Andy Burnham spends first working day at new No ۱۰ North in Manchester – UK politics live

Andy Burnham was probably feeling left out of the “Celtic alliance”, after apparently telling John Swinney that Scottish independence was “off limits”.

That’s according to the Scotland secretary Douglas Alexander, who spoke about a meeting he attended yesterday between the prime minister, Scottish first minister and others ahead of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The issue of Scottish independence came up during the meeting.

“I was alongside Andy as we met John Swinney yesterday in Glasgow and so I can see very clearly how the that conversation progressed and, indeed, what it does mean for Scotland,” Alexander told BBC Radio Scotland this morning.

“Up front, the prime minister made clear that independence was off limits.”

He added: “I genuinely believe that we agreed to disagree.”

“John Swinney, perfectly honourably, continues to advance the case that he would like to see independence for Scotland – that’s been the cause to which he’s devoted his political life.

“But Andy, in a very reasonable way, was pretty open in saying, ‘listen, respectfully, we’ll agree to disagree on a referendum, and independence is off limits.”

The Welsh first minister said he has a “Celtic alliance” with his counterpart in Scotland, as he visited Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games, PA reports.

Rhun ap Iorwerth said Plaid Cymru worked closely with John Swinney’s SNP, and that he was “optimistic” after meeting prime minister Andy Burnham yesterday.

Iorwerth’s party won the May election in Wales and, with an SNP win in Scotland and Sinn Féin holding the first minister role in Northern Ireland, all of the UK’s devolved nations have independence-supporting parties in power.

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland’s Breakfast programme this morning, where he was asked about the relationship between nationalist parties in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Iorwerth said: “I think we have a Celtic alliance. I work closely with John Swinney …

“I have a good relationship. My party and the SNP were often referred to as sister parties.

“We have worked together at Westminster for many years prior to devolution, and we work closely now.”

The Times has reported this morning that Andy Burnham is expected to “move quickly” to scale up North Sea oil and gas production as part of his policy blitz to tackle the cost of living.

Industry sources suggested to the newspaper that the prime minister and his new energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, are considering approving oil and gas production at the Jackdaw and Rosebank sites off the coast of Scotland to help drive down costs this winter.

A source said: “Once we are past the consultation phase, the ball is in their court. From the sounds of it, there is willingness to move quickly this time around.

“An August approval would allow production to commence by October ۱. Everything is constructed, the platform is in place, it’s just a piece of paper standing in the way.”

As the Guardian’s environment correspondent Sandra Laville writes in her profile of the new energy secretary, Fahnbulleh was a surprising choice for the role, especially given her previous apparent opposition to new drilling in the North Sea while she was head of the New Economics Foundation (NEF) thinktank.

Sandra says:

In a joint report with Friends of the Earth in ۲۰۲۱, her organisation called for a total end to new drilling in the North Sea basin, the cancellation of all future licensing rounds, the revocation of all undeveloped licences and the rejection of any applications for development consent. Today, those who collaborated with her in the past are watching her first steps closely.

“She must hold the line against harmful fossil fuel expansion – including the highly contentious Jackdaw and Rosebank fields – make cheap, clean energy available to all and build on Ed Miliband’s efforts to scale up our renewable power capacity,” said Imogen Dow, energy lead for Friends of the Earth.”

You can read the profile here:

Heavy police presence this morning outside Heron House in central Manchester, where the prime minister will hold his first meeting at No ۱۰ North:

Phillip Inman

Consumer confidence in the UK jumped this month by its biggest margin for nearly three years as the prospect of Andy Burnham becoming prime minister became almost certain.

The data company GfK said a “Burnham bounce” along with a strong run by the men’s England football team at the World Cup and sunny weather had lifted the mood of consumers in its long-running monthly survey.

Burnham’s byelection victory on ۱۸ June, which put the former mayor of Greater Manchester in pole position to take over from Keir Starmer, was credited with helping to improve consumers’ outlook for the economy over the next year by eight points.

Their view of the economy’s performance over the previous year also improved by ۱۰ points. The overall score in the GfK index increased by six points to -۱۷ in July, the highest level since January and the biggest rise since November ۲۰۲۳.

Neil Bellamy, consumer insights director at GfK, said July had delivered “a wave of optimism”.

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A review of the early prisoner release scheme ordered by Andy Burnham could be conducted “in the coming days and weeks”, a minister has said.

The prime minister hit pause on the scheme that would allow thousands of prisoners in England and Wales to be released early from September after criticism from survivors and victims’ families.

Burnham ordered an urgent review into the scheme, saying he wanted to “minimise risk to the public”.

Speaking to Sky News this morning, Sally Jameson, a junior housing minister and former prison officer, said: “I think the justice ministers have said that the urgent review will be conducted in the coming days and weeks to make sure that we have a timely response to that, so that the prison system and the criminal justice system can react and cope accordingly.”

Government on ‘borrowed time if we don’t get a move on,’ says Rayner

Jamie Grierson

The housing secretary, Angela Rayner, has said the new Andy Burnham administration is on “borrowed time” to turn the country around.

Appearing on BBC Radio ۴’s Today programme, Rayner said the flurry of announcements made by the new prime minister – cap on bus fares, VAT cut on electricity bills and support for pubs and clubs – showed he understood the frustration over the cost of living.

“We’re on borrowed time if we don’t get a move on and I think Andy acknowledged that,” she said. “As prime minister he stood on the streets of Downing Street without notes and spoke directly to the public and said ‘we get it, I get the frustration’.”

Turning to housing policy, Rayner said the Government’s goal to build ۱.۵m homes in this parliament is “a really difficult stretched target” but insisted she is not dropping it.

She said: “It certainly got more challenging, and we’ve seen things like construction costs go up etc, which has had a real negative impact on that.

“But I’m not dropping it. I’m just saying that it is a really difficult stretched target.”

Earlier on BBC Breakfast, Rayner said she is not looking at bringing in rent controls.

She said changes made through renters’ rights legislation brought in under Labour so far “are already having a significant impact on the market”.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, she said: “We won’t be looking at rent controls if that’s what you’re getting at at the moment.

“That is not something that we’re looking to do because we’ve seen what’s happened in areas like Scotland. It hasn’t necessarily brought rents down.”

Opinion: It’s not just a No ۱۰ in the north, it’s an engine for growth throughout the whole UK

Andy Burnham

On Monday, while the cameras were fixed on that famous black door in Downing Street, something important was happening ۱۶۵ miles away. A small team of officials and advisers were walking into an office building in Manchester to set about the remaking of the British state.

This was the beginning of No ۱۰ North: the first major act of this government and what I hope will be seen as its most defining.

Over the course of the past ۴۰ years, Britain has taken a series of wrong turns. In the ۱۹۸۰s, political power was centralised, economic power was privatised and communities were deindustrialised. Many of the places most affected have not recovered since and are still in decline. They have been unable to turn things around because they simply do not have the necessary power to do so. This feeling of neglect has lain underneath the increasingly fractious politics that has bedevilled Britain in recent times.

Solving this problem is crucial for the cohesion of our country. It is something with which it has wrestled for a long time but never got right. We have seen gimmicks, such as levelling up. We have seen the shifting of bits of the British state around the map to no great effect.

Why has none of it worked? It is partly because, even though Whitehall departments have set up outposts, decision-making power has remained in London. It is also because, in the very centre of government itself, Nos ۱۰ and ۱۱ have not been sufficiently aligned – particularly on growth.

This is what No ۱۰ North is seeking to correct and, if we succeed, it could bring the much-needed sea change in the way Britain is run.

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Andy Burnham will hold his first meeting in No ۱۰ North in Manchester today, the new branch of Downing Street in the north-west that the prime minister has described as “the biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen”.

He will chair the inaugural meeting of the national economic council [NEC], a cabinet committee first launched in ۲۰۰۸ by Gordon Brown in response to the financial crash. It will bring together senior ministers and regional mayors to shift economic decision-making away ‌from London.

Writing for the Guardian, Burnham said: “It is about taking power down and placing it in the hands of people who can use it best.”

He added:

No ۱۰ North will be responsible for accelerating devolution. It will drive reindustrialisation and growth across every postcode of the UK. It will remove barriers to regeneration, from council housebuilding to public transport infrastructure. Crucially, No ۱۰ North will bring the whole of Whitehall together behind places rather than standing in their way. Our long-term ambition is clear: to achieve equivalent living standards across all the regions and nations of the UK.”

Based in Heron House in central Manchester, in the same building which houses GCHQ in the north-west, Burnham is expected to work from No ۱۰ North once a week, bringing him closer to his Makerfield constituents and to the community where he grew up. Other ministers including Angela Rayner and Lucy Powell, who hail from the north-west, will also regularly use the office, the government said.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused the prime minister of governing “like he’s still ​the mayor of ⁠Manchester”, saying he needed to focus on broader national challenges.

Read the full report here: