Starmer rebuffs renewed talk of Andy Burnham leadership challenge
Keir Starmer has attempted to dampen the latest round of speculation about his leadership, insisting that one of his potential rivals, Andy Burnham, is doing a “really good job as mayor of Manchester” and warning colleagues not to waste their time briefing against each other.The prime minister gave his backing to Burnham on Thursday night as he travelled to the G20 summit in Johannesburg, after the Greater Manchester mayor repeatedly failed to rule out challenging Starmer for his party’s leadership during interviews on Thursday.Burnham’s comments reignited speculation over the prime minister’s future, with his party languishing in the polls and days away from a tax-raising budget that could define the rest of his term in office.Starmer said: “Andy’s doing a really good job as mayor in Manchester and we work very closely together.”He added: “Only two days after Labour party conference we were in Manchester together in the aftermath of the terrible attack on the synagogue there.
I spoke to Andy as soon as I heard about that attack when I was in Denmark.It was one of the first calls I made to get an assessment on the ground.I spoke to him the next day then I went up and met him and went through the briefings.“He’s doing a really good job as the mayor of Manchester.”Starmer urged his colleagues not to brief against him or others in the party after his own allies fuelled the leadership speculation by telling reporters they believed the health secretary, Wes Streeting, to be planning a coup attempt.
“We need to focus on what matters to the country, and what matters to the country above all else is the cost of living and that’s where my focus is,” he said,“Every minute we’re not focused on that is a minute that is wasted in the government,”The prime minister was speaking on his way to the G20 summit in South Africa, where he will announce a number of trade deals and attempt to rally international support for Ukraine,But much of his government’s attention is on domestic matters, with his chancellor finalising a potentially contentious budget and possible leadership candidates jostling for position,Burnham restarted talk over his leadership ambitions this week as he declined to rule out challenging Starmer in the future.
Sign up to First EditionOur morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it mattersafter newsletter promotionThe Manchester mayor has kept a relatively low profile since the Labour party conference this year, when he attracted attention for criticising the direction of Starmer’s government.Burnham was asked repeatedly about his plans during a round of interviews to publicise his new £1bn growth plan for Greater Manchester, but would only say only that he did not know what the future held.“I haven’t launched any leadership challenge,” he told BBC Breakfast.“I’m not going to sit here this morning and rule out what might or might not happen in future – I don’t know what the future will hold.”His comments came after Clive Lewis, the Labour MP for Norwich South, said he would stand down if Burnham wanted to fight his seat.
If Burnham does seek a seat in parliament, however, it is expected to be in the north-west.Meanwhile, Starmer has also insisted that journalists should be treated with respect after the US president, Donald Trump, told a female reporter: “Quiet, piggy”.The prime minister said he had been told about the comments and did not want to comment directly on them.He added, however: “My approach is that I will always be respectful to journalists whatever questions they’re putting to me … It’s really important to keep that principle of respect for journalists who are doing actually a really important job, certainly in the UK, in our democracy.”
Nigel Farage urged to root out Reform links to Russia after jailing of Nathan Gill
Nigel Farage is facing calls to investigate and root out links between Reform UK and Russia after one of his party’s former senior politicians was jailed for 10 years for accepting bribes from a pro-Kremlin agent.Keir Starmer said Farage had questions to answer about how this happened in his party. Nathan Gill, a former leader of Reform UK in Wales, admitted taking payments to make statements in favour of Russia.The sentencing came at the end of a damaging week for Farage in which the Guardian revealed accusations that he engaged in racist chants and comments while at school more than 40 years ago, which he denies.Reform UK remains about 10 points ahead in opinion polls, but Labour believes the party is vulnerable to criticism that Farage and his allies have been too pro-Russia, with the Gill case proving that a paid pro-Kremlin propagandist was allowed to rise to become a senior leader
Starmer rebuffs renewed talk of Andy Burnham leadership challenge
Keir Starmer has attempted to dampen the latest round of speculation about his leadership, insisting that one of his potential rivals, Andy Burnham, is doing a “really good job as mayor of Manchester” and warning colleagues not to waste their time briefing against each other.The prime minister gave his backing to Burnham on Thursday night as he travelled to the G20 summit in Johannesburg, after the Greater Manchester mayor repeatedly failed to rule out challenging Starmer for his party’s leadership during interviews on Thursday.Burnham’s comments reignited speculation over the prime minister’s future, with his party languishing in the polls and days away from a tax-raising budget that could define the rest of his term in office.Starmer said: “Andy’s doing a really good job as mayor in Manchester and we work very closely together.”He added: “Only two days after Labour party conference we were in Manchester together in the aftermath of the terrible attack on the synagogue there
Farage’s views on Russia likely to be further tested after jailing of Nathan Gill
The discovery of a pro-Russian asset, Nathan Gill, at the heart of a British political party reads like the plot of a John Le Carré novel.Russia was long known to have been trying to interfere in foreign politics with online bots and cyber-disinformation over the past decade.However, the Nathan Gill case is now a concrete example of a pro-Russian agent enlisting and paying a Brexit-friendly party politician to spread the propaganda of Moscow and against Ukraine in Europe.In the 1960s, it tended more to be Labour and far-left politicians who were largely the subject of Soviet attempts to plant agents in the west. In modern times, it is no surprise that the parties Gill represented were Ukip, the Brexit party, and briefly Reform UK
Starmer accuses ‘spineless’ Farage of failure to tackle racism in Reform party
Nigel Farage has been accused of being “spineless” by the prime minister and a “coward” by Dulwich college contemporaries over his response to allegations of racism.Keir Starmer said the Reform UK leader had “questions to answer” about alleged comments and chants as a teenager that include songs about the Holocaust, and accusations of bullying towards minority ethnic schoolboys.He added that Farage had a “track record” when it came to racism, pointing to his failure to discipline his fellow Reform MP Sarah Pochin after she complained about the number of black and brown people she saw in adverts.Speaking to reporters on the way to the G20 summit in Johannesburg, Starmer said: “He needs to explain the comments, or alleged comments that were made, and he needs to do that as soon as possible. He hasn’t got a good track record in relation to this because Sarah Pochin, his MP, made some clearly racist comments and Nigel Farage has done absolutely nothing about it
UK politics: Reeves ‘not even sure what the popular path is’ on the budget – as it happened
The UK cannot continue to “muddle through” and must take “a different path” on the economy, the chancellor has said.Ahead of her second budget on 26 November, Rachel Reeves told the Times that the country could not continue on its current trajectory. But she admitted she was “not even sure any more what the popular path is” amid calls for a wealth tax from some politicians and heavy tax and spending cuts from others.In the interview published on Friday, Reeves said:I’m not even sure any more what the popular path is.There are lots of people who say cut taxes and the economy will grow, but what spending would they cut? Borrowing is too high, but you can’t cut it overnight
Reform UK’s former Wales leader jailed for taking bribes for pro-Russia speeches
Reform UK’s former leader in Wales Nathan Gill has been jailed for 10 and a half years for taking bribes to make statements in favour of Russia when he was an MEP.Gill, a key member of the Ukip and Brexit party groups led by Nigel Farage in the European parliament, had pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery between 6 December 2018 and 18 July 2019.Police believe Gill received the equivalent of at least £30,000 and could have got even more from Oleg Voloshyn, a former Ukrainian MP and alleged Russian asset. He remains under investigation but is now believed to be in Moscow.Immediately after Gill was jailed, the defence minister Al Carns called on Farage’s party to launch a thorough investigation to guarantee that pro-Russia links were rooted out of Reform
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