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Andy Burnham — page 5

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UK minister warns of impact of Trump’s Iran war on next month’s budget

Bridget Phillipson says Burnham’s past criticisms of US president not an issue as PM prepares to meet Trump at UN Next month’s budget will be made more difficult by Donald Trump’s war with Iran, one of Andy Burnham’s cabinet ministers has said, while adding she did not expect the prime minister’s previous disparaging comments about the US president to be an issue. Burnham is expected to meet Trump early next week at the UN general assembly summit in New York, the pair having previously spoken twice by phone since Burnham entered No 10. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Peter Walker Senior political correspondent20 Sept
  • critical toward Donald Trump · 76%

Andy Burnham faces a weakened Trump – but the president remains unpredictable

PM hopes to be firmer with US leader than his predecessor without provoking diplomatic warfare, as the Iran war weighs on the UK economy No international relationship has more power to determine the success of Andy Burnham’s premiership. So you might imagine the stakes for the prime minister’s first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump on Tuesday would be high. Yet Burnham may prove to be a lucky general. The balance of risk has shifted. Trump is unpopular at home, where inflation remains high, and is mired in an intractable conflict in Iran that has the potential to sink his midterm dreams . Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Pippa Crerar Political editor20 Sept
  • critical toward Donald Trump · 99%
  • favorable toward Andy Burnham · 74%

Don’t discount Reform because it's had a bad year. In our angry, fragile democracy, anything can happen | John Harris

Nigel Farage’s tactics are to play up the anxiety and resentment that people feel. Labour’s job is simple: to offer hope and change Despite the energised start Andy Burnham has made as prime minister, plenty of his party’s MPs and hardcore activists are still haunted by a familiar sense of insecurity. Underpinned by a political version of impostor syndrome, it runs deep – and, bar the odd spell of Labour optimism, it always has. So it is with the battle between Labour and Reform UK that will define an election that could arrive much sooner than some people think, and a widely held ambivalence on the left about the possibility of Nigel Farage’s party taking power. Reform is apparently in deep trouble, yet also still in with a serious chance. How come? Investigations into the party and its leadership’s finances by both the Metropolitan police and parliament’s standards commissioner may worsen Reform’s woes. Those investigations predate the two recently announced £36m donations from the crypto tycoons Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo, which themselves risk being backdatedly ruled illegal and are reportedly already being spent on 400 “field agents”. The two mega-donations symbolise two connected stories. One is about the possible buyout of our fragile democracy. The other centres on how, from much of the public’s perspective, all the allegations about Farage and his party might have already turned into an indecipherable blizzard. So, although Reform is down, it is still far from out. John Harris is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•John Harris20 Sept

Scottish Labour’s new leader backs Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gasfields

Michael Marra supports development of the North Sea sites, calling for a ‘more rational’ approach to energy policy Scottish Labour’s new leader Michael Marra has backed the development of the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gasfields in the North Sea in one of his first acts after being elected, calling for a “more rational” approach to energy policy. On Saturday, the MSP for North East Scotland won a near two-thirds majority to lead the party in Holyrood, becoming Scottish Labour’s 11th leader. He replaces Anas Sarwar after his shock decision to resign in July to join Andy Burnham’s new government as a trade minister. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Patrick Greenfield19 Sept

‘A critical moment’: concern UK is not up to speed in acting on AI risks

Andy Burnham’s focus on immediate domestic problems leads some to fear issue has dropped off government’s radar Towards the end of Keir Starmer’s time in office, his senior ministers, alarmed by the latest developments in artificial intelligence, began drawing up plans for a new AI safety law. They ordered a review of existing legislation to see what powers they already had, according to those briefed on the plans, and were exploring whether they could force the world’s most advanced technology companies to submit their products for safety testing before launching them. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Kiran Stacey and Dan Milmo18 Sept

Burnham will meet Irish PM as UK bids to get exemptions from EU’s ‘Made in Europe’ plan – UK politics live

It will be the first time the PM uses No 10 North to host an overseas visit while the chancellor will be in Dublin meeting with EU finance ministers Good morning. On Monday, at her summit in Cardiff with the leaders of the SNP and Plaid Cymru, Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Féin president, joked about Liverpool being the 33rd county of Ireland . Andy Burnham is basically a Scouser; he was born in Liverpool and supports a Liverpool football team, despite being brought up in Culcheth, a village mid-way between Liverpool and Manchester, which made him enough of a Manc to be the city’s mayor. He also has Irish ancestry, and so the mood should be very cordial today when he hosts Micheál Martin , the taoiseach (Irish PM) at No 10 North in Manchester this morning. It is the first time that Burnham has used No 10 North to host an overseas visit, which should help a bit his efforts to establish that No 10 North is a proper government power base, and not just a branch office. The historic visit to No 10 North comes as the prime minister shines a spotlight on towns up and down the country, days after he hosted Canadian prime minister Mark Carney in Liverpool and Nato secretary general Mark Rutte in Oxford. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Andrew Sparrow18 Sept
  • neutral toward Andy Burnham · 95%

Former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson joins Palantir

Peer takes full-time position at the controversial company as it fends off pressure from both Andy Burnham’s government and Sadiq Khan Another former government minister has been hired by a controversial US AI company, this time Palantir, which has appointed Andy Burnham’s former ministerial colleague Tom Watson. The Labour peer and former deputy leader will operate alongside Palantir’s UK and Europe chief executive, Louis Mosley, as the company attempts to fend off pressure on Burnham’s government to axe its £330m NHS contract . It is also fighting Sadiq Khan in court over the Labour London mayor’s block on a £50m contract to use its AI in Metropolitan police investigations . Palantir also wants to win more public sector work in the UK, where it already has an annual turnover of £427m. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Robert Booth UK technology editor18 Sept

Paul, John... and Yvonne? The French novelist asking: what if a woman had written the Beatles’ greatest hits?

Celebrated thriller writer Michel Bussi explains why the plot of his new novel Code Yesterday isn’t so far fetched, saying ‘I wanted to give women revenge’ Relations between France and England have rarely looked brighter. The recent loan of the Bayeux tapestry has become a symbol of a renewed friendship between the two countries, evidenced further by the numerous smiles exchanged on the occasion between prime minister Andy Burnham and French president Emmanuel Macron. A new book released in France at the start of this month, however, could soon darken the sunny skies of a revitalised entente cordiale . In Code Yesterday, author Michel Bussi proposes that every single song credited to the Beatles was in fact written by a woman … of French descent. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Bertrand Bouard18 Sept

MPs urge ministers to break off Thames Water talks with US hedge funds

Efra committee calls for emergency legislation enabling government to take public control of the company Andy Burnham is under further pressure to take control of ailing Thames Water from a cross-party group of MPs who are calling for ministers to break off talks with the US hedge funds who are effectively running the company. Adding their voices to demands that the prime minister takes public control of the company, which has debts of £20bn and is being controlled by a group of 100 hedge funds and distressed-debt investors, the MPs said in a report that ministers should consider emergency legislation to take control of its financial affairs to stabilise the company. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Sandra Laville Environment correspondent18 Sept

Nato head: Britain must show ‘credible path’ of annual defence budget increases

Mark Rutte said Britain will need to steadily increase defence spending to meet Nato target of 3.5% of GDP by 2035 Britain needs to show “a credible path” of annual increases in its defence budgets to meet a Nato target of spending nearly £30bn more on the military by the middle of the next decade, the head of the alliance said on Thursday. Mark Rutte, Nato’s secretary general, said that Britain could not wait until just before 2035 to lift defence spending to 3.5% of GDP, in an unusually pointed intervention a day after he met prime minister Andy Burnham. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Dan Sabbagh17 Sept
  • neutral toward North Atlantic Treaty Organization · 97%