Andy Burnham will face the Commons for the first time as Prime Minister on Tuesday, before taking his first Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. As with his speech on entering Downing Street, reports suggest that he intends to respond without notes. His arrival at the despatch box will coincide with a more definitive break from Labour’s recent past, after Keir Starmer announced that he will stand down as MP for Holborn and St Pancras, ending his 11-year Commons career and triggering a by-election. Burnham is expected to use both appearances to reinforce his agenda of greater public ownership and deeper devolution. However, questions over how the Government will finance its commitments are likely to dominate scrutiny ahead of Chancellor John Healey’s Budget on 28th October. Burnham has spent the summer building momentum on issues ranging from the cost of living and council housebuilding to rough sleeping; this week will provide the first real test of whether that momentum can be sustained in Parliament.
Burnham has also begun to build his international profile. On Monday 24th August, he travelled to Kyiv for his first overseas visit as Prime Minister, chairing a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing and authorising MBDA to share classified information on British components in the SCALP missile system to support local assembly in Ukraine. Britain also became the first international partner to gain access to Ukraine’s Avengers AI Labs through a new defence-AI partnership spanning government, industry and academia. Together, the agreements signal that Burnham sees support for Ukraine as a source of domestic strategic advantage as well as a foreign-policy commitment. He will build on this approach this week when he hosts French President Emmanuel Macron for talks expected to cover Ukraine and the UK-EU relationship.
Domestically, the Government continued to emphasise visible delivery. It allocated the first £10 billion from its £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme to support more than 70,000 homes, around 60% of which are expected to be for social rent. Sainsbury’s also committed to provide around 10,000 work-experience and skills opportunities from October, while Burnham used his first visit to Northern Ireland as Prime Minister to focus on living costs, youth opportunity and political stability. These announcements were offset by renewed pressure on household and public finances. Ofgem confirmed that the energy price cap will rise by 4% in October to £1,723 for a typical household. Healey is also under pressure on defence after the Treasury confirmed that the October Budget will not set a date for spending to reach 3% of GDP. He resigned as Defence Secretary in June after arguing that the target should be met by 2030, but the timetable will now be determined at the spring Spending Review. The Government must also close a £4.7 billion funding gap in its existing Defence Investment Plan.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, will return with a substantially reshaped frontbench. Kemi Badenoch has appointed Andrew Griffith as Shadow Chancellor in place of Mel Stride, moved Tom Tugendhat to the foreign affairs brief and named Claire Coutinho as Shadow Business Secretary. At the centre of the reshuffle is a clearer economic dividing line: Griffith has placed lower taxes, deregulation and reduced public spending at the heart of the Conservative offer, in contrast with Burnham’s more interventionist approach. Elsewhere, Damian Hinds has replaced Stuart Andrew as Shadow Health Secretary, Katie Lam has taken over the housing brief following James Cleverly’s departure to seek the Conservative candidacy for Mayor of London, and Andrew Bowie has replaced Coutinho as Shadow Energy Secretary. Rebecca Paul has also replaced Nigel Huddleston as Shadow Culture Secretary, while Harriet Cross has joined the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland.
Headlines
- Labour refuses to rule out early election – The Telegraph
- Andy Burnham signals fresh moves on living costs as political battle lines harden – The Financial Times
- John Healey invites October Budget ideas from Treasury staff of all levels – The Guardian
What's on in Parliament
- House of Lords Grand Committee: Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill – Committee Stage, days one and two – 1st and 3rd September.
- House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee: The Online Safety Act: implementation and impact – 1st September.
- House of Commons Defence Committee: The relationship between the Government and the defence industry – 1st September.
Consultations
- Empowering people through data intermediaries – Closes 7th September
- Data regulation in the age of AI and other data-intensive technologies – Closes 9th September
- Consultation on the designation of Radio Selection Services – Closes 9th September
- Consultation on banning unlicensed gambling sponsorship – Closes 9th September