Labour’s recently departed grandees are keen to defend their legacies. Is Andy Burnham really offering Britain something new? Rachel Reeves wants you to know she thinks Britain’s future belongs in Europe. She would also like to mention that she “absolutely” got all the big calls right as chancellor, even if there were a few things she would have done differently, and that John Healey’s budget last week would have been far harder for him if she hadn’t put in so much of the groundwork. The gist of her argument in last weekend’s Sunday papers – previewing a lecture at Harvard University today, reflecting on her time in power – was essentially that if anyone imagines Andy Burnham somehow invented pro-Europeanism and putting more money in people’s pockets, they can think again. Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like
Rachel Reeves and the Starmerites are back – and they’re pointing out how little has changed | Gaby Hinsliff
Original reporting
The Guardian: read the full reportRelated stories
Mahmood says most care workers will be able to get settlement after 5 years, not 15 as originally proposed – UK politics live
Home secretary announced 5-year ILR option for care workers won’t apply to people who arrived after May 2025 Downing Street has declined to say how much it cost for the plane carrying Andy Burnham and UK delegates to a Commonwealth leaders’ summit to stop in Manchester to pick him up (see 10.28am ), the Press Association reports. At the morning lobby briefing, asked if this was an appropriate use of public money, the PM’s spokesperson said: The prime minister’s travel arrangements are made on the basis of security, operational requirements, and value for money for the taxpayer. The prime minister’s travel arrangements reflect where he was carrying out official government business at the end of last week. Continue reading...
A decade of magical thinking since Brexit has taught me that it’s always OK to hope for better | Zoe Williams
The world has changed enormously since 2016, yet the pro-Brexiters believe remainers like me have no chance of achieving a closer relationship with the EU. I’m choosing to ignore them However sunny your disposition, it wears you down, 10 straight years of being asked to accept facts about Brexit that aren’t true: 52% as an “overwhelming majority”; a flaky, half-baked referendum as the endpoint of purest democracy; the severance of a complicated trading and geopolitical relationship that took decades to build as the dawn of a new prosperity. All such nonsense, all delivered with such conviction, by such a wide variety of sources, many of them self-describing as impartial, that in the end you just surrender to it. None of it magically becomes true, don’t be silly. It’s more that you come to accept that everyone else talks nonsense now. Nobody get too excited – just because Andy Burnham has
Reform council leader quits after staff comments leaked
Dan Harrison was recorded as saying 76 council solicitors he branded "incompetent" would be made redundant.
Labour ends power-sharing with Greens in 11 councils over Zionism row
Labour's ruling National Executive Committee sets out where it is cutting ties with the Greens.
EHRC raises concern with Reform about ‘racial and sexual remarks’ in documentary
Watchdog writes to Nigel Farage’s party to ask what action it is taking to comply with the Equality Act The official equalities watchdog has written to Reform UK to raise concerns after an undercover TV documentary showed councillors and candidates for the party expressing racist and misogynistic views, with one of the party’s MPs complaining about ingrained sexism. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it had written to Nigel Farage’s party in the wake of revelations in ITV’s Undercover: A Year in Reform, which was broadcast in October. Continue reading...
No10 defends flight to Manchester to collect Andy Burnham
The trip sparked a backlash with some questioning the value for money, but No 10 says security, cost and "operational requirements" were all factored in.