Andrea Egan, the new, leftwing general secretary of Unison, one of the most powerful unions in Labour politics, has claimed that the survival of the labour movement is “on the line” because of the mistakes being made by Keir Starmer,In an article for Tribune, she is particularly critical of the decision to block Andy Burnham from being a byelection candidate in Gorton and Denton,But she argues that this is just part of a wider problem, and that a “radical change in direction” is needed from Downing Street,She says:Today in Britain, the first far-right government in our history is a very real prospect,Nigel Farage in power would be the biggest triumph for the enemies of the working class since his idol Margaret Thatcher took office almost five decades ago – and could make the 1980s look like an easy ride.

It would be a global victory for a billionaire-backed ethnonationalist project represented by the administration of Donald Trump, whose contempt for democracy was so brutally demonstrated by the murder of intensive care nurse Alex Pretti by ICE agents.For every worker, active trade unionist, or anyone who wants to live in an open and democratic society, the political stakes of the coming months and years are potentially existential.We are staring down the barrel of a historically devastating offensive against our class.But from witnessing the recent behaviour of Labour’s ruling faction, you wouldn’t know it.Spearheaded from Downing Street, this narrow Westminster grouping often gives the impression it would rather hand the country over to Farage and put the labour movement’s survival on the line than consider any change in policy direction or lose the slightest control over the party machine.

Egan says the reasons given by Labour for Burnham being blocked were “an insult to the intelligence of anyone unfortunate enough to have read them”,She says:One, at least, was revealing: the idea that the risk of losing the Greater Manchester mayoralty to Reform UK was too great,In other words, this Labour government is so unpopular that the party might well lose an election it won last time with 63% of the vote,The solution? Bar your most popular figure from returning to national politics,She concludes:I know that I speak for many of my colleagues across the trade union movement, and in chorus with a significant number of Labour MPs, when I say that we cannot allow those currently in charge of the party to take us down with them.

A radical change in direction – in party culture, in policy for the country, in how we deal with the far-right threat – could not be more urgently needed.I am confident that a broad, pluralist coalition across our movement will now come together to ensure we see that change.The prime minister should know that this latest act of control freakery was, above all else, a mistake.He cannot afford any more.Keir Starmer has accused the Reform UK candidate in the Greater Manchester byelection of pursuing the politics of “toxic division” after he refused to disown his claim that UK-born people from minority ethnic backgrounds are not necessarily British.

Andrea Egan, the new, leftwing general secretary of Unison, one of the most powerful unions in Labour politics, has claimed that the survival of the labour movement is “on the line” because of the mistakes being made by Keir Starmer.(See 2.11pm.)Centrist ideas are no longer wanted in the Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch has said, arguing that one nation-type Tories or others who have qualms about her rightward direction for the party “need to get out of the way”.For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.

Pippa Crerar is the Guardian’s political editor, in China covering the PM’s visit,Keir Starmer has said the government has yet to decide whether to allow a Chinese company to suppy turbines for a major windfarm in the North Sea,As Eleni Courea reported last year, the government is in discussions with Green Volt North Sea over whether Mingyang, China’s biggest offshore wind company, should supply the wind turbines,There are concerns in government about a Chinese government having a role in critical infrastructure of this kind,Asked about this plan, Starmer told reporters:No decision has been made in relation to Mingyang.

There’s no decision on that yet, one way or another, but obviously uppermost in our minds is the national security of the United Kingdom,Asked whether the considerations were the same for windfarms as for nuclear power stations, Starmer replied: “That’s part of the consideration in any decision,But there is no decision,”US intelligence agencies disagree with Donald Trump’s newly found opposition to the Chagos deal, Keir Starmer has said, as he underlined how the US administration had supported the deal as it bolstered their defences,Pippa Crerar, who is in China covering the PM’s trip, has the story.

The latest edition of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast is out.It features John Harris and Kiran Stacey discussing the selection of Matt Goodwin was the Reform UK candidate in Gorton and Denton.John has also interviewed Esther Ghey, mother of the murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, on the case for a social media ban for under-16s.A reader asks:Does the More In Common poll take into account the lowered voting age that comes into effect at the next election?All the polls seem to still be 18-plus.What steps are pollsters taking to remedy these changes?It’s worth looking at, given how these young uncounted voters are likely to skew to the left and especially the Greens …Luke Tryl from More in Common tells me the seat projection figures in the MRP poll do not take into account the voting age going down to 16.

He points out that this has not happened yet, and says he thinks they will shift when the change becomes law.He thinks other polling companies are adopting the same approach.Given that the number of 16 and 17-year-olds in the country is relatively small, and that turnout figures for the young are low anyway, the change will probably make little difference to overall results.But Tryl points out that “in an era of 5/6/7 party politics” even marginal changes could make a difference in some seats.Hannah Al-Othman is the Guardian’s North of England correspondent.

Lucy Powell, Labour’s deputy leader, has dismissed claims that the Greens are the party with the best chance of defeating Reform UK in the Gorton and Denton byelection.Speaking at the launch of an advertising campaing in the constituency, Powell said:I think there’s been some mixed messages and there’s been some things coming through in the media, but the Greens can’t win here.So voting Green is really risky because it risks letting Reform in.We lost a byelection in Runcorn, not that far from here, by six votes because people voted Green.And that Reform MP in Runcorn, she’s going around saying she doesn’t want to see black and brown people on the telly.

That’s what happens if people vote for any other party other than Labour in this straight fight between Labour and Reform.There are no Green councillors across this constituency at all, we are very strong on the ground here.This is a Labour area and this is about whether Reform come into a Labour area or whether Labour stops Reform coming into a Labour area.She also said Reform had “missed the mark” in their choice of candidate, which she saw as an advantage to Labour.Reform are dangerous and are quite poisonous in my own view, and Matt Goodwin is them almost on steroids.

He is a version of their really bad brand of politics, and I think they’ve missed the mood completely of Manchester by selecting Matt Goodwin,And I think that he will, people will discover his views on things,And I’m very confident that people around here will reject Reform and elect a Labour MP,It is clearly what Labour currently views as its best selling point; beside a bar graph that shows Reform leading the polls by 2%, the ad van declares: “Only Labour Can Stop Reform,”Countering claims that Labour can no longer appeal to leftwing voters, Powell pointed to policies including lifting the two-child benefit cap, bringing rail and buses back into public ownership, investing in public services, and recognising the state of Palestine.

In her speech this morning Kemi Badenoch implicitly criticised Prosper UK, the new group set up by Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Tory leader, and Andy Street, the former West Midlands mayor, calling for moderate Conservatism.(See 9.21am.)Prosper UK does not seem to bothered.A spokesperson said:We welcome Kemi Badenoch’s remarks promising to make economic growth a bigger focus as she rebuilds the party.

More of that please,But while the party rebuilds itself, as it must, we will be out there meeting the wider group of voters who don’t yet identify with any party and offering ideas and solutions to the matters they care most about – the cost of living, jobs, housing and more,So, whilst she cracks on, we’ll do the same,The government’s promise to make private rented homes fit for habitation will not be enforced for almost a decade, a decision campaigners describe as “absurd”,Jessica Murray has the story.

Campaigners have criticised as too lenient the punishment handed to a Conservative hereditary peer who has been found to have broken the House of Lords rules for the second time, Rob Evans and Henry Dyer report.A reader asks:Patricia Ferguson wasn’t on the list you published at 11.39 of MPs down to ask a question at PMQs.Yet she got to ask a question anyway - how does this happen?Is it because another backbench UK Labour MP stepped aside to provide a soundbite for Anas “Desperate Dan” Sarwar on his daily news slot arraranged by his press team at BBC Scotland’s 6.30 10 Minute SNP hate session? Or did Hoyle just add her to help with his retirement peerage?It is because the list of MPs down to get a question published on the Commons order paper (a list chosen by lot from MPs who apply) is only a starting point.

The speaker has the discretion to call other MPs not on the list.And he has to alternate questions, so that an opposition question gets followed by a government-side question, which in turn gets followed by an opposition question etc.This means that, if too many opposition MPs win a question in the ballot, he has to call more Labour MPs anyway to make up the numbers.As for why Ferguson got called, I don’t know.MPs wanting to ask a question have to “bob” – jump up after each question has finished, trying to catch the speaker’s eye.

I presume Ferguson was bobbing,Some of them let the speaker know in advance what topic they want to raise, in the hope of persuading him that it is a subject that needs to be addressed at PMQs, but, as you say, this was quite a partisan question, and so I doubt it was granted as a special favour,Downing Street has said that the Daily Telegraph report today headlined “Stamer led ‘witch-hunt’ against Iraq veterans” is full of inaccuracies,Kemi Badenoch said that Keir Starmer should apologise to veterans when she was asked about the report at her press conference earlier,(See 10.

41am,)But, asked about the story at the post-PMQs lobby briefing, a No 10 spokesperson said:The story broken last night contains flagrant inaccuracies,The prime minister did not represent the claimants in this case,The prime minister did not work alongside Phil Shinner in this case,The prime minister was not the lead barrister in the claim.

The prime minister represented interveners, including the Law Society of England and Wales.Interveners did not advocate for either side.Their role is to assist the court on points of law during his career.The prime minister has represented British soldiers who were killed in action and who were wrongly accused.The prime minister will never forget the courage, bravery and sacrifice made by British servicemen and women for their country.

Andrea Egan, the new, leftwing general secretary of Unison, one of the most powerful unions in Labour politics, has claimed that the survival of the labour movement is “on the line” because of the mistakes being made by Keir Starmer.In an article for Tribune, she is particularly critical of the decision to block Andy Burnham from being a byelection candidate in Gorton and Denton.But she argues that this is just part of a wider problem, and that a “radical change in direction” is needed from Downing Street.She says:Today in Britain, the first far-right government in our history is a very real prospect.Nigel Farage in power would be the biggest triumph for the enemies of the working class since his idol Margaret Thatcher took office almost five decades ago – and could make the 1980s look like an easy ride.

It would be a global victory for a billionaire-backed ethnonationalist project represented by the administration of Donald Trump, whose contempt for democracy was so brutally demonstrated by the murder of intensive care nurse Alex Pretti by ICE agents.For every worker, active trade unionist, or anyone who wants to live in an open and democratic society, the political stakes of the coming months and years are potentially existential.We are staring down the barrel of a historically devastating offensive against our class.But from witnessing the recent behaviour of Labour’s ruling faction, you wouldn’t know it.Spearheaded from Downing Street, this narrow Westminster grouping often gives the impression it would rather hand the country over to Farage and put the labour movement’s survival on the line than consider any change in policy direction or lose the slightest control over the party machine.

Egan says the reasons given by Labour for Burnham being blocked were “an insult to the intelligence of anyone unfortunate enough to have read them”.She says:One, at least, was revealing: the idea that the risk of losing the Greater Manchester mayoralty to Reform UK was too great.In other words, this Labour government is so unpopular that the party might well lose an election it won last time with 63% of the vote.The solution? Bar your most popular figure from returning to national politics.She concludes:I know that I speak for many of my colleagues across the trade union movement, and in chorus with a significant number of Labour MPs, when I say that we cannot allow those currently in charge of the party to take us down with them.

A radical change in direction – in party culture, in policy for the country, in how we deal with the far-right threat – could not be more urgently needed,I am confident that a broad, pluralist coalition across our movement will now come together to ensure we see that change,The prime minister should know that this latest act of control freakery was, above all else, a mistake,He cannot afford any more,Labour will be “washed away in a tide of discontent” at the next general election unless it tackles the decline of Britain’s high streets, a study has warned, as Guardian analysis lays bare the changing face of town centres.

Michael Goodier and Josh Halliday have the story.It is easy to criticise Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch at PMQs every week – some of us even do it for a living – but, as with other people performing a job regularly with millions watching (TV news reading is a good example), it is a lot harder than it looks.We knew that, but it is helpful to get a reminder.And that was the main takeaway from today.Andrew Griffith was the unfortunate chap who ended up as the conduit of this lesson