Andy Burnham calls for UK to rejoin EU within his lifetime and rejects claim he is fiscally irresponsible – as it happened | Politics
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- September 29, 2025
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Burnham says he ‘can’t launch leadership campaign’ without being MP
Burnham said that he was not in a position to launch a leadership bid.
I can’t launch a leadership campaign. I’m not in parliament. So that is the bottom line.
He also said that it was a mistake to assume that he was desperate to go back to London.
In the early 1990s he left the north and went to London because that was what young people had to do to get on. But that was not the case now, he said. He said people would have to “wrench me out of the place” if they wanted him to leave Manchester.
Key events
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Early evening summary
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Burnham complains ‘parts of Whitehall’ resisting devolution
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Shabana Mahmood warns of rising ‘ethno-nationalism’, as she says Labour members won’t like some of her migration policies
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Pat McFadden says DWP to investigate why so many people off work for mental health reasons
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Labour conference approves motion saying genocide taking place in Gaza, and calling for arms embargo
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Labour members would rather have Burnham as leader than Starmer, by 2 to 1, poll suggests
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Lammy says Labour can recover electorally and win next election
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Sadiq Khan declines to call Reform UK’s migrant policy racist, saying he is wary of devaluing ‘powerful word’
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Bridget Phillipson says poorest students will get maintenance grants for some courses, funded by international student levy
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Emily Thornberry urges government to block bid by Elon Musk’s Tesla to get licence to suppy electricity in UK
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Burnham (55) says he wants UK to rejoin EU in his lifetime
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Burnham says he wants old people and disabled people to be able to use ‘twirly’ bus pass before 9.30am
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Burnham says fiscal rules should be more ‘flexible’, but strongly rejects claim he is not fiscally responsible
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Burnham says he ‘can’t launch leadership campaign’ without being MP
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Burnham says his Telegraph interview that infuriated Labour MPs was ‘overwritten, and inaccurate in some respects’
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Burnham says Labour leadership is too ‘factional’, claiming MPs never lost whip under Blair for policy disagreements
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Andy Burnham in conversation with Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast
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Labour plans to consult on use of live facial recognition before wider roll-out
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Reeves’ speech – snap verdict
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Reeves ends speech telling her party to ‘have faith’
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Reeves says Labour pushing for ‘ambitious’ youth mobility scheme with EU, giving ‘maximum’ opportunites to young people
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Reeves says Reform UK greatest threat to living standards of working people at election
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Reeves delivers warning to Burnham, and Labour’s left, saying letting spending get out of control ‘dangerously’ wrong
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Reeves says Covid corruption comissioner has recovered almost £400m lost during pandemic
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Reeves lists Labour’s achievements
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Reeves wins support of delegates as she hits back at pro-Gaza heckler, saying Labour no longer party of protest
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Labour ‘chose investment’ when it took office, Reeves says
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Why Scottish Labour’s leaders think there is path to victory in next year’s Holyrood elections
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Development minister Jenny Chapman says she’s ‘incredibly worried’ about disease breaking out in Gaza
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Elections guru John Curtice delivers grim prognosis for Labour, saying just attacking Reform UK won’t bring recovery
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Lib Dems accuse Reeves of planning ‘£10bn stealth tax’ by extending threshold freeze
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‘This is genocide’, and waiting for court to confirm that ‘too late’, says Unison’s Christine McAnea
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Labour activists urged to back motion saying Israel has committed genocide in Gaza
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Jackie Baillie tells Burnham to shelve leadership positioning, amid concerns it will harm Labour at Holyrood elections
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Reeves suggests big tax rises coming in budget, saying ‘world has changed’ and pledges made at CBI last year no longer apply
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Reeves plays down, but does not deny, report saying Treasury expects tax will have to rise by £30bn in budget
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Reeves to urge business leaders to face up to risk Reform UK poses to economy
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Reeves says much of speculation about possible tax rises in budget is ‘rubbish’
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Reeves confirms she no longer stands by pledge to CBI last year about not coming back with more tax rises
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Reeves says benefits bill too high
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Reeves does not dispute LBC presenter’s suggestion that Andy Burnham bond market comments makes him ‘Trussesque’
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Reeves says people can support racist policy without being racist, in reference to PM’s comment about Reform UK
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Reeves pushes back at suggestions VAT may rise, saying commitment not to put it up still stands
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Reeves to pledge Youth Guarantee to ‘abolish’ unemployment for young people
Early evening summary
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Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has said that he would like the UK to rejoin the EU in his lifetime. He was speaking at a Guardian fringe where he also hit back at claims that he does not support fiscal discipline. (See 3pm and 2.46pm.)
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Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, has said that a new form of “ethno-nationalism” is taking hold in the UK. (See 5.52pm.)
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.
Jonathan Reynolds, the former business secretary who was moved in the reshuffle, has said that he wants to try a “different approach” in his new role as chief whip.
Speaking at a fringe meeting organised by Politico, Reynolds said:
I don’t think you necessarily have to do a job like it was in the 18th century, even though we kind of like that in British politics.
As Martin Alfonsin Larsen from Politico reports, Reynolds said he wanted to be less in the shadows than previous chief whips. Reynolds said:
I do think fundamentally, you treat people well as a starting point, only a strange type of personality reacts badly to that, but I think we’ve got to recognise that. There’s a chance maybe at times to think about, ‘How can we do this differently?’
Reynolds, whose son is autistic and receives Pip and universal credit, benefits available to disabled people – said that the government’s botched welfare reforms were “not done in a way that took people with us”. He went on:
That’s why we had to have the changes [the U-turns watering down or removing the most contentious plans], and those were important decision that were necessary for the parliamentary party going forward.
I thought there wasn’t sufficient recognition of perhaps my family’s situation, which is, I want to protect the most vulnerable people in this country, but I need public support for the system to do that, and that public support will not be there if we aren’t making sure that we’re running that in a good way.
Burnham complains ‘parts of Whitehall’ resisting devolution
Geraldine McKelvie
Geraldine McKelvie is a senior Guardian correspondent.
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has complained that “parts of Whitehall” are resisting efforts to devolve power out of London.
Speaking at a fringe event on devolution, he said:
Devolution has really got what it takes to bring growth. Devolution works – so isn’t it mind blowing that parts of Whitehall are still resisting?
We have productivity growth in Greater Manchester four times greater than London. Why is anyone resisting any more?
The quicker Whitehall lets go, the quicker that growth will accelerate.
It’s getting really exciting, but it’s frustrating that we have to make the case again and again and again in terms of devolution.
Something as simple as data being shared by the centre with regions like us, it’s like we’re still not trusted. Incredible, really. We have gov.uk at the end of our email accounts. Why are we seen as not part of the system? We should be.
Burnham would not say who in Whitehall was causing the problem. But he implied he was talking about officials. “I wouldn’t want to name individuals, it’s institutional, there is institutional resistance,” he said. He also said ministers had been “largely supportive” of what he was trying to do.
As an example of the sort of devolution he wanted, Burnham said Manchester should have the power to operate a proper visitor levy. He said:
We do need a visitors’ levy and I think Steve [Rotheram, the Liverpool city region mayor] feels the same. We can’t go to our council tax payers all the time, particularly when council tax hasn’t been revalued since 1991. We do need the ability to raise more for ourselves.
Manchester does have a visitor levy, but only an optional one.
Here is some reaction to the vote to approve the Gaza genocide motion earlier. (See 5.08pm.)
This is from Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
This is a huge defeat for the government, with the Labour party finally accepting that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. This historic vote must now become government policy: imposing comprehensive sanctions on Israel and a full arms embargo.
After almost 2 years of complicity in Israel’s genocide, the movement in solidarity with Palestine is turning the tide. People across this country are standing side-by-side with the Palestinian people demanding their liberation.
If the government tries to ignore this momentous vote, it would not only be in denial of the facts, against public opinion, increasingly globally isolated, but also at war with its own party.
And this is from Sasha Das Gupta, co-chair of Momentum, the leftwing Labour group.
Labour conference voting for the government to employ all means to end Israel’s genocide is a huge feat, marking a watershed moment in the party since Israel began its genocide in Gaza …
It’s clear the labour movement stands united against genocide. Now the government must listen to its own members and introduce a full arms embargo against Israel.
Shabana Mahmood warns of rising ‘ethno-nationalism’, as she says Labour members won’t like some of her migration policies
Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, gave what was deemed the most important speech of the day at Labour conference, but Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, gave arguably the most interesting. Here are some of the key lines.
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Mahmood said that a new form of “ethno-nationalism” is taking hold in the UK, and that it needed to be recognised for what it was. She started her speech with a reference to the “Unite the Kingdom” march organised by Tommy Robinson, where she said some of those participating where “heirs to the skinheads and Paki-bashers of old” who were opposed to people like her being in Britain. (She is of Pakistani heritage.) She went on:
To dismiss what happened that day would be to ignore something bigger, something broader, that is happening across this country.
The story of who we are is contested.
I am a patriot, proudly so.
Mine is the patriotism of Orwell. Pride in a country that is forever changing, while also, ineffably, always the same.
It is a love of this country as an open, tolerant and generous place.
But that broad vision of who we are is increasingly disputed.
Patriotism, a force for good, is turning into something smaller.
Something more like ethno-nationalism, which struggles to accept that someone who looks like me, and has a faith like mine, can truly be English or British.
There are some who we will never be able to persuade.
But there are others, a growing number, who are on a path from patriotism towards ethno-nationalism, and this can be stopped.
Because the truth is, across this country, people feel like things are spinning out of control.
And without control, we simply do not have the conditions in which our country can be open, tolerant and generous.
When people see small boats arriving on our shores, they see a country that has lost control.
When they hear of widespread illegal working, under-cutting British workers, they feel the system is rigged.
And when they see crime unchecked on unsafe streets, they feel fearful.
This was the inheritance that the Conservatives left behind for us.
And their current irrelevance is the price they have paid
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She said that, while the public “will accept those fleeing peril”, they would not support taking in asylum seekers “if there is chaos at our border”.
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She warned Labour delegates that they would not like some of the measures she expects to implement to deal with the small boats problem. She did not specify what these would be, but implied they would involve some significant curtailment of human rights. She said:
In solving this crisis, you may not always like what I do.
We will have to question some of the assumptions and legal constraints that have lasted for a generation and more.
But unless we have control of our borders, and until we can decide who comes in and who must leave, we will never be the open, tolerant and generous country that I know we all believe in.
In recent years, under the last Conservative government, the scale and the speed of change, as well as the nature of it, has frayed trust and eroded public confidence.
Between 2021 and 2024, we saw over 2.6 million more people enter this country than leave it.
And this included widespread abuse of Boris Johnson’s health and social care visa, which saw 710,000 people arrive here.
Far too many have been able to enter this country and disappear into the black economy – a rank betrayal of the Tories’ old promise that they would take back control.
If we are to preserve our openness to migrants like my parents, then we need a system that is fair to those who are already here.
Because I know that the British people welcome those who come here and contribute, but contribution is a condition of that welcome.
For that reason, we will soon increase the time in which someone must have lived in this country to earn “indefinite leave to remain” from five years to 10.
And we will be consulting on this change soon.
And as part of that consultation, I will be proposing a series of new tests, such as: being in work; making national insurance contributions; not taking a penny in benefits; learning English to a high standard; having no criminal record; and finally, that you have truly given back to your community, such as by volunteering your time to a local cause.
Without meeting these conditions, I do not believe your ability to stay in this country should be automatic.
Some will be able to earn an earlier settlement than 10 years, based on their contribution, while others will be forced to wait longer if they are not contributing enough.
In some cases, they will be barred from indefinite leave to remain entirely.
This year, forces across the country led a “Summer of Action”, tackling street-level crime in 600 locations.
This saw more visible police patrols, more undercover operations, more fines, more protective orders and more arrests.
On the back of that success, this year we will launch a new “Winter of Action”.
Forces across the country, in partnership with local businesses, will target shoplifters and anti-social behaviour during the busiest weeks for all retailers.
Once again, we will reach hundreds of locations – and tackle the offending that wreaks havoc on our high streets.
I am a rare home secretary, perhaps the only one whose first job was behind the till in my parents’ corner-shop.
I know there’s nothing “low-level” about shoplifting.
I know what it feels like to keep a cricket bat behind the counter, just in case.
And so I know, better than most, that when we get tough and tackle crime like this, we bring communities together.
Pat McFadden says DWP to investigate why so many people off work for mental health reasons
Rowena Mason
Rowena Mason is the Guardian’s Whitehall editor.
Pat McFadden, the new work and pensions secretary, has said he wants to get to the bottom of why so many people are off work and claiming sickness benefits as a result of mental illness health.
At a TBI fringe, he said there was a “duty of curiosity” in a leader to find out what has caused this and to devise a policy to deal with it.
About four million people in the UK claimed a health-related benefit as of April 2024, up from 3m in 2019.
McFadden suggested that physical difficulties and mental illness health may end up having different policy response and treatment in the benefit system after a full investigation of the causes.
Keir Starmer tried to make the case for changes to benefits earlier this year saying the cost of sickness was “devastating”.
But he was forced to drop some of the cuts amid opposition by Labour MPs.
McFadden said politicians had come up with arguments and make the case for any changes they want to drive through.
“I want to start with opportunities and work as that’s where I think the issue is,” he said.
In his speech in the conference hall earlier, McFadden did not mention this difficult issue. But he spoke about the flagship policy devised with the Treasury of requiring young people out of work for more than 18 months to undertake a work placement or risk losing their benefits.
It’s wrong in human terms, and costly for the nation too. And we will not stand by while a generation is consigned to benefits almost before their lives have begun.
We will never accept that children should graduate from school onto a life on benefits. And we will not allow wasted talent to become Britain’s story.
Labour conference approves motion saying genocide taking place in Gaza, and calling for arms embargo
The Labour party has passed the “Peace in the Middle East 2” motion, the one saying the government saying the United Nation’s commission of inquiry concluded “Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed the crime of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza”. The motion endorses this, and also says there is “a growing international consensus finding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza”.
The other Middle East motion, which was backed by the Labour leadership because it had more equivocal language on genocide (see 10.31am), was voted down.
The full text of the motion that was passed is here, on page 26.
And here is an extract.
Conference accepts the findings of the UN Commission of Inquiry and calls on the Labour government to:
-Employ all means reasonably available to it to prevent the commission of genocide in Gaza.
-Fully suspend the arms trade with Israel and the UK-Israel trade and partnership agreement.
-Ban trade with the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
-Apply comprehensive sanctions to put pressure on the Israeli government to respect international law, including a full arms embargo and ending military cooperation.
-Take coordinated action with European and other allies to end the famine in Gaza by ensuring full access to humanitarian assistance. -Ensure individuals and corporations in the UK are not involved in aiding and assisting the genocide.
Labour members would rather have Burnham as leader than Starmer, by 2 to 1, poll suggests
Labour party members would rather have Andy Burnham as leader than Keir Stamer, by a margin of two to one, a YouGov poll for Sky News suggests. Sam Coates has the figures here.
EXC: Labour members polling from YouGov
In a head to head leadership poll: 62% would back Andy Burnham to be leader 29% would back Keir Starmer to be leader 9% don’t know or would not vote
Burnham is the favourite to succeed him by a long distance – the top pick of 54% of members. Next is Angela Rayner, the now sacked deputy leader (10%), then Wes Streeting on 7%, ex leader and energy secretary Ed Miliband and foreign secretary Yvette Cooper both on 6% and new home secretary Shabana Mahmood on 2%
Deputy leadership: closer than you think The poll found 35% would back Lucy Powell and 28% would back Bridget Phillipson, with 30% do not know and 5% will not vote. Excluding don’t knows this suggests Powell ahead of Phillipson 56% to 44% , a closer margin than some other pollsters
But one person in the 29% minority saying Stamer would be the best leader is Burnham himself, according to Max Kendix from the Times.
Adding to this, Burnham has just told me a simple “yes” to the question – is Keir Starmer the right man to be Labour leader and prime minister?
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said today he did not want to call the Reform UK plan to abolish indefinite leave to remain status racist. (See 4.04pm.) But David Lammy, the deputy PM, did call it racist in his speech. He said:
Nigel Farage doesn’t get it either. He wraps himself in our flag – but his policies don’t match British values.
We must call his scheme to round up and deport our French, Indian and Caribbean neighbours who already have indefinite leave to remain what it is.
It is racist.
I say: not in our country. Not in our name. Not in our time.
Lammy was wrong about French people being deported by Reform – or at least wrong with regard to French people here before Brexit. Reform UK has said EU nationals with settled status will be excluded. It is this aspect that makes it easier to argue the policy is racist, as Sunder Katwala from the British Future thinktank has explained.
Lammy says Labour can recover electorally and win next election
David Lammy, the deputy prime minister and justice, used his speech to the conference to deliver various messages likely to raise the morale of Labour members.
Conference, governing in hard times is not new to our party or our movement.
From 1945, as Attlee’s Labour governed out of the ashes of World War Two, rationing continued to bite. And the public grew weary. But did Attlee, Bevan and Morrison wring their hands?
No. They built the NHS. New Towns. The welfare state.
In 1967, Harold Wilson’s Labour faced devaluation. And the very next year the ugly rise of Enoch Powell. Did Wilson retreat?
No. He championed the White Heat of Technology. The Open University. The Equal Pay Act.
And back in 2000, when I entered parliament, Tony Blair’s Labour was facing fuel protests. Tony was booed by at a conference speech.
Did we give up?
No. We held our nerve. We kept Britain moving. Record investment in schools and hospitals, the minimum wage, and Sure Start for every child.
This is Labour’s story: not ducking hard choices but facing them down.
Five interest rate cuts. The fastest growth in the G7. Wages rising more in ten months than in the Tories’ last ten years.
We cut NHS waiting lists. Two million extra appointments promised – five million delivered.
We gave parents thirty hours of free childcare, saving them up to seven and a half grand a year.
We signed trade deals with the EU, the US and India.
We reformed planning – unlocking billions. Delivering the highest housebuilding in decades.
That’s the difference a Labour government makes.
And friends, when you see Nigel Farage measuring the curtains of Downing Street, look around the world.
In Australia, Labor trailed by ten points – until they won.
In Canada, the Liberals were once twenty points behind – until they won.
In Norway, Labour were at one point 16 points down – until they won.
The lesson is clear: progressives win when we follow the north star of our values with the guardrails of our realism.
Not through scapegoats. Not through stunts. But through hope. Purpose. And progress.
Sadiq Khan declines to call Reform UK’s migrant policy racist, saying he is wary of devaluing ‘powerful word’
Peter Walker
Peter Walker is a senior Guardian political correspondent.
Sadiq Khan has declined to follow Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves in calling Reform’s policy of retrospectively stripping people of their right to remain permanently in the UK racist, saying he is wary of giving the impression that this meant Reform supporters must necessarily be racist.
He told a fringe meeting:
When you use the r-word – I’ve been the recipient of racist behaviour. I think it’s a really loaded word, and so I’m very careful when I use it, for the obvious reason, I don’t want to devalue this really powerful word.
Khan said he was “always nervous, given the impression that somehow I’m name-calling” in using the word.
This did not mean it should never happen, he added:
You’ve got to call out people. That’s why I wasn’t afraid to say a few days ago that I think President Trump is a racist, he’s sexist, he’s misogynistic and he’s homophobic. So I’m quite clear in relation to Donald Trump.
Speaking on Sunday Starmer said Reform’s plan to remove the status of having indefinite leave to remain and deport thousands of people already legally living in the UK as “racist” and “immoral”. Speaking on Monday, Reeves agreed with his view.
Khan was on a platform with Fraser Nelson, the former Spectator editor, who yesterday argued that calling Reform UK’s policy racist would backfire.
Bridget Phillipson says poorest students will get maintenance grants for some courses, funded by international student levy
Bridget Phillipson, the education secrertary, has announced that new, targeted means-tested maintenance grants will be introduced for students in England before the general election.
In her conference speech, she said:
Today I’m announcing that this Labour government will introduce new targeted maintenance grants for students who need them most.
Conference, their time at college or university should be spent learning or training.
Not working every hour God sends.
That is the difference that this Labour government makes.
In a news release, Labour said the grants would help students from the lowest-income families. It said:
The maintenance grants will help to support tens of thousands of students from level 4 – 6 studying priority courses that support the industrial strategy and the Labour government’s wider mission to renew Britain …
The grants will provide young working-class people with crucial targeted additional financial support to undertake both university degrees and technical qualifications under the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, including Certificates of Higher Education (CertHEs), Diplomas of Higher Education (DipHEs), technical qualifications, and degrees.
The new maintenance grants will be fully funded by a new international student levy, ensuring that revenue from international students is used to benefit working-class domestic students, and support growth and opportunity.
Further details on maintenance grants and the International Student Levy will be set out in the autumn statement.
The Department for Education has a few more details here.
Peter Kyle, the business secretary, claimed in his speech to the conference this morning that more investment is coming to the UK because Labour is in office. He said:
Companies who would not look at this country 15 months ago are now investing in our future, our jobs, our people.
So we welcome the investments of:
Microsoft – a £22bn investment, their largest ever into the UK;
Google – £5bn;
CoreWeave – £1.5bn;
Salesforce – £1.4bn into our country.
And why are they coming here?
They are coming here because of a Labour government.
The Palestine Youth Movement and London for a Free Palestine have claimed responsibility after the pro-Palestine heckler interrupted Rachel Reeves’ speech this morning.
As PA Media reports, according to the two groups, the activist, named “Sam P” stood up with a large Palestinian flag and said: “Why is Britain still arming Israel?”
In a statement issued by the protest groups following the disruption, the activist said:
It’s unbearable to watch this British-backed genocide unfolding on our screens while Labour carries on with business as usual.
We should do whatever we can to push for an end to the atrocities.
It is understood the heckler was removed from the hall by security and handed over to Merseyside police.
Emily Thornberry urges government to block bid by Elon Musk’s Tesla to get licence to suppy electricity in UK
Helena Horton
Helena Horton is a Guardian environment reporter.
Emily Thornberry, the chair of the foreign affairs select committee had warned the government against allowing Elon Musk to have any control of the UK energy grid.
Tesla has applied to Ofgem for a licence to be allowed to supply electricity directly to British homes. The application went in during July.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband yesterday refused to comment, saying “it is a matter for the regulator”.
However, Thornberry told a Labour Climate and Environment Forum event at the annual party conference that the government should be careful about granting the application because it could be a national security threat.
She said:
I would be very concerned about about Elon Musk and about his motivations and what he might do to the country. I think that any decisions that we may make about investment in infrastructure should be led first by the issue of security.
So I do think we should have a long, hard look whether it’s in our country for someone like Elon Musk to be allowed to invest in infrastructure in the UK.
Musk recently called for the overthrow of the British government and was accused of inciting violence on UK’s streets at a recent appearance at a far right rally in Britain.
Thornberry added:
I think it’s pretty interesting that the Chinese won’t allow Teslas near public buildings or government buildings because they’re worried about espionage.
She also said that Keir Starmer should go to the Cop climate change conference, and that he should let King Charles go to the summit in November.
She said:
In six weeks time, I’m going to be going to Cop 30 in Belem, where I will witness what it is that governments are now doing, and the government will have an opportunity there to demonstrate the leadership when it comes to climate change. This means the senior leaders, and I hope that includes the prime minister, will attend and engage.
I think the King should of course be allowed to go to Cop, I am sure he wants to go.
Treasury minister Torsten Bell ruffled some feathers on Monday night after mocking Lib Dem leader Ed Davey’s appearance. He said:
What Britain needs to tackle Farage is a vision. And the vision they need is not a fat bloke in a wet suit which is what the Lib Dems have got to offer Britain in the 21st century.
A Lib Dem councillor in Liverpool, Carl Cashman, posted that it showed Labour were “the nasty party”.
Burnham (55) says he wants UK to rejoin EU in his lifetime
Burnham says he wants to see the UK rejoin the EU in lifetime.
He says:
I’m going to be honest. I’m going to say I want to rejoin. I hope, in my lifetime, I see this country rejoining the European Union.
Burnham is 55. Keir Starmer, who is 63, has said he does not expect the UK to rejoin in his lifetime.
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