Andy Burnham backs Starmer but urges him to be bolder and more inclusive
Andy Burnham has publicly backed Keir Starmer while calling for him to show more boldness and be more willing to accept contributions from others within Labour.After a day of turmoil on Monday when the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, called for Starmer to resign, the Greater Manchester mayor used a speech and Q&A in Westminster to call for unity while promoting his views on what the government’s platform should look like.Burnham’s intervention followed comments by the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, who used a round of morning media interviews to say Starmer should use his seemingly narrow escape from a leadership challenge to reshape his prime ministership and demonstrate “much greater clarity of purpose”.Burnham echoed the sentiment, saying it was time for everyone to be “facing in the same direction and pulling in the same direction around our ambitions”, but that the government should be more ambitious, notably on housing.“I think we are at a generational moment in politics,” he said.
“I do feel that recent events really draw a heavy line under political culture that was too close to wealth and power and too distant from the lives of people that we’re talking about today,So the government, in my view, should, in this moment, lean completely into that theme,”He defended his decision to seek selection for this month’s Gorton and Denton byelection, an attempt quashed by Starmer and his allies, saying there was a need for “a stronger team again” in Westminster,Asked if he fully backed the prime minister, Burnham said: “Yes, he has my support,The government has my support, and they had my support when I put myself forward for the byelection.
“So I do feel we are at a crucial moment, and it is absolutely right that people give the government stability in this moment,”Speaking earlier to the BBC, Miliband described Starmer as “liberated”, 24 hours after the departure of Morgan McSweeney as the PM’s chief of staff,“I’m one of his closest friends in politics,I have had a frustration, that the private Keir we know hasn’t been sufficiently on display to the public,” he said,Asked if Labour should end the briefing wars, Miliband, who led Labour from 2010 to 2015, said: “Yes, of course … factionalism, sectarianism never serves the Labour party.
I think we need the widest possible set of talents across our party,”The full cabinet has rallied behind the prime minister in public, though potential leadership rivals including Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting appeared to be readying for a future contest,But after Starmer addressed the parliamentary Labour party on Monday, most MPs leaving the speech said they believed the prime minister’s determination to fight for the party had given him a fresh chance,Miliband told Sky News: “This has got to be a moment of change for the government, a moment of change where we show much greater clarity of purpose, consistency of purpose,And my experience in politics is what gets you through very difficult days is mission and values.
”Miliband hinted that he felt Starmer and the government had to show more that they were behind ordinary working people suffering because of the high cost of living.On Monday night the soft-left Tribune group, led by some close allies of Miliband, said the departure of key No 10 figures such as McSweeney should prompt a wider cabinet reshuffle and an end to factionalism.Miliband said it was not just the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador and the newly revealed extent of his links with Jeffrey Epstein that had caused this moment of crisis for the government.“We’ve made mistakes in policy which drowned out the many good things we’re doing as a government, like winter fuel, for example, wasn’t consistent with our values as a government, but we need to change.“I think what I saw from Keir last night was someone who wants to seize this moment and make it a moment of change, to reconnect with the country.
I know we have a herculean task … to move on from this episode.Lots of people in the country will be incredibly angry about what’s happened, and they’re right to be angry.”Miliband said he was “absolutely not” preparing to run for the leadership himself, saying he had been “inoculated against that” during his time as leader of the opposition.He said he still counted Sarwar as a friend but that he had made “a wrong judgment yesterday.I don’t agree with him.
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Prediction market Kalshi reached $1bn in trading volume during Super Bowl
Online prediction market Kalshi hit a daily record on Super Bowl Sunday, surpassing $1bn in trading volume, the company announced on Tuesday.Kalshi’s CEO, Tarek Mansour, called it an “incredible weekend”, telling CNBC that “Kalshi was the biggest brand of the Super Bowl this year, without running a Super Bowl ad”.Kalshi trading volume during the game was up 2,700% year over year. More than $100m were bets on Bad Bunny’s opening song and $45m on which artists would perform with him on stage. In comparison, the platform saw $27m in total trading volume at last year’s Super Bowl
Honeymoon period for new BP boss won’t last long
The clearing of the decks continues apace at BP. The last chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, got the heave-ho in December. Last month brought news of hefty write-downs on the troublesome low-carbon energy assets in solar and biogas. Now comes an admission that the current debt-reduction measures aren’t enough to ease the strain on an over-extended balance sheet. Share buy-backs are being suspended
Will the Gulf’s push for its own AI succeed?
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. Today in tech, we’re discussing the Persian Gulf countries making a play for sovereignty over their own artificial intelligence in response to an unstable United States. That, and US tech giants’ plans to spend more than $600bn this year alone.I spent most of last week in Doha at the Web Summit Qatar, the Gulf’s new version of the popular annual tech conference. One theme stood out among the speeches I watched and the conversations I had: sovereignty
Apple and Google pledge not to discriminate against third-party apps in UK deal
Apple and Google have committed to avoid discriminating against apps that compete with their own products under an agreement with the UK’s competition watchdog, as they avoided legally binding measures for their mobile platforms.The US tech companies have vowed to be more transparent about vetting third-party apps before letting them on their app stores and not discriminate against third-party apps in app search rankings.They have also agreed not to use data from third-party apps unfairly, such as using information about app updates to tweak their own offerings.Apple has also committed to giving app developers an easier means of requesting use of its features such as the digital wallet, and live translation for AirPod users.The commitments have been secured as part of a new regulatory regime overseen by the Competition and Markets Authority, (CMA), which has the power to impose changes on how Apple and Google operate their mobile platforms after deciding last year that they had “substantial, entrenched” market power
Winter Olympics 2026 day four: Slovenia win ski jumping gold as Sweden’s Wranå siblings star – as it happened
And you know what? That’s probably enough from us for the day. Medals tomorrow in Super-G, Nordic combined, biathlon, moguls, 1000m speed skating, doubles luge, and the free dance figure skating. Come and hang out with us then. Stay cool.Figure skating: Italian skater Daniel Grassl has gone top of the short program with an astonishing 93
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