Politics
Feminist organisation blasts Labour’s VAWG plans for excluding Black and brown women
On 15 May, Hibiscus – a feminist, anti-racist, and intersectional women’s organisation – gave a searing critique of Labour’s plans to:
champion the rights of women and girls to live in a world free from violence.
Of course, the feminist group welcomed the sentiment of the statement itself. However, it pointed out the glaring hypocrisy of Labour’s agenda to end violence against women and girls (VAWG).
Namely, a great many of the policies laid out in the King’s speech on 13 May would be actively harmful to Black and minoritised migrant women.
Hibiscus stated that:
At a time when meaningful action is urgently needed, the government has once again failed to address the structural inequalities that make women vulnerable to violence in the first place. There are no concrete commitments to invest in specialist support services, no long-term funding guarantees for by and for organisations, and no serious recognition of the socio-economic and political realities facing Black and minoritised migrant women. Instead, several of the proposed bills appear either dangerously indifferent to these realities or intentionally punitive in nature.
Labour not doing enough
Hibiscus voiced particular alarm at the proposed Immigration and Asylum Bill. It includes powers to revoke refugee status in greater numbers, and places greater restrictions on support for asylum-seeking survivors.
In particular, the Hibiscus stated that proposed measures to limit Article 8 applications:
will have devastating consequences for women already living in precarity.
‘Article 8 applications’ refers to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). It guarantees the right to family and private life.
The feminist group also explained that tightening immigration rules leaves migrant women open to abuse:
For migrant women experiencing abuse, immigration status is often weaponised by perpetrators as a tool of control. Policies that deepen insecurity and threaten deportation create enormous barriers to reporting violence, seeking support, or leaving abusive situations safely. These proposals are harmful and dehumanising. They reinforce a hostile environment that leaves migrant and refugee women trapped between abuse and the fear of state violence.
The justice system
On top of this, Hibiscus stated that the proposed Police Reform Bill would only serve to entrench violence against racialised communities:
Expanding policing powers, increasing surveillance, and embedding greater use of AI and intelligence gathering cannot be separated from the realities of institutional racism, misogyny and discrimination within policing and state systems. These measures will deepen mistrust and disproportionately impact racialised communities, including migrant women whose vulnerabilities are already heightened by insecure immigration status.
A police chief in charge of AI use has already acknowledged that a new national police AI data centre will produce biased and racist results. However, this hasn’t stopped police forces forging ahead with adopting the technology.
Hibiscus also highlighted Labour’s current plans to scale back jury trials in England and Wales. As the Canary has previously reported, Black and brown people will likely be disproportionately affected by this change. On that point, Hibiscus highlighted that:
Weakening access to justice risks further undermining confidence in a system that many survivors already struggle to trust. Any government serious about tackling VAWG should be strengthening legal protections and improving access to justice, not eroding them.
The inverse of the over-scrutinisation of Black and brown women when they are suspected of a crime is the corresponding lack of urgency from both police and the media when Black and brown women are potential victims.
Campaign group ‘For Black Women UK’ highlighted the cases of five Black women who were found dead in bodies of water around the UK. Edna Mmbali Ombakho, for example, was missing for 35 days before she was found. However, due to a lack of widespread coverage or awareness-raising:
Many people only learned about her disappearance after she was found.
Blessing Olusegun These are just some of the Black women whose lives tragically ended after they were later found in bodies of water.
Each woman had a life, a family, and people who loved them. pic.twitter.com/mhoPtNk4W8 — For Black Women UK (@forblackwomenuk) March 16, 2026
Kayon Williams
Taiwo Balogun
Samaria Ayanle
Edna Mmbali Ombakho
Housing
We then move on to the field of housing, and its impacts on Black and minoritised migrant women. The Social Housing Renewal Bill ostensibly aims to help victim-survivors of domestic abuse to stay in their houses. However, as Hibiscus highlighted:
For many Black and minoritised women living within close-knit communities, remaining in the family home after leaving an abusive relationship can actually increase risk and isolation. Specialist by and for organisations have long challenged one-size-fits-all approaches to safety.
Likewise, migrant women are often excluded from vital social housing due to their immigration status. As such, Hibiscus highlighted that:
countless women remain at risk of homelessness, housing insecurity and ongoing abuse. Despite this, there is still no meaningful funding commitment to safely house migrant women experiencing violence.
Likewise, the organisation was also clear on how best to structure safe-housing initiatives:
Victim-survivors themselves are best placed to determine what safety looks like for them. Sustainable refuge funding, genuinely accessible housing options, and specialist support services remain essential.
Five key demands
For far too long, mainstream initiatives to combat VAWG have excluded Black and minoritised migrant women. That issue is compounded by policies that fail to acknowledge the ways in which:
racism, misogyny, poverty, immigration status and housing insecurity intersect to shape and exacerbate experiences of violence.
As such, the organisation made five key demands for any government that takes VAWG seriously:
- Long-term investment in specialist by-and-for services
- Safe and accessible housing for all survivors
- Equitable access to justice
- Protection of migrant women’s rights
- Policies developed through an intersectional lens
Hibiscus’ warning was stark:
Without this, promises made to address VAWG will remain empty.
Featured image via Getty Images/Chris J. Ratcliffe
By The Canary
Politics
Democratic socialist Melat Kiros topples a nearly 30-year incumbent to win Colorado House primary
Democratic socialist Melat Kiros defeated 15-term Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette on Tuesday, delivering one of the biggest shocks of the Democratic primary season amid a growing streak of wins for the insurgent left.
Kiros’ win in the contest for Colorado’s 1st District topples a 68-year-old representative who had held the seat since before her 29-year-old challenger was born.
It’s a victory that echoes Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) stunning 2018 upset over 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley in New York, and delivers democratic socialists fresh momentum.
DeGette’s loss, after representing the district since 1997, seemed unthinkable in the state just months ago, but Kiros rode the same anti-incumbent wave that swept through New York’s Democratic primaries last week, where Reps. Adriano Espaillat and Dan Goldman were ousted in a dramatic show of the left’s growing strength.
The defeat is a stunning one for the Democratic establishment, though warning signs had been building for months inside DeGette’s campaign, with allies privately acknowledging the race was tightening and the representative’s team spending weeks urging national Democrats and allied groups to come to her aid.
Kiros launched her campaign nearly a year ago, framing it from the outset as a generational reckoning with the Democratic establishment. She cast DeGette, a longtime progressive who served as an impeachment manager against President Donald Trump, as a corporate-backed incumbent who was out of step with her constituents, and called for a new era of progressive leadership in Congress.
Kiros’ campaign drew major outside support from progressive leaders, including endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders and the Working Families Party, as well as backing from the candidates who upended New York’s Democratic delegation last week.
Her win marks the seventh primary victory this cycle for Justice Democrats, the progressive group that recruited and backed her, making 2026 the organization’s most successful primary year to date.
“We are so proud to be sending Colorado’s first Justice Democrat to Congress,” said Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats. “Melat built a movement that inspired Denverites to remember they themselves have the power to transform what kind of Democratic Party they want to be represented by. Melat and our candidates continue winning this cycle because Democratic voters are finally getting leaders acting on their demands.”
Down the final stretch of the campaign, DeGette’s allies scrambled to hold off Kiros’ rise, with outside groups pouring roughly $2.3 million into the race over the final month, including $1.3 million in the race’s final days. DeGette’s side held a nearly three-to-one spending advantage down the stretch.
DeGette also secured last-minute endorsement videos from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and progressive Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who like DeGette was a manager of Trump’s impeachments. Still, that wasn’t enough to help her keep her seat.
The new class of hard-left members of Congress could prove a tough group to wrangle for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), particularly if Democrats win a narrow majority in the House this fall.
“If the day comes to vote and he continues taking corporate PAC money, I won’t be voting for him,” Kiros said in an interview prior to Tuesday’s win.
Progressive state Rep. Manny Rutinel will take on GOP Rep. Gabe Evans this fall, setting up a contentious general election in one of Democrats’ top pickup targets — and giving Republicans the candidate they hoped to face.
Rutinel defeated the more-moderate former state Rep. Shannon Bird in Tuesday’s primary for Colorado’s 8th District, bolstered by big spending from his campaign and its allies, including prominent Latino groups that see Rutinel as the best candidate to court the key voting bloc back to Democrats. The district is 40 percent Latino.
But Republicans believe they have a better chance at beating Rutinel than they would have Bird in the battleground seat. They’ve boosted pictures of the progressive rallying alongside democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and are quickly recycling statements from Bird’s allies who said Rutinel would be unable to win in November.
Rutinel has softened his positions on some of the left’s top issues, including his previous support for Medicare for All and opposition to fracking.
The primary was defined by the Democratic Party’s ongoing ideological civil war. While Bird racked up endorsements from moderate establishment Democratic groups, like EMILYs List and the centrist Blue Dogs, Rutinel was able to capitalize on a committee vote Bird took as a state legislator that he argued didn’t do enough to stand up to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
Democrats remain bullish they can flip the district, which President Donald Trump won by less than a 2-point margin in 2024. Democrats’ top House super PAC has already reserved millions of dollars in ads ahead of November.
Meanwhile, Evans, a freshman Republican who flipped the district for his party in 2024, has stockpiled $3.4 million for the general election as Democrats duked it out in the primary.
The Supreme Court struck down limits on coordinated spending between candidates and political parties on Tuesday, a win for Republicans that will fundamentally change how tens of millions of dollars are spent in congressional elections.
The decision will have an almost immediate impact on the midterms. Removing the limit on coordinated spending effectively gives candidates direct control over a far greater amount of money being spent on their races. It is also likely to increase the flood of political advertising that hits the airwaves each fall.
The 6-3 decision, which divided the court along its usual ideological lines, held that the limits violate the First Amendment.
The decision is a blow to Democrats, who argued that eliminating the limit on coordination would put more power into the hands of large donors who can cut bigger checks to party committees than to candidates. Republicans tend to get more money from large donors, while Democrats have been more reliant on small-dollar donors.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the majority, called the limits a “severe infringement on First Amendment-protected political speech.” He also argued the ruling eliminating the limits could bolster political parties generally.
“To uphold the political-party coordinated-expenditure limits here could therefore help consign political parties to continued second-tier status as compared to outside groups,” Kavanaugh wrote. “Weakened political parties distort the political system.”
President Donald Trump hailed the ruling allowing parties to spend unlimited amounts in coordination with individual campaigns.
“The Supreme Court just took restrictions off political spending!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “A BIG WIN FOR REPUBLICANS and, more importantly, The First Amendment!”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee brought the case seeking to overturn the limits in 2022 alongside now-Vice President J.D. Vance’s Senate campaign. Trump’s Justice Department declined to defend the law in court, while Democratic groups intervened to oppose the lawsuit.
“By striking down these unconstitutional caps on coordinated spending, the Court has restored core political speech and ensured parties can compete on a level playing field,” NRSC Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) said in a joint statement. “We are ready to fully support our candidates and put them in the strongest possible position to win in 2026 and beyond.”
Democrats, who are already staring down substantial disadvantage in party fundraising this midterm cycle and are worried that the ruling will only amplify the impact of that disparity, were quick to deride the decision Tuesday.
“Today’s ruling is a win for billionaire donors and special interests who want more influence over the GOP agenda and an invitation for corruption,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Kirsten Gillibrand, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in a joint statement.
The ruling strengthens the parties themselves, allowing them to directly support their preferred candidates in a way that could empower their roles in the political ecosystem — and potentially weaken the influence of super PACs. Party committees on both sides have been preparing for the possibility for months and the decision is likely to have an immediate impact on campaign spending ahead of the November midterms.
Previously, coordinated spending between candidates and party committees, such as the NRCC or the DCCC, was capped, with the specific amounts depending on the size of the district or state. Those limits no longer apply.
That significantly alters the campaign finance landscape because parties can accept far larger donations than individual candidates — $44,300 per year for national party committees compared with $3,500 per cycle for candidates. Removing the limit on coordinated spending effectively gives candidates the ability to control a far greater sum of money that is being spent on their race.
That could also substantially change the makeup of political advertising on television, because candidates get far lower rates on TV ads than other groups. If their coordinated efforts with campaigns get the similarly low rate, they would have far more cash to tap to flood the airwaves, while super PACs will still have to pay a higher rate. As a result, campaigns might spend more of their budget on TV advertising, while super PACs may be more likely to pick up other campaigning costs, such as mailers and digital advertising.
Democrats have largely had the advantage in candidate fundraising, which has generally given them a leg up in battlegrounds when candidate fundraising was the most important. But NRSC has slightly more cash on hand than the DSCC, according to recent campaign finance reports, while the Republican National Committee has wildly outraised the DNC. Those party funds could now give the GOP the financial advantage in key states.
The court’s decision additionally eliminates the need for parties to mount their own independent expenditure arms, where they have traditionally spent tens of millions of dollars.
The decision is the latest in a series of blows the high court has dealt to campaign finance regulation over the past two decades. The 2010 Citizens United and Speechnow.org decisions enabled the rise of super PACs with no limit on donations. In 2014, the court struck down aggregate limits on individual donations. And in 2022, it struck down limits on candidates using donor funds to repay personal loans they had made to their campaigns.
“Today’s decision follows a string of disastrous campaign finance rulings from the Roberts Court that began with Citizens United,” Michael Beckel, director of money-in-politics reform at Issue One, said in a statement. “By eliminating the limits that have long governed how much money parties can spend in coordination with candidates, the Supreme Court has further empowered wealthy donors and special interests with outsized influence in elections.”
Singer Gracie Abrams has opened up about her relationship with actor Paul Mescal in an interview with The New York Times’ Popcast.
Rumours that the pair were dating began in 2024. They have since been photographed together at this year’s Bafta Awards, which some called their first “hard launch”.
They were also seen at the 2026 Golden Globes and the most recent Oscars.
The singer, whose partner helped to write song Imaginary Friend for her upcoming album Daughter From Hell, was asked whether the collaboration might invite more prying into their previously private relationship.
“I don’t like the feeling of hiding,” she shared on the podcast.
That’s not to say she doesn’t want to maintain some boundaries – “I also love privacy where it feels like the right thing,” she stated.
On the topic of public scrutiny about her private life, she said: “I always try to assume the absolute worst-case scenario of everything, and then anything else is pleasant”.
After all, she continued: “If you know how happy your experience was making something or how much you learned about yourself or your partner or whatever the thing is, it’s like, no amount of hate or trolling or whatever could take that away.”
She described her relationship as “a part of my life that brings me so much peace and joy… I’m not going to pretend like that’s not true, but I also think it’s not like an open-door policy.”
She added that working with partner Paul on an album wasn’t as huge a leap for the couple as some might expect.
“That was so fun to write together… That wasn’t some groundbreaking event for us”, she said on the episode.
“We have a very creative home with friends who are so good at what they do and everyone feels happy to share that with one another.”
Daughter From Hell will be released on July 17. You can watch the full Popcast interview here.
If you’re looking for something to fill the void between now and September’s very promising-looking Sense and Sensibility release, it might be time to give an underappreciated Lady Susan adaptation a go.
As a committed Austen fan, my top two on-screen period versions have long been the basically-perfect 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice series and 2016′s Love And Friendship.
But while I think a lot of fans are with me on the BBC take, I’ve seen a lot less buzz around Whit Stillman’s masterpiece – despite its 96% Rotten Tomatoes score and multiple awards.
Perhaps that’s because the wild late-teens writing it’s based on is rarely read, though that, too, should be rectified IMO.
The Love and Friendship movie is based on Lady Susan. I’m not really sure why it’s got the name; there is a story by Austen called Love and Friendship, but though it also features grasping, scheming women, the movie’s plot is clearly based on the “little-known novella”.
Still, the only thing that matters is our Suze. Played by Kate Beckinsale, she’s a ruthless, conniving, cruel and self-serving manipulator – who gets absolutely everything she’s ever wanted.
The Regency marriage market, after all, had all of those traits too.
The book (well, epistolary novella) comes from the young, cynical mind of an Austen who isn’t as concerned about mass-market appeal as she is making her friends and family laugh. The movie feels similar.
You will not swoon as Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett) brainlessly squawks the words “Church” and “Hill” around a terrified teen. Your knees won’t buckle when Susan’s friend, Alicia (Chloë Sevigny) sneaks around her older husband (Stephen Fry).
Nor will you sigh longingly when you watch the recently-widowed Lady Susan backstab her way to that sweetest of lovers: solvency.
But you will howl laughing at the absurdity of all of this – the brutal weaponisation of manners, gentlemanly duty, and less-than-gentlemanly urges.
That’s because at her heart, Austen knows love is stupidly simple and very complex. It’s the silliest and most serious topic in the world, and in both her and Stillman’s hands, it becomes the funniest, too.
Love and Friendship is available on Disney+.
Nigel Farage is “dead in the water” and will have to quit as Reform UK leader, according to Piers Morgan.
The broadcaster said Farage is “rattled” by questions about the £5 million he accepted from a Thailand-based crypto billionaire and did not publicly declare.
The Reform boss has insisted the money, which he received months before becoming an MP in 2024, was a “gift” which he would spend on his personal security.
He has also described it as a “reward” for campaigning for Brexit, and last week even suggested he could spend it on Ferraris.
Parliament’s sleaze watchdog has launched an investigation into the issue, which is expected to report back soon and could see Farage suspended from the Commons if he is found to have broken rules on the declaration of donations.
On the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show, Morgan said Farage’s failure to shut down the row meant time was now running out for him.
He said: “Nigel Farage, I think, is dead in the water.
“I think this £5 million bung he took from this crypto tycoon in Thailand, he still can’t get his story straight about why.
“Originally it was about security, then it was a reward for Brexit. Now he says it was just a gift and he can spend it on Ferraris, like all men of the people would say.
“You can see how rattled he is by the questions he’s getting [and] they’re not going to go away.”
He added: “Reform, I think, are in real trouble. I think their leader’s going to have to go.”
In a car crash BBC interview last week, Farage insisted that “no one cares” about his £5m gift.
He said: “Let’s be clear: it’s a personal gift, I can spend it on cars if I want to. It’s entirely up to me.
“But there is a specific reason for this. I have been physically the most attacked and endangered politician for now well over a decade.”
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
After the UK set a new maximum temperature record for June over three consecutive days last week, many of us are now enjoying the cooler weather.
The week-long heatwave – which saw red and amber heat health alerts in place across much of England and Wales – culminated in a high of 37.3°C at Santon Downham in Suffolk on 26 June (the hottest temperature recorded for this time of year).
Multiple schools across southern England closed or allowed pupils to head home earlier than normal due to the extreme temperatures. Public transport was also disrupted in some areas.
While this week’s generally looking a lot more settled on the weather front, it seems another heatwave is making its way to London sooner than many might’ve hoped.
When is the next London heatwave?
Friday 3 July will see highs of 27°C in London, with the same again forecast for 4 July, climbing to 28°C on 5 July and 30°C on 6 July, according to BBC Weather.
From 7-12th July, the capital is expected to remain hot with temperatures floating around the 30°C mark.
The Met Office’s long-range forecast for 3-12 July suggests “high pressure will dominate across England and Wales … bringing dry and warm conditions with plenty of sunshine for most”.
“Temperatures will rise through the period, perhaps becoming very warm or hot in places,” it added.
As it stands there are no heat health alerts in place, however this may well change as the week progresses.
When is a heatwave officially declared?
Heatwaves are declared when a location experiences at least three consecutive days where it meets – or exceeds – a ‘heatwave temperature threshold’.
These thresholds vary across the UK. In London, for example, the temperature threshold is 28°C.
The Met Office previously said that hotter summers are becoming more likely in the UK in general.
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The Good Life actor Dame Penelope Keith has died aged 86.
In a statement, her family said: “We are deeply saddened to announce that Dame Penelope Keith died peacefully whilst living with cancer at her home in Surrey, where she had lived for more than 50 years.
“The family is grateful for the care and support she received throughout her treatments, and ask that their privacy be respected at this time.”
Aside from playing Margo Leadbetter in The Good Life, the actor also starred as Audrey fforbes-Hamilton in To The Manor Born.
Speaking of her To The Manor Born role with The Guardian in 2013, she said: “I loved it because we had to do all our own stunts.
“I am a country girl at heart, and I got to ride horses again, to learn about bee keeping, to drive a two-tonne Rolls-Royce with impossible gears; I scaled a five-bar gate with a picnic hamper to flee a bull.”
On X, fans have already begun expressing their grief at her loss.
“So very sad, a wonderful actress,” a reply to the BBC’s post about the news reads.
“She was so unique: loved her,” another said.
She was so unique: loved her.
— Yvonne Wilson (@YvonneWils53911) June 29, 2026
Writer James Hogg, who interviewed Dame Keith for his biography of Good Life co-star Richard Briers, said in an Instagram post: “She was one of the first people I interviewed for my biography of Richard Briers and, as expected, she was incredibly charming, witty, and generous. She was truly a remarkable actress.
“Richard himself was so impressed by her and Paul Eddington’s performances as Margo and Jerry Leadbetter in The Good Life that he encouraged the writers to expand their roles and focus the show more on the four of them, which they did to great success.
“She will be greatly missed.”
Dame Keith was awarded a CBE, OBE, and damehood throughout her life.
She also won two BAFTAS and an Olivier award.
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Kemi Badenoch has been criticised after comparing the female allies around Andy Burnham to his “handmaidens”.
The Tory leader said they were merely “window dressing” as Labour once again prepares to make a man its leader.
Burnham is widely expected to succeed Keir Starmer after the PM announced he was resigning last Monday.
The new MP for Makerfield is currently the only person to formally announce his intention to run to be the next Labour leader and de facto prime minister.
If he gets into No.10, as expected, it means Labour will have missed another opportunity to appoint its first female leader.
At a press conference on Monday, Badenoch – the Conservatives’ fourth female leader – tore into Labour for still not choosing a woman to lead the party.
Asked about comments reported by the Spectator that some in Labour think Burnham would be the party’s first female leader in all but sex, Badenoch replied: “I don’t know what to say.
“The idea that Andy Burnham is Labour’s first female prime minister shows that that party still doesn’t know what a woman is.”
The Tories have often accused Labour of not “knowing what a woman is” amid culture wars around transgender people’s rights.
Badenoch continued: “But I’ve also found it very interesting how Labour women have been so much in a hurry to carry his bags and be his handmaiden and be at the front of his, of his, his photo pool.
“Why would you allow yourselves to be used as window dressing in this way?”
Her use of “handmaiden” likely refers to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian hit novel and the TV series, The Handmaid’s Tale, where women’s rights are completely eroded.
Burnham has been pictured surrounded by female aides on a handful of occasions, and is expected to appoint women MPs to key roles in government to counterbalance Labour’s lack of female leaders.
He has a strong body of support from influential women in the party, including ex-deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, former transport secretary Louise Haigh and deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell.
In response to Badenoch’s speech, key Burnham ally Anneliese Midgley wrote on X: “Stay classy, Kemi.”
A female Labour source told HuffPost UK: “Is she for real? Does she just say this stuff to attention seek, or does she actually genuinely think that women in senior political roles are just there to be exploited by men. She’s grim.”
The Conservative leader also used her speech to compare energy secretary Ed Miliband, the soft-left MP who could be appointed as Burnham’s chancellor, to “Nigerian military dictators”.
She said: “Yes, Ed Miliband is acting like the Nigerian military dictators who ruined a lot of that country’s economic potential and made it so much poorer and in some cases bankrupted the country.”
Badenoch claimed that the UK would be heading for a “summer of chaos” if Burnham became prime minister, too.
“Difficult problems need solving, and difficult decisions must be taken,” she said.
“But the man who will be prime minister in a couple of weeks wants a three-month summer holiday, because he needs some time to work out what he thinks.
“He will spend the next three months with unions and left-wing think tanks demanding policy changes which no one voted for.
“Andy Burnham is already the prime minister in everything but name. He must put an end to speculation, walk into No 10, name his cabinet, and come to Parliament to tell the country what he plans to do.
“Instead, he is allowing speculation and this chaos to run and run. He has clearly learned nothing from the disastrous speculation of Rachel Reeves’ last budget.”
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
Andy Burnham, UK lawmaker, delivers a speech at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, UK, on Monday, June 29, 2026. Andy Burnham has vowed to bring about “the biggest change in our lifetimes to the way the country is run” as he unveiled his vision for the future of Britain.
The man who is set to become prime minister next month said he would put “hope in every heart” when he takes over from Keir Starmer next month.
He said his government will “do things differently” by ushering in a huge shift in power away from Whitehall towards local communities and regions, as part of a 10-year mission to improve the lives of ordinary people.
Burnham confirmed that he will set up a so-called “No.10 north [to] be the nerve centre of a rewired Britain”.
Its job will be “to make power flow into the Midlands, into the South West, into the East of England and yes, into London”, he said.
Burnham also unveiled plans for the biggest boost in council house building since the Second World War, and major reforms to education to boost technical education for pupils who do not want to go to university.
In a speech at the People’s Museum in Manchester, Burnham said: “I am going to do things differently. I am going to break with the ‘more of the same’ approach that has got us here.
“I am going to give Britain the circuit-breaker it needs by building a more collaborative politics in Westminster, by taking power out of the centre and putting it in the hands of the people and places who can use it best.
“And in so doing, creating a new sense of agency, possibility and hope flowing around the country.
“We will make politics work for you and the place where you live.”
He added: “The change will be the biggest change in our lifetimes to the way the country is run and it is consistent with the 2024 manifesto.
“We will create a more streamlined state with a clearer purpose to power up all parts of the country and put a laser-like focus on growth and regeneration, good growth.”
Burnham said his job will be to give “hope” back to those who have suffered due to years of rising prices and stagnating wages.
“If people in 1844 could form the co-operative movement in Rochdale to lower the price of food, then why can’t we act now with similar courage to make life better?” he said.
“Imagine what things could be like if we succeed. Imagine what it would feel like to live in a country wired to work for ordinary people in all local areas, rather than against them.
“Imagine if all local areas could build homes people could afford, to the point where they could guarantee one for everyone. Imagine if we could bring down the cost of energy for people and businesses, and the good things that would come from that.
“Imagine good growth in every postcode and hope in every heart. Well imagine no more, let’s make it happen.”
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
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