Keir Starmer if, as expected, Andy Burnham wins in Makerfield tomorrow. Will Burnham call immediately for Starmer to step down? Or should Labour focus first on fighting Reform UK in what would be a fierce contest for Burnham’s job as Greater Manchester mayor?
I was out all day in Makerfield yesterday and bumped into the Labour MP Rachael Maskell looking very upbeat as she headed out campaigning.
She was very clear that Burnham should launch a leadership challenge immediately, saying:
We need to move forward. This country is crying out for [Burnham’s] leadership. He needs to get sworn in and after that we need to look at the leadership and make sure we can form a good cohesive Labour government on the back of it.
Asked whether she wanted to see Burnham in No 10 before Labour conference in September, she hinted that it could be sooner than that: “I’m optimistic that can happen really quickly.”
Before any leadership challenge, Burnham has to win the Makerfield byelection. The polls suggest he is on course for a relatively comfortable victory, thanks in part to his own profile, the backing of an anti-Reform coalition of Lib Dem and Green voters, and Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain splitting the vote on the right.
Maskell said the mood in the Burnham camp was “really positive”:
This whole campaign … people are smiling in the party again and [feel] that Labour has found its values and purpose once again.
I’ve had people take down Reform posters and come behind Andy because they can see it’s become so divisive. People are now in the last minute of reaching a decision, turning to Andy because he’s bringing people together and doing politics in a different way.
The Labour adviser Damian McBride has some ace PMQs trivia.
By my count, Claire Coutinho was the 45th different person to stand at the despatch box for PMQs since the once-a-week era began in 1997, and the Lammy vs Coutinho match-up was the 26th different pairing since the 2015 election, seven of them coming in the past two years.
Tories defend Vickers laughing at homophobic jokes in TV interview, saying he was just ‘trying to be polite’
Peter Walker
Peter Walker is a senior Guardian political correspondent.
At their post-PMQs briefing, asked about Matt Vickers’ comments about the arson attack on the PM’s property in a TV interview yesterday (see 12.31pm), a Conservative spokesperson said the Tory deputy chair was just being “polite” when he laughed along with homophobic jokes on Talk Radio.
The spokesperson said:
If you listen to what Matt Vickers says, he doesn’t actually say anything wrong in the clip. He was trying to be polite.
Asked why Vickers did not challenge supposed humour about the case of two men convicted of arson attacks on property connected to Keir Starmer referencing “rent boys” and “back doors”, he added:
Matt didn’t say anything wrong in his commentary and was trying to be polite to the host of a programme where he was being interviewed.
You can watch the clip here and decide for yourself. While in his initial response Vickers did say that the arson trial illustrated a “serious point” about Russian influence, he also went on to jokingly dismiss the notion that “there’s some secret Russian effort to destabilise this country”.
PMQs – snap verdict
Come back next week. In seven days’ time, PMQs should be a moment of intense drama, where 30 minutes of questions in the cockpit of democracy, and how the PM responds, should tell us a lot whether he still retains authority, the currency of leadership. The jeers and jibes at PMQs can seem trite and pointless, but sometimes they function as the ultimate test of power, and that is a challenge Keir Starmer will face soon.
Today, though, it was one of those trite and pointless days.
Claire Coutinho is shadow energy secretary, and most of her questions were about the North Sea where, at least on Rosebank and Jackdaw, the internal Labour party argument is heading a bit closer to the Tory position. But you would not have necessarily guessed that from Coutinho, who seemed over-reliant on jokes and who ended with a very weird “Why is he here?” question. (See 12.17pm.) It was perfectly acceptable knockabout, but lightweight rather than commanding. Lammy was not much better in his responses, which lent heavily on whataboutery. But, later, he did produce some much more confident answers which enthused Labour MPs, particularly on Matt Vickers (see 12.31pm), on Reform UK (see 12.35pm) and on the Belfast pogrom rioting (see 12.22pm). It was job done, but nothing special.
Mark Pritchard (Con) said Lammy was looking very prime ministerial today. Pritchard said he would vote for him as PM.
He said Stoke Heath, a small settlement in the Wrekin, is getting 121 asylum seekers. That amounts to a 35% increase in its population. That was equivalent to 44,000 going into Lammy’s constituency, he said.
He went on:
Whilst this is a tolerant nation and a compassionate nation and an understanding nation, does the deputy prime minister agree with me that that level of dispersal into a small, isolated rural community is just isn’t fair?
Lammy said the government had reduced net migration. He said it was difficult if people called for illegal migrants to be removed, but then objected to them being detained. But he said he did not know the details of this case. An immigration minister would look at it, he said.
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