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Early evening summary
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.
Reform UK should rebrand as 'Conform', because they are establishment, free market Tories, says Polanski
This is from Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, on Suella Braverman’s defection to Reform UK.
Always keen for a rebrand, Nigel Farage could try Conform as his next incarnation, since 14 members of the former Conservative government have now tied their flag to the Reform UK mast.
Conform is also apt since it is very much an establishment party conforming to a harsh free market ideology, with its belief in a low-wage, low-tax, low-regulation economy and pushing austerity, privatisation and cuts to the public sector and welfare.
Q: [To Braverman] When did you stop believing in the Conservative party?
Braverman says it was when she first walked into a Rishi Sunak cabinet meeting. She saw Sunak, Jeremy Hunt, Mel Stride – “so many people really on the left of the party dominating that cabinet”. She says she felt she did not fit.
Farage says, with Burnham not standing, Reform UK now party for anti-Starmer vote in Gorton and Denton
Farage says Reform UK has a much better chance of winning the Gorton and Denton byelection without Andy Burnham as a candidate.
[Had] Burnham stood, our chances of winning would have been considerably reduced because he would have been the anti-Starmer candidate. I believe that Reform are now the anti-Starmer candidate. Only a Reform victory can get rid of Starmer as prime minister.
Farage says Reform UK will unveil its candidate in Gorton and Denton tomorrow afternoon at 2pm in the constituency.
Q: Will you rule out Liz Truss being allowed to join Reform UK?
Farage says it is very unlikely that she will apply to join.
(Interesting, he is not prepared to say what his party has told journalists – which is that the answer is no. See 2.28pm.)
But he says the mini-budget did play a useful role, because it showed that you cannot cut taxes without cutting spending too.
Q: Do you think there is a link between the failure to crack down on what you called the “hate marches” (the pro-Palestine marches), and the synagogue attack in Manchester?
Braverman says these should have been banned when she said that should have been banned. The fact that one went ahead on Armistice Day was a “disgrace”, she says.
She says she warned in 2023 that someone would be killed.
Farage says what makes Reform UK different is it thinks Britain broken, while Labour and Tories don't
Q: How can you argue you are different when you continue to take Tory defectors?
Farage says if he does not take Tory defectors, people will accuse him of not being ready for government.
But the party is radical and different, he says. He goes on:
I’ll tell you what the key differences is. And it’s this.
The prime minister insists that Britain is not broken. The leader of the opposition insists that Britain is not broken.
We absolutely insist that Britain is broken.
And I don’t think I’m prepared to accept the depths to which we’ve sunk and are sinking fast – economically, socially, societally.
Farage says it is important to understand this, because his party is radical about change.
It’s like the others want to fiddle with the plumbing, we think you need a completely brand new boiler and a brand new system.
Q: Are you leaving because you realised your career in Tory politics had come to an end. Is this about your ambition?
Braverman says in politics “you have to really believe what you are doing”. She has not been in that position for some time, she says.
She says she has had a problem with the party for a time. And it has not really changed much under Kemi Badenoch. The same people are still running the party.
She says the party criticised Labour for delaying local elections. But Badenoch did not do anything about Tory councils that asked for a delay, she says.
Braverman says there is a “very toxic environment” in the Conservative party. She goes on:
There is now a concerted effort to expunge from the party anyone who wants robust borders, who wants, tough, a tough approach to law and order.
Q: What happened to the Labour defector that you were meant to unveil last week?
Farage says this has not happened yet, but it will happen. He says Reform UK is talking to a number of people who have held senior positions in Labour.
Braverman says Tory HQ comment about her mental health 'pathetic'
Farage and Braverman are now taking questions.
Q: [From the BBC’s Chris Mason] Will you commit to giving defectors jobs in government?
Farage says that he needs people with experience of government.
But, after 7 May, he will not accept any more defectors from the Tories, he says.
Q: [To Braverman] What is your response to what the Tories said about you today?
Braverman says:
Well, it is a bit pathetic.
As I said, it says more about them than it does me. I’m not really going to dignify it [with a response].
The right 'has lost battle for Conservative party', Braverman says
Braverman says she concluded rightwingers like her were losing the policy battle in the Conservative party.
The time has come to admit defeat. I’m on the right. Proudly on the right of British politics. But the right has lost the battle for the Conservative party.
She goes on:
The one nation wets have won the Conservative party. The centrists control it, they populate it, and they are welcome to it.
The truth is that, in recent years, I have found myself effectively in a social democrat, left-leaning party made up of conservatives in name only – Chino.
Braverman praises Nigel Farage for being consistent.
And she says journalists will not find past tweets from her criticising Farage – because she has always largely agreed with him.
Braverman says today's slur not first time Badenoch has questioned her mental health
Suella Braverman is speaking at the Reform UK press conference. She is listing a series of policy issues where she says Tory colleagues ignored her views when the Tories were in office, including: immigration policy; leaving the European convention on human rights; Islamic marches, multiculturalism and trans policy.
She also points out that in 2024, after the general election, Kemi Badenoch reportedly told shadow cabinet that Braverman was having a nervous breakdown. That was “something she seems to have repeated again today,” Braverman said.
Nigel Farage is holding his press conference now. There is a live feed here.
He starts by claiming that the Conservatives are today “attempting to move to the centre ground to become more liberal than a Liberal Democrats”.
This is a reference to Prosper UK, a group set up today by Ruth Davidson, the former Tory leader in Scotland, and Andy Street, the former West Midlands mayor. It is campaigning for moderate Conservatism.
In a statement, they say:
At a time when some claim populism of the left and right is inevitable, we reject that view. We believe there is an urgent space for practical, pro-business politics that unites rather than divides, that stands up to both the left and the populist right, and that refuses easy answers and empty promises.
As moderate conservatives, we are determined to fill that space, offering stability, responsibility and optimism for the country’s future.
There is a list of Prosper’s supporters here. There are a lot of “formers” on the list.
Farage is wrong to say this is where the current Conservative party is heading. Kemi Badenoch has said the recent defections are not a sign the party will move away from the right.
Police reform plan will include 'largest-ever rollout of facial recognition', Mahmood tells MPs
Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, has told MPs that her police reform plan will include the “largest-ever rollout of facial recognition”.
She told MPs that some police forces are “fighting crime in a digital age with analogue methods”.
She said:
We will ensure that every force is adopting the latest technology led out of the new National Police Service.
This will include the largest-ever rollout of live facial recognition technologies across England and Wales. We know this approach works.”
When the future arrives, there are always doubters.
One hundred years ago, fingerprinting was decried as curtailing our civil liberties, but today we could not imagine policing without it.
I have no doubt the same will prove true of facial recognition technology in the years to come.
Mahmood also said £115m would be invested in AI and automation to “make policing more effective and efficient”.
The police reform plan is set out in this white paper.
Foreign Office minister defends Chagos Islands policy in Commons - without Labour MPs speaking up to support him
Stephen Doughty, a Foreign Office minister, had to defend the government’s Chagos Islands deal without a single Labour backbencher speaking up to support him in the Commons this afternoon.
He was speaking in response to an urgent question tabled by Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, who restated the Tory claim that it was a “surrender” policy.
At the end of last week the government postponed a Lords debate on the Diego Garcia military base and British Indian Ocean Territory bill – the legislation implementing the treaty that will transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, with the UK and the US getting guaranteed use of the Diego Garcia military base for at least 99 years – after the Tories tabled an amendment intended to wreck it.
Doughty told MPs that this was “irresponsible and reckless behaviour”, and that the bill was needed for national security.
Responding to Tory claims the bill would breach a 1966 treaty with the US saying the Chagos Islands should remain British, he said the Trump administration, which approved the deal when it was agreed last year, were aware of this and that the 1966 treaty had been updated several times in the past already.
During the UQ the only Labour MP to speak was Dan Carden, who said he did not understand why the UK did not just keep the Chagos Islands and commit to defending them militarily if necessary.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing earlier, the PM’s spokesperson said the government remained “fully committed” to the agreement, even though Donald Trump criticised it in a post on social media last week. At the time Keir Starmer said Trump was using the Chagos Islands issue as a means of trying to get the UK to drop its opposition to the US buying Greenland.
Updated
Ben Quinn is a Guardian political correspondent.
Reform UK has also criticised the Tories for their comment about Suella Braverman’s mental health. A Reform source said:
It’s a gross affront to millions of people in this country’s; it’s also not true.
Whether you like Suella or not, she is a Cambridge-educated barrister who has served in a series of extraordinarily senior positions in this country. It goes without saying that she has never been diagnosd with a mental health condition.
[This briefing] is a testament to the extent to which the Tory party is in real panic mode and is prepared to say anything.
Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman are holding a press conference at 5pm.
UPDATE: Responding to this, the Rethink Mental Illness charity said:
Today will henceforth be known as ‘Hold-my-Beer-While-I-Say-Something-Clumsy-and-Stigmatising-About-Mental-Health-Day’. While the Conservative party was right to retract its statement, a response attributed to a Reform ‘source’ has now awkwardly (and presumably accidentally) implied that professional success and living with mental illness are somehow incompatible. That will be news to the millions of people across the country who live with mental illness while leading, contributing and succeeding every single day.
Updated
Farage claims Trump never meant to insult British troops, and ICE victim in Minneapolis shouldn't have been there with gun
Nigel Farage has claimed that Donald Trump never meant to insult British troops when he told Fox News last week that non-US Nato troops fighting in Afghanistan avoided the frontline.
Asked about the Trump comments on GB News, Farage said:
There was no way Donald Trump ever, ever meant the British, ever. You talk to people in his team, and they’re very, very pro this country, and our contribution in Afghanistan, pro rata, exactly matched that of America.
This is not what Farage said on Friday. As outrage erupted in British political circles on Friday about the Trump comments, Farage himself put out a statement saying the US president was wrong.
Speaking to GB News today, Farage also criticised Alex Pretti, the ICU nurse shot dead by ICE agents in Minneapolis. He said:
You don’t carry a gun to a protest. That’s the point. If you’re going to protest, you don’t carry a gun, even if it’s an open carry state.
Although the Trump administration has claimed that Pretti was armed and posing a threat, he was just holding a phone when he was attacked by ICE, his gun was in a holster, there is no evidence that he intended to use it, and video evidence suggests it was taken away from him before he was shot. The killing has generated outrage around the world. There is more coverage of the story here.
But Farage did not fully defend ICE in this instance. “It looks like ICE have gone way over the top,” he told GB News. He went on:
I’m afraid every single year in America, we see examples of the police, of the authorities, that go way too far. But because it’s ICE, it’s obviously much more controversial. And I sensed coming out of the White House last night they’re pretty uncomfortable too.
Updated
Tories withdraw allegation mental health was factor in Braverman's defection, claiming draft was 'sent out in error'
Tory HQ has withdrawn its claim that mental health was a factor in her decision to join Reform UK. (See 1.41pm.) It has sent a revised statement to journalists, omitting the reference to Braverman’s mental health, saying the original version was “a draft” that was “sent out in error”.
Rethink Mental Illness, a charity, has criticised Tory HQ for suggesting that Suella Braverman’s mental health was a factor in her defection. (See 1.41pm.) Brian Dow, its deputy chief executive, said:
Employers should never disclose any details about the mental health of their employees or former staff. Doing so says far more about them than the person they are referring to. People living with mental ill-health do not deserve to have their experiences trivialised or used as a political football.
Former Brexit minister David Frost says he and Braverman have 'always seen things same way', after she defects
David Frost, the Tory peer and former Brexit minister, has just posted this on X. At the very least, it a tease to his party suggesting that he is about to sign up to the Nigel Farage bandwagon too.
It was great to campaign with Suella @SuellaBraverman back at the 2024 election. 👇
— David Frost (@DavidGHFrost) January 26, 2026
We've always seen things the same way. pic.twitter.com/JIvT5rE9Hc
'Nasty and unpleasant' - Tory peer Stewart Jackson criticises Tory HQ's 'mental health' briefing against Braverman
Stewart Jackson, a Tory peer and former MP, has described the CCHQ comment about Suella Braverman’s defection as “nasty and unpleasant”. (See 1.41pm.)
What a nasty and unpleasant statement from @Conservatives. That’s another few thousand votes they’ve lost.
Jackson, like Braverman, is a hardcore Brexiter.
Reform UK says it would only allow members of armed forces to be prosecuted for war crimes with defence secretary's permission
Today’s Reform UK event was notionally focused on veterans. This is from Zia Yusuf, Reform’s head of policy, summing up the policy commitments unveiled.
Today, launching Veterans for Reform, @Nigel_Farage announces that a Reform government will:
1) grant immunity from prosecution for all our armed forces for actions during combat operations, they may only be prosecuted if the Defence Secretary expressly authorises it.
2) use a statutory bar to halt all ongoing prosecutions of our veterans and pardon those convicted for historic operations between now and the general election.
3) leave the ECHR and withdraw from the jurisdiction of the ICC, so foreign judges can no longer hound our forces.
A clear message to our soldiers past, present and future: Reform UK has your back.
This is not quite a blanket immunity from prosecution for any members of the armed forces accused of any sort of war crime. But Yusuf seems to be implying that a Reform defence secretary would only grant permission for a prosecution in exceptional circumstances.
In reality, despite claims made by rightwingers to the contrary, prosecutions of servicemen and women over wartime acts that allegedly broke the rules of war are already relatively rare.
Labour moves writ for Gorton and Denton byelection on 26 February
In the Commons Jonathan Reynolds, the Labour chief whip, has moved the writ for the Gorton and Denton byelection.
That should pave the way for a byelection on Thursday 26 February.
Updated
'Horrible' - Labour MPs criticise Tory HQ for suggesting Braverman's mental health factor in her defection
Labour MPs have condemned Tory HQ for suggesting that Suella Braverman’s mental health played a role in her decision to defect to Reform UK. (See 1.41pm.)
This is from Mike Tapp, a Home Office minister.
I have no sympathy for Suella Braverman when it comes to politics and what she did to our immigration system.
But the Tories attacking her mental health is below the standards we expect.
British values are strong but decent, firm but fair. Neither the Tories nor Reform sign up to that.
This is from Josh Fenton-Glynn.
This statement is horrible. Attacking someone on mental health is wrong. The whole thing reads as petty and churlish. The kind of first draft of an email you do before having a cup of tea and letting your better angels take over.
Scottish Reform UK leader urges 'rational nationalists' to join 'moderate unionists' in backing his party
The Scottish leader of Reform UK has said that the party would not look at the possibility of a second independence referendum for at least 10 years, PA Media reports. PA says:
Speaking at a press conference, Malcolm Offord said his “appeal to Scots” is to “deal with the constitution later”.
He said he believed “moderate unionists no longer represented by the Tories” and “rational nationalists no longer represented by the SNP” could find “common ground and unite their own, one, single ambition to make Scotland the most successful and the most fair country in the world”. He went on:
My appeal to all Scots is to unite their own common vision of prosperity and justice for all now, and deal with the constitution later, and Reform UK is the only party in Scotland with that vision.
I believe it will take 10 years … to turbocharge the economy of Scotland which, in turn, will unleash the innovation required to deliver significant improvements to our health service, our education, our housing and our infrastructure.
That is why I say no to distraction of another referendum, or at least another 10 years, without ruling one out in the future.
These are from Theo Bertram from the Social Market Foundation thinktank.
There are now more members of Liz Truss’ Cabinet in Nigel Farage’s team than in Kemi Badenoch’s team.
Liz Truss Cabinet:
Joined Reform: Suella Braverman Jake Berry Nadhim Zahawi
Still in Tory Shadow Cabinet: Kemi Badenoch James Cleverly
One person from Liz Truss’s cabinet who will not be joining Reform UK is Truss herself. Here is a detail from a story by Ben Quinn and Helena Horton published over the weekend about Truss attending a lunch with Farage.
While Reform UK appears to be keeping the former prime minster at arm’s length publicly, despite welcoming other former Tories, the gathering at Mark’s Club organised by the Heartland Institute raises potentially fresh awkward questions for the party.
“Liz Truss would not be welcome in Reform UK,” the party’s press team replied within seven minutes of being asked by the Guardian if the party would ever allow the UK’s shortest-serving prime minister into its ranks.
Updated
The latest edition of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast is out. It features Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey talking about Andy Burnham being blocked from standing in the Gorton and Denton byelection, and Keir Starmer’s trip to China.
Tory MP Louie French says defection of Braverman, after Jenrick, shows Conservative party 'healing'
This is from the Conservative MP Louie French on the defection of Suella Braverman.
I’m starting to enjoy this January transfer window.
A clear out of overhyped and unmanageable players, allowing for fresh talent to take the team forward.
The Conservative Party is healing and returning to the professional, country first party that I first joined.
French seems to be referring in particular to Braverman and Jenrick. But the former MP Nadhim Zahawi has also defected this month, as has the sitting MP Andrew Rosindell.
Updated
Tories imply that Braverman's 'mental health' factor in her defection, saying she was 'clearly very unhappy' in their party
The Conservative party has suggested that Suella Braverman’s “mental health” was a factor in her decision to defect to Reform UK.
In an unusually brutal comment on her decision to leave the party this morning, a Conservative party spokesperson told journalists in a statement.
It was always a matter of when, not if, Suella would defect. The Conservatives did all we could to look after Suella’s mental health, but she was clearly very unhappy. She says she feels that she has ‘come home’, which will come as a surprise to the people who chose not to elect a Reform MP in her constituency in 2024.
There are some people who are MPs because they care about their communities and want to deliver a better country. There are others who do it for their personal ambition. Suella stood for leader of the Conservatives in 2022 and came sixth, behind Kemi [Badenoch] and Tom Tugendhat. In 2024 she could not even muster enough supporters to get on the ballot. She has now decided to try her luck with Nigel Farage, who said last year he didn’t want her in Reform. They really are doing our ‘Spring cleaning’!
As always happens with Reform, they unveil defections just when the Labour government is tearing itself to pieces – Rayner, Mandelson, now Burnham. Reform are too busy opposing the Conservatives to hold the Labour government to account. The Conservative party is now the only party that believes in smaller government, less welfare and Britain living within its means, and has the team and the experience to get Britain working again.
This is not the first time Tory HQ has briefed aggressively against a defector. When Nadhim Zahawi joined Reform, the Conservative party let it be known that he only quit after trying, and failing, to get Kemi Badenoch to nominate him for a peerage.
But to mention someone’s “mental health” as a factor in a defection is particularly vicious – and also likely to anger anyone who feels that mental health should not be trivialised, or weaponised, in such a way.
No 10 confirms Starmer going to China this week for first visit by UK PM in eight years
Keir Starmer will travel to China on Tuesday for the first prime ministerial visit to the country in eight years, Downing Street has confirmed. As PA Media reports, Starmer will also fly to Japan this week, No 10 said. The visit marks a significant moment in Starmer’s bid to build bridges with Beijing after a freeze in Sino-British relations in the final years of the Conservative government, PA says. It comes after controversial plans to build a huge new Chinese embassy in London were approved by the government last week.
In the Commons there will be an urgent question on the Chagos Islands deal at 3.30pm. A Foreign Office minister will respond. Last week the government postponed one of the final debates on the bill that will implement the treaty amid concerns the Trump administration has switched its position on the deal and is now opposed.
Then, after 4.15pm, Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, will make her statement about police reform.
Braverman 'so bad' she was forced to resign by Truss, and sacked by Sunak, say Lib Dems
And Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrats’ deputy leader, made much the same point in the response issued by her party. She said:
Farage has recruited yet another Conservative minister with selective amnesia – one who complains about broken Britain while conveniently forgetting they helped break it.
Suella Braverman was so bad she was forced to resign from Liz Truss’ cabinet and got sacked by Rishi Sunak.
Braverman's defection confirms Farage 'stuffing his party full of failed Tories', says Labour
Labour has said that the Suella Braverman defection just confirms that Reform UK is a party “full of failed Tories”.
In a response, Anna Turley, the Labour chair, said:
Nigel Farage is stuffing his party full of the failed Tories responsible for the chaos and decline that held Britain back for 14 years.
Suella Braverman helped botch Brexit and got sacked as home secretary - her defection shows Farage is willing to accept the very worst of the Conservative party and exposes his complete lack of judgment.
Braverman says Tory pledge to leave ECHR 'a lie' because party will never implement it
After blaming the ECHR for the fact that veterans continue to be prosecuted over Troubles-era offences in Northern Ireland, Braverman acknowledged that the Conservative party is no committed to leaving the convention.
But she said the party were not being honest about this.
Saying one thing in public, doing the total opposite in private – as my friend Robert Jenrick has found, that’s the great tragedy with the Conservative party.
Great speeches, good slogans. But when the cameras are off, when the doors are shut and when they’re sat behind that table making the difficult decisions for the country, they fold. When push comes to shove, they go awol. No courage, no backbone, no resolve.
Even today, their so-called promise to leave the ECHR – it’s a lie, it’s a lie.
Half of the Conservative members, Conservative MPs, are dead against it. Another group don’t even understand it. And a mere handful sincerely believe that it’s the right thing to do …
There is no way on earth that the Conservative party will ever take the United Kingdom out of the ECHR, and there is no way on earth it will ever keep its promises to you.
Enough is enough. Enough of this political delusion. Enough of these political lies. Enough of these political chameleons who say one thing to one group and then another thing to another group.
The country is crying out for authentic leadership, credible leadership, leadership that it can trust.
Braverman said Nigel Farage was offering that sort of leadership.
Do you know how you can tell if someone is authentic and credible? You ask yourself, have they been consistent? And there is only one man in British politics who has been courageously consistent for his country, and that man is Nigel Farage.
Braverman is MP for Fareham and Waterlooville, near Portsmouth. The Reform UK event this morning was billed as a veterans’ event, where Nigel Farage was going to commit to a policy of pardoning soldiers convicted of crimes in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and Braverman said she was proud of her constituency link to the naval dockyards in the port.
She claimed that servicemen and women had been let down by the Tories when they were in office. The Ministry of Defence was “broken”, she claimed.
Family accommodation is not good enough. I’ve met too many veterans who can’t get the medical treatment that they deserve for injuries that they sustained in service … It’s a national disgrace.
Why has this happened? Because over the last decade, defence spending has been hollowed out. Our armed forces stand at the smallest number in 200 years. Our equipment is inadequate. Our aircraft carriers don’t even have enough aircraft or destroyers. Our resilience is depleted. We can’t even defend ourselves. What kind of country is that?
But Braverman claimed the “biggest scandal” was the prosecution of veterans over Troubles-era offences.
She claimed that these prosecutions were happening because the UK was part of the European convention on human rights. As home secretary, she argued for the UK to leave, she said but claimed that the then PM, Rishi Sunak, “ignored me, then he blocked me and then he sacked me”.
Updated
Braverman revives 'Britain is broken' claim as she explains her defection to Reform UK
In her speech at the Reform UK event this morning Suella Braverman started by arguing that Britain is broken. It is the same argument that Robert Jenrick made when he defected to Reform UK earlier this month.
Braverman said:
When a country gives you everything, like it has done me, you owe it loyalty. And loyalty demands honesty.
And honesty compels me to say this today Britain is indeed broken. She is suffering. She is not well.
Immigration is out of control. Our public services are on their knees. People don’t feel safe. Our youngsters are leaving the country for a better futures elsewhere. We can’t even defend ourselves and our nation stands weak and humiliated on the world stage.
So we stand at a crossroads. We can either continue down this route of managed decline to weakness and surrender. Or we can fix our country, reclaim our power, rediscover our strength. I believe that a better Britain is possible.
Making a surprise appearance at a press conference in London, she said:
I resigned the Conservative whip and my party membership, my party membership of 30 years. It’s gone. It’s over today.
And because I believe, with my heart and soul, that a better future is possible for us, I am joining Reform UK.”
Updated
Braverman said:
I’m calling time. I’m calling time on Tory betrayal. I’m calling time on Tory lies. I’m calling time on a party that keeps making promises with zero intention of keeping them.
She told the crowd: “I feel like I’ve come home.”
Updated
Former Tory home secretary Suella Braverman defects to Reform
Suella Braverman, the former Tory home secretary, is speaking at the Reform UK event this morning. She has announced that she is leaving the Tories after 30 years as a member and defecting to Nigel Farage’s party.
That means there are now eight Reform MPs in the Commons.
Updated
Former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson predicts Burnham will become MP 'sooner rather than later'
Tom Watson, the former Labour deputy leader, has predicted that Andy Burnham will become an MP “sooner rather than later”.
In a post on his Substack newsletter, Watson, who is now a peer, is less critical of the decison to block Burnham from being a byelection candidate than some of his Labour colleagues who have accused Keir Starmer of being cowardly, or undemocratic. But he suggests it would have been better if Starmer had struck a deal with Burnham about when he might be allowed to return to the Commons, and he says issuing a “public rebuke” to one of Labour’s most popular figures was a mistake.
Here is an extract.
[Burnham] will be sanguine about it all. After all, there is always another by-election down the road and they cannot say no forever.
Yet the decision, everyone agrees, is final. Until it isn’t. Because decisions in the Labour Party are always final, except when they change, which they often do, sometimes quietly, sometimes overnight and sometimes after someone notices that next week is beginning to look awkward.
If it were me, I wouldn’t have rushed this. I would have spoken to Andy first, established his intentions and secured some clarity about his ambitions. Perhaps even struck a deal. We owed him that much. Instead, we chose a public rebuke of one of our strongest, if occasionally tricksy, assets. Andy is a big boy. He knew exactly what he was doing. He applied for a role he could reasonably assume he was not going to get, which is not unknown in Labour politics. He can give as good as he gets. He will be an MP sooner rather than later. And it is rarely a mistake to pick up the phone.
Updated
At the Centre for Social Justice event Szu Ping Chan, the Daily Telegraph’s economics editor who was chairing, opened the questions by inviting Andy Burnham to address “the elephant in the room”. Did he want Labour to reverse its decision?
Burnham said he did not want to comment.
I’ve said everything I’m going to say about that today … I’m very much focusing on my job.
Burnham used almost exactly the same line when he was doorstepped by reporters earlier in Manchester at the Whitworth art gallery, where he attended the launch of a new report, Class Ceiling, which highlights how the region’s working class are struggling to break into the arts world.
He opened his speech saying:
You’ve all been probably trying to escape sight of me all weekend but here I am, Monday morning. Fantastic to be here. To be honest, I have read every single word of the report because I have not had anything else to do this weekend.
Updated
Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, is now speaking (via an online link) to the Centre for Social Justice event. He starts by joking about the fact that he will address the question on everybody’s lips today – what is the secret behind the success of Manchester’s MBacc?
The event is about technical education. Last month the thinktank published a report, Rewiring Education, and it contained forewords from Burnham, Michael Gove, the former Tory education secretary (also speaking at this morning’s event), Munira Wilson, the Lib Dem education spokesperson, and Danny Kruger, the Reform UK MP.
Burnham said he was pleased there was cross-party agreement on this.
In his foreword Burnham said:
There are millions of voters who feel alienated from politics. Most parents feel politicians are always talking about someone else’s kids. Almost half when polled say that they want more funding for apprenticeships, compared to fewer than one in four choosing university funding. Over half now identify apprenticeships as better value than degrees. Yet they see a political mainstream uninterested in them.
Technical education can move this dial. Educationally, our vision is not tied to a particular place – think of a BBacc in Birmingham, with an automotive component, an LBacc in Liverpool, with a ports component – the same picture, but with careful regional tailoring. This could be the template. All young people in school seeing a path from school to work, from the classroom to a career in the place they are proud to call home.
Starmer brushes aside claims Burnham decision was 'cowardly', and urges Labour to unite in fight against Reform
Keir Starmer was being interview by Beth Rigby from Sky News this morning when he defended the decision not to let Andy Burnham be a byelection candidate.
After Starmer delivered his first answer (see 10.15am), Rigby asked him to what he would say to Labour MPs who think he is being “cowardly” and just blocking Burnham to avoid the risk of a leadership contest.
Starmer replied:
Millions of people will be better off if we have the continuation of a Labour government in Wales, and if we’re able to win the government in Scotland and retain and win councils across England.
That was what Labour should focus on, he said.
When Rigby persisted, and asked Starmer to “level” with Labour MPs and admit a potential leadership challenge was an issue, Starmer made two points.
First, Starmer said that says sitting Labour mayors need permission to become parliamentary candidates (because doing so triggers a mayoral contest) due to a rule change that was passed two years ago. It was “nothing to do with this set of circumstances”, he claimed.
He also claimed he was a big admirer of Burnham.
When I came into politics in 2015, the first thing I did was support Andy Burnham’s leadership campaign. The first team I worked in was for Andy Burnham. And in the job he’s doing now, he and I work closely together ..
So there’s no question of me and Andy not working very well together. He’s doing an excellent job.
Rigby tried again. She said that Labour MPs think Burnham would have a better chance of beating Nigel Farage than Starmer would. “That’s what’s going on here, isn’t it?”
Starmer replied:
The battle of our times is the battle between patriotic, Labour party, Labour government, and the division of Reform. There’s no doubt about that … In that battle, we are all fighting this.
He did not specifically address Rigby’s point, and instead insisted on the importance of Labour doing well in the May elections.
In her final question, Rigby asked Starmer what his message was to Labour MPs worried about “civil war” in the party.
Starmer said the cost of living was the most important issue for voters, and Labour should focus on that.
And he said there was a fight – but it was with Reform. He went on:
I think everybody in the Labour party, everybody who’s a Labour MP, wants to be in that fight, wants to fight alongside all their colleagues in a fight that matters hugely to the future of our country.
Updated
According to Sam Coates at Sky News, Labour might decide to hold the Gorton and Denton byelection as early as late February. The party that previously held the seat gets to move the writ for a byelection and governing parties facing a difficult byelection sometimes go for a quick contest so that challenger parties, which might not be well organised in the seat and short of voter data, don’t have time to bed in and build up momentum.
Starmer says Burnham blocked because Labour must focus on 'elections we must have', not unnecessary mayoral contest
Keir Starmer has defended the decision not to allow Andy Burnham to stand to be Labour’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection. Starmer was on the 10-strong panel that took the near-unanimous decision to block Burnham yesterday, and, speaking to broadcasters today, he set out the same argument used by Douglas Alexander earlier. (See 8.51am.) Starmer said:
We have really important elections already across England for local councils, very important elections in Wales for the government there and very important elections in Scotland for the Scottish government that will affect millions of people. And we’re out campaigning on the cost of living and they’re very important elections.
We need all of our focus on those elections.
Andy Burnham’s doing a great job as the mayor of Manchester, but having an election for the mayor of Manchester when it’s not necessary would divert our resources away from the elections that we must have, that we must fight and win.
And resources, whether that’s money or people, need to be focused on the elections that we must have, not elections that we don’t have to have. And that was the basis of the NEC decision.
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In his Today programme interview Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary, suggested the media wanted Andy Burnham to be a byelection candidate in Gorton and Denton because it would have made a better story. He said:
There’s also a political point here. What does our constitution say as a democratic socialist party? “By the strength of our common endeavour, we achieve more than we achieve alone.” We exist as a Labour party, not for what’s best for an individual, but what’s best collectively. And the coming months should be about confronting the forces in British politics that want to take our country apart, and offer instead a vision of the Labour party’s future which is about us pulling together.
So of course, there is politics involved in the judgment that the national executive committee makes because, frankly, we have the fight of our lives on our hands in relation to Reform.
And that psychodrama that we could have anticipated? I understand, if the National Union of Journalists was an affiliated union and had been in the room yesterday, they would probably have voted to put Andy forward. Because it would have been a dripping host of stories for them.
But the job of the national executive committee is to decide what’s in the best interests of the Labour party as we face these very considerable electoral challenges.
Douglas Alexander says he would like to see Burnham return to Commons once his term has mayor has finished
In his Today programme interview this morning, Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary, said that he hoped Andy Burnham would return to the Commons when he finishes his current terms as mayor of Greater Manchester. Alexander said:
The judgement that was made yesterday was in relation to the particular circumstances of today …
I would certainly hope that Andy would want to continue to serve in the UK parliament once his term as mayor is finished.
I have to declare a bias here; I’m both a friend and a huge admirer of Andy Burnham. I think he’s got an immense amount to contribute, not just in Manchester, where he’s doing a brilliant job, but I would hope to parliament in the future.
Burnham’s term as mayor runs until May 2028. The next general election does not have to be held until 2029.
Here is Peter Walker’s story about Douglas Alexander’s media round this. Alexander, the Scottish secretary, has a good turn of phrase, and is fond of alliteration, and he said the decision taken yesterday not to allow Burnham to be a byelection candidate was “more about focus than about factionalism”.
Zack Polanski says Labour has 'blown it' in Gorton and Denton, as he talks up Greens' chances in byelection
At one stage there was speculation that Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, would be the party’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection. He is from Manchester (but also currently sitting as a member of the London assembly.) He has ruled out being the Green candidate. But the Greens are claiming they are now best placed to beat Reform UK in the seat.
Yesterday Polanski posted this on social media.
Labour have blown it. This is it. Time to take on Reform.
Manchesters first Green MP is coming. Join us to help get them elected on Saturday
This chart (in classic Lib Dem bar chart-style) is misleading. While it is true to say that current polling suggests Reform UK and the Greens are the parties that have most improved their share of the vote in Gorton and Denton (and in most places) since the general election, the ElectionMapsUK data still suggests Labour is narrowly ahead of these two parties in the constituency. Other polling, such as the recent More in Common MRP poll published, or the recent Electoral Calculus MRP poll, suggests Reform UK is ahead – and the Green party well behind (not just one point behind, as this chart suggests).
There are claims this morning saying Labour MPs opposed to the decision to block Andy Burnham from being a candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection will try to get the issue referred to a full meeting of Labour’s national executive committee, in the hope that the NEC will reverse it. The decision yesterday was taken by the NEC’s 1o-strong officers’ group, which is dominated by leadership loyalists.
The NEC as a whole has about 40 members, and it contains people who would vote against Keir Starmer on this issue. But the leadership still has a clear majority on the NEC. In their story in the Times, Max Kendix, Steven Swinford and Oliver Wright say:
In private, allies of Burnham in Westminster are looking at ways to overturn the decision, including the possibility of trying to convene an emergency meeting of the whole 40-strong NEC, which includes unions not represented on the executive. However, one source said they would do this only if they were “sure they had the numbers to reverse the decision”.
Updated
Burnham suggests Labour more likely to lose Gorton and Denton byelection now it has blocked him as candidate
Andy Burnham has suggested that Labour is more likely to lose the Gorton and Denton byelection now that it has blocked him from being the candidate.
He implied this last night in a reply on social media to a post from Tom Baldwin, Keir Starmer’s biographer and communications director for Ed Miliband when he was Labour leader. Baldwin said:
I’ve always liked @AndyBurnhamGM but the prospect of him returning to Westminster has already added to inward-looking psychodrama that does no one any good. And an unnecessary by-election for Mayor of Manchester might well have resulted in long term damage to his reputation too.
And Burnham replied:
I’m not sure losing a by-election does us any good either, Tom.
In a post earlier yesterday Burnham said:
I am disappointed by today’s NEC decision and concerned about its potential impact on the important elections ahead of us.
To whoever is Labour’s candidate and to our members in Manchester and Tameside: you will have my full support and I will be there whenever you need me.
There is polling showing Burnham is right to suggest that, without him on the ballot, Labour will lose the byelection.
Minister says Reform UK outspending Labour 10 to 1 as he says Burnham byelection ban was to avoid risk from mayoral contest
Good morning. Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, will this afternoon announce a huge police reform package (which the Home Office has been briefing out, item by item, for the past few days) but, not for the first time, an internal Labour party crisis is attracting more interest and comment than a government policy initiative.
Here is Peter Walker’s overnight story about Labour’s decision to ban Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, from being a candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection, the backlash against the move in the party, and the possible consequences.
Peter also has a good analysis here. And Josh Halliday has an analysis of what is now likely to happen in Gorton and Denton, a constituency on the outskirts of Manchester.
This morning Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary, has been on the airwaves defending the decision. In its statement yesterday the Labour party said:
The NEC [national executive committee] believes that causing an unnecessary election for the position of Greater Manchester Mayor would have a substantial and disproportionate impact on party campaign resources ahead of the local elections and elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd in May. Although the party would be confident of retaining the mayoralty, the NEC could not put Labour’s control of Greater Manchester at any risk.
This morning Alexander put the same argument in more colourful terms. He told Times Radio that having a new Greater Manchester mayoral election (which would have to happen, because Burnham would have to stand down as mayor to stand as a byelection candidate) would be the “the equivalent of 20 by-elections diverting time, energy and money” for Labour. And he went on:
We would certainly have fought that contest hard, but there would have been some degree of risk – Reform are outspending us about 10-to-one at the moment and in the biggest and most unnecessary electoral contest in England, you can never take anything for granted. That doesn’t strike me as a risk-free choice.
I will post more from his interviews shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, are on a visit in London.
10am: Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, speaks at an online Centre for Social Justice event on technical education.
11am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a press conference where he is expected to commit to halt any prosecutions of military veterans over Northern Ireland Troubles-related offences.
11am: Malcolm Offord, Reform UK’s Scottish leader, gives a speech.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, makes a statement to MPs about police reform.
4.30pm: Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the PM, and Dan Jarvis, the security minister, give evidence to parliament’s national security strategy committee.
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