Five people were injured in a series of violent attacks in Edinburgh last weekend. Footage circulating online appeared to show a bare-chested man carrying a large weapon through the streets, while another clip showed a man repeatedly battering the door of a local pizzeria. The incident reportedly began at Broomhouse Mosque, and police have since charged a man in connection with the attacks.

The violence prompted reaction from politicians and Muslim organisations, many of whom argued that the attack appeared to be motivated by anti-Muslim hatred. Keir Starmer condemned what he described as “anti-Muslim hatred,” while Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) urged authorities to “treat this as what the evidence indicates: Islamophobic, far-right terror.”

“Whipping up this type of vigilantism and emboldening far-right terror is [the] whole point of this poisonous narrative,” the group said.

The government-funded British Muslim Trust likewise said it was “deeply concerned by the shocking attacks.”

Yet despite the severity of the incident, the story received relatively little prominence across the UK national press, an omission that did not go unnoticed.

Posting on Bluesky alongside an image of the morning newspaper front pages, journalist Adam Bienkov wrote:

“The attacks in Edinburgh, in which an armed bare-chested white man terrorised Muslims, leaving five people injured, don’t feature on a single newspaper front page this morning. Two tier journalism.”

Bienkov contrasted the muted coverage with the intense media attention given to violence in Belfast earlier this month. Following the stabbing of a man by a Sudanese refugee, graphic footage spread rapidly across social media. Tommy Robinson, posting from Moscow, shared the video with his two million followers on X within hours, claiming it showed an “invader trying to behead a man.” Elon Musk subsequently called on people to protest.

Anti-immigration activists in Northern Ireland quickly seized on the incident, circulating protest locations and, in some cases, sharing alleged “hit lists” of migrants’ homes and hostels. The following day, images from the Belfast attack featured prominently on the front pages of the nationals. The Daily Mail went as far as to warn Britain has a “gaping back door” and raised what it described as “grave questions” about immigration policy. Its leader column urged the government to confront what it called “the migrant threat.”

The disparity in coverage certainly raises uncomfortable questions. If an attack on a minority community that leaves five people injured and is widely described as potentially motivated by anti-Muslim hatred fails to command national attention, while incidents involving migrants dominate front pages and political debate, accusations of “two-tier journalism” become harder to dismiss.

As Bienkov acknowledged, the Edinburgh story did receive coverage in parts of the Scottish press. But unlike the events in Belfast, it was not judged significant enough to lead the national news agenda, a contrast that speaks to broader concerns about how violence, extremism and minority communities are covered in Britain’s media.

An onlookers seemed to agree.

“Indeed, we don’t have a two tier policing problem, we have a two tier media problem,” wrote one BlueSky user.

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Gavin Callaghan was Head of Political Management for Andy Burnham’s 2015 Leadership Campaign and is a former leader of Basildon Council

Everything now points towards Andy Burnham becoming Britain’s next Prime Minister within weeks. The real question is no longer whether he gets the keys to Number 10, but what he does once he has them.

From that moment onwards, the countdown to 2029 begins.

The next general election must be held by 2029. Burnham won’t have won a general election. He will have inherited the office of Prime Minister at one of the most turbulent moments in modern British political history, with around three years to convince the country not simply that Labour deserves another term, but that he deserves to remain in Number 10 in his own right.

By the time he walks through that famous black door, he will become Britain’s seventh Prime Minister in just ten years. David Cameron. Theresa May. Boris Johnson. Liz Truss. Rishi Sunak. Sir Keir Starmer. Andy Burnham.

Pause and think about that for a moment. That is the story of a country that has spent a decade searching for stability and, so far, failing to find it. Pivoting from statesman and woman to clowns and frauds. Never to find a solution.

In many respects, merely surviving until the next general election would already place Burnham among the longer-serving Prime Ministers of the past decade. But nobody remembers the politicians who simply keep the seat warm. History remembers those who persuade the British people to renew their contract with them, and if Andy Burnham wants to be spoken about in the same breath as Tony Blair rather than Theresa May, Boris Johnson or Rishi Sunak, then the challenge before him is not becoming Prime Minister. It is winning the country.

And that, I would argue, is where the really interesting question begins.

For the best part of a decade, Andy Burnham has built something in Greater Manchester that very few politicians have managed to achieve anywhere in Britain. He hasn’t simply overseen transport reform, secured devolved powers or championed regeneration projects. Plenty of politicians have delivered individual policies. Burnham has done something rather more significant.

He has built a recognisable political identity around a place.

People often describe it as “Manchesterism”, but I think that slightly misses the point. What Burnham has really created is a politics that feels rooted. It is visible. It is tangible. It is about buses that turn up, town centres that matter, neighbourhood policing, decent housing, culture, football, local pride and civic confidence. Whether you agree with every decision he has taken is almost beside the point. People know what he stands for because they can see it reflected in the place he governs.

That is an increasingly rare quality in modern politics.

The challenge, however, is that Greater Manchester is not Britain, and governing the country is a very different proposition from governing England’s most successful combined authority.

The temptation, of course, would be to try and export Manchester wholesale, but that would be a mistake. The South of England is not crying out to become the North, nor should it. Yet if you spend any time travelling around Essex, Kent, Hampshire, Sussex or the commuter towns surrounding London, you quickly discover that many of the frustrations sound remarkably familiar. Young people wondering whether they will ever own a home. Residents watching high streets slowly lose their identity. Parents struggling to secure NHS appointments. Businesses frustrated by transport networks that simply don’t connect. Communities increasingly feeling that the people making decisions about their future have never really spent any meaningful time there.

Those frustrations are not northern grievances. They are English grievances.

That is why I suspect Burnham’s next political project cannot simply be Manchesterism. It has to become something broader: a modern English politics built around civic pride, local power and visible leadership. Not because every place should look like Manchester, but because every place deserves leaders who care about it as much as Burnham quite obviously cares about Manchester.

There is, however, another challenge waiting for Burnham if he walks into Downing Street, and it has nothing to do with buses, devolution or even Greater Manchester.

It is about Labour itself. Because after years of internal arguments, electoral setbacks and the understandable caution that comes with trying to rebuild credibility, I sometimes wonder whether Labour has forgotten that people don’t simply vote for competence.

They vote for hope. They vote for ambition. They vote for governments that appear willing to reshape the country rather than simply administer it.

People want Labour to be Labour again.

They want the party that founded the NHS when many insisted it could never work. The party that built the New Towns to tackle Britain’s post-war housing crisis. The party that expanded educational opportunity, strengthened workers’ rights, created Sure Start, passed the Equality Act and invested in programmes like Building Schools for the Future because it believed government had both the responsibility and the confidence to improve people’s lives.

Those were not cautious governments.

They were transformative governments.

They were rebellious governments.

They were Labour governments.

They were brave enough to ask not simply what was politically possible, but what Britain actually needed.

Somewhere along the way, Labour became so focused on proving it could be trusted to manage the country that it sometimes forgot people also want it to change the country.

Perhaps that is the lesson for Burnham.

The temptation in Westminster is always to become a different version of yourself. To soften the edges, to speak in ever more carefully tested language and to allow advisers to sand away the very qualities that made people notice you in the first place.

Maybe the trick is simply to let Burnham be Burnham.

One appointment already hints at that possibility. Bringing James Purnell into the heart of the operation is no small decision. Whether you agreed with every aspect of his political career or not, Purnell has long been regarded as one of Labour’s most serious strategic thinkers; somebody who understands both how government works and how political coalitions are built. It is an appointment that speaks of intent rather than inertia, confidence rather than caution. It suggests Burnham understands that winning the leadership is one thing; building a government capable of winning again is something altogether different.

There is another reason why all of this matters.

The next general election will not be won in Manchester, Liverpool or inner London. Labour already knows how to win those places. It will instead be decided in towns that often feel politically homeless; places that are neither metropolitan enough for one political tribe nor rural enough for another. The commuter belts. The coastal towns. The market towns. Places like Basildon, Swindon, Peterborough, Medway, Milton Keynes and dozens more besides, where people are less interested in ideological purity than they are in whether politics can once again become useful.

Listen carefully to what people in those communities actually talk about and it is striking how little of it resembles the arguments that dominate Westminster. They want safe streets. Reliable transport. Homes that their children might realistically be able to afford. GP appointments that don’t require weeks of waiting. Town centres they can once again feel proud of. Above all else, they want somebody who appears to understand the place in which they live.

Burnham instinctively understands this. His politics has always begun with place before party, community before ideology. That is one of the reasons he has become Labour’s most effective communicator since Tony Blair. He speaks like somebody who genuinely enjoys the company of ordinary people rather than someone who has spent too long surrounded by advisers trying to perfect the next soundbite.

Which brings me to Nigel Farage.

Farage’s greatest achievement has never simply been persuading people to vote for him. It has been persuading millions of people that politics stopped listening to them altogether. That argument cannot be defeated by telling voters they are mistaken. It can only be defeated by making it obviously untrue.

Burnham is perhaps uniquely placed within Labour to do exactly that because he is comfortable talking about England, comfortable talking about patriotism and comfortable talking about local identity without ever allowing those conversations to descend into the grievance politics that has become Farage’s stock in trade. He understands that people can be proud of where they come from without believing somebody else has to lose.

If he can take that language into every corner of England, Farage’s politics begins to look less like an unstoppable force and more like a symptom of problems that are finally being addressed.

Of course, none of this will happen through personality alone. Tony Blair’s success was never simply Tony Blair’s success. It was the product of an extraordinary team who complemented one another, challenged one another and understood that government is a collective endeavour. Burnham and Purnell were themselves, advisers in Blair’s Downing Street between 1997 and 2001. Burnham will need exactly the same discipline. He will need advisers prepared to disagree with him, ministers chosen because they can deliver rather than because they happen to be loyal, and mayors and council leaders who feel empowered rather than managed from Whitehall.

Because if there is one lesson from the past decade of British politics, it is surely this. Governments do not fail because they run out of slogans. They fail because they stop building.

Seven Prime Ministers in ten years tells the story of a country still searching for stability.

Andy Burnham’s opportunity is not simply to become the seventh name on that list.

It is to become the first in a generation whose name stays there long enough to change the country.

If he can take the confidence of Manchester and turn it into a new English settlement built on civic pride, devolved power and a Labour Party unafraid to be transformative again, then becoming Prime Minister will simply be the beginning.

Winning the 2029 general election is the moment that will define whether Andy Burnham merely occupied Downing Street…

…or whether he became the first Labour Prime Minister since Tony Blair to build something that truly lasts.

Image credit: Scottish Government – Creative Commons

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Andy Burnham should move Shabana Mahmood out of the home office and ‘rip up’ her policies on asylum if he becomes prime minister, the veteran Labour peer Alf Dubs has said.

Dubs came to the UK from Czechoslovakia in 1939 as part of the Kindertransport which assisted Jews persecuted in Nazi-controlled areas. He has been a fierce advocate for refugee rights within the Labour Party.

Dubs told the Guardian: “I think her talents would be better used elsewhere in cabinet to allow the new PM free rein to put his own stamp on asylum and immigration policy.

“At a time when the party needs unity, I do not believe that Shabana Mahmood’s policies represent the right approach.”

He went on to add: “This is Andy Burnham’s opportunity to correct some of the mistakes that the Starmer government made as regards asylum seekers and refugees.

“The proposed changes to indefinite leave to remain, for instance, which would apply retrospectively to people who came here in good faith and according to the rules, are simply unjust and should be reconsidered.

“We must stand firmly by our commitments under the 1951 refugee convention and the ECHR and not attempt to water them down which is what the current proposals threaten to do.”

Later in his comments to the Guardian, Dubs accused Mahmood’s policies of representing ‘performative cruelty’. He told the newspaper that the government should seek to control the UK’s borders but that “this control should also come with our commitment to basic rights, and compassion for those who are in time of greatest need. Not performative cruelty – like briefing the Home Office would start seizing refugees’ jewellery at the border. Or using incendiary language to blame refugees for ‘tearing our country apart’.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

Image credit: James Watling / Parsons Media – Creative Commons

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Nigel Farage cares so much about defence, that he skipped a Parliamentary debate on the issue in favour of going to an exclusive stakehouse that charges £95 for a steak.

The Populist Decoder reports that Farage spent Brexit’s tenth anniversary at an exclusive central London restaurant with Arron Banks, a Leave.EU co-founder, and an aide nicknamed ‘Posh George’ — then posted the photo himself on Facebook.

“While he was being photographed leaving at 5.20pm, Parliament had been debating defence spending for hours. The same Parliament. The same afternoon. The same Farage who reportedly told the country Britain was ‘defenceless.”

That’s how much Farage cares about an issue he wants you to think he cares about.

I suppose having wrecked the economy, and with a majority of Britons now wanting to rejoin the EU, the only people really giving a toast to the Brexit anniversary are the likes of Farage who beneifted personally.

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Two Reform councillors have defected to the extreme right-wing party Restore Britain today (26 June).

Dan Glover and Rob Aitkenhead were both elected in Warwickshire in the 2025 local elections under the Reform banner. They’ve now joined Restore barely a year after being elected.

Announcing their defections, Restore’s leader Rupert Lowe said they were ‘patriots who want the best for their community’.

Glover and Atikenhead’s defection is just the latest in a series of debacles besetting the Reform-run Warwickshire County Council. Reform has now lost four councillors since the 2025 election, with two going independent. Barely a month after taking control of the council last May, the Reform council leader Rob Howard resigned from the post. And in March this year, the now leader of the council George Finch narrowly survived a vote of no confidence by a single vote.

Despite these two defections, Restore remains a fringe political party. Currently, it has fewer than 40 councillors across the UK. That’s compared to more than 1,300 for the Greens and more than 2,300 for Reform.

However, in recent months Restore has emerged as a potential threat to Nigel Farage’s Reform. In the Makerfield by-election, Restore won 7 per cent of the vote. If they were to secure that level of support in other constituencies across the country at the next general election, they could potentially prevent Reform from winning dozens of seats by splitting the right-wing vote.

Similarly, if more Reform councillors begin to defect, Farage’s party could see itself losing influence in local government and even losing control of councils it currently runs.

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

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Andrea Egan – the general secretary of public services union Unison – has indicated she would back Ed Miliband becoming Andy Burnham’s chancellor.

Miliband is one of a number of people rumoured to be in the running for the job should Burnham become prime minister in the coming weeks. The other people reportedly being considered are the former health secretary Wes Streeting and the home secretary Shabana Mahmood.

Egan said: “Andy Burnham has a historic opportunity to rebuild our country in the interests of workers and communities, but that chance will be squandered if his government is made up of politicians determined to continue the same failed approach.

“We need a chancellor who will rewire the economy and properly invest to improve the lives of the majority. Of those reported to be in the running, only Ed Miliband could enact the kinds of policies trade unions and our members urgently need.”

Egan’s backing for Burnham contrasts with the stance of other key figures within the trade union movement.

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, has very publicly opposed Miliband becoming chancellor. She has said: “It is no secret that I disagree with Ed on almost every issue relating to a workers’ transition. Ed only seems to be interested in one side of the equation, rushing Britain to net zero with almost no thought for jobs, skills and national security.

“In my view, a Labour chancellor needs a vision for Britain that understands the skills we have, nurtures those skills and sees Britain as an industrial force that can lead in industries, not decimate them.

“Good investment in British industry is a no-brainer. Anyone who does not get that it matters where things are made and produced should not be chancellor.”

Gary Smith, the general secretary of GMB is also seeking to stop Miliband becoming chancellor, and is opposed to his stance on North Sea oil and gas.

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

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The Socialist Campaign Group (SCG) of left-wing Labour MPs has set out a list of demands for the next Labour leader, warning that unless the party changes course and reconnects with Labour voters, not only does it face the risk of wipeout but also risks a far-right government.

It comes after Keir Starmer announced this week that he would be stepping down after pressure from MPs and members of his cabinet, following Andy Burnham’s resounding victory in the Makerfield by-election.

The SCG grouping writes in Trbiune that a ‘change of Labour leadership will happen soon, but that alone will not be enough. Labour needs a fundamental change of direction’.

So what are the SCG demanding? Here’s a list below:

• Equalising Capital Gains Tax and introducing a 2 percent levy on assets worth more than £10 million
• Bringing water and energy into public ownership
• The scrapping of plans for PFI-style schemes to fund new NHS health centres or other public services.
• An emergency package of measures to protect living standards, including a genuine freeze on energy bills, universal free school meals and the expansion of affordable public transport
• An Employment Rights Act 2.0 to ensure the complete delivery of the New Deal for Working People
• A large-scale council house building programme and introduction of rent controls
• Scrapping plans to double the time migrant workers already in our country need to secure settlement
• Oppose any new oil and gas licences and invest in the transition to renewable energy needed to cut emissions,

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Andy Burnham has been given a boost by a new poll which finds that Britons believe he would make a better Prime Minister than every other major party leader.

Burnham, who is in the running to become Prime Minister after Keir Starmer announced this week that he was stepping down, could be in Downing Street as early as July 17th should no one else put themselves forward.

He secured a resounding win in the Makerfield by-election, gaining more votes than both Reform and Restore combined, which strengthened his case for the leadership.

Now a new poll by YouGov finds that Britons believe the former Mayor of Greater Manchester would make a better Prime Minister than other major party leaders.

See the full breakdown of how Burnham compares to other party leaders below:

Burnham 43% vs Farage 23%
Burnham 38% vs Polanski 11%
Burnham 32% vs Badenoch 28%
Burnham 32% vs Davey 11%

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The first poll carried out since Keir Starmer announced he’s standing down as prime minister has been published. It’s good news for the Labour Party.

Polling firm Find Out Now carried out the poll from 24-25 June in the immediate aftermath of Starmer’s announcement.

The poll found support for Labour is up substantially on a week prior.

The full results of the poll were as follows:

• Reform: 24 per cent
• Labour: 21 per cent
• Tory: 18 per cent
• Green: 15 per cent
• Lib Dem: 12 per cent
• SNP: 3 per cent

That might not seem to be too positive for Labour at a first glance. However, the 21 per cent for Labour is up six points on the 15 per cent Find Out Now had the party on just one week ago.

Reform are down three points on the previous week, the Greens down two points and the Lib Dems down one.

It remains to be seen whether this poll is an outlier or instead part of a wider trend.

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

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A cross-party group of MPs have backed calls for the introduction of a maximum working temperature. More than 20 MPs have signed an Early Day Motion (EDM) making the call as the UK endures record-breaking temperatures.

The EDM acknowledges the role that climate breakdown is playing in increasing the frequency and intensity of heatwaves in the UK and describes the major health issues that can arise as a result of extreme heat, including “dizziness, tiredness, asthma, throat infections and, in extreme cases, heat stroke and death”.

The signatories to the EDM state that they are “concerned at the increasing frequency and intensity of heatwaves being experienced in the UK, as a result of man-made climate change”, before going on to state: “that whereas the law specifies a minimum working temperature, no corresponding maximum figure exists in statute”.

Later, the EDM states that “current recommendations for employers to maintain a reasonable temperature within the workplace are impossible to enforce unless a worker is seriously injured or killed from heat stress”.

The EDM concludes by calling on the government to “back the TUC’s call for a maximum working temperature of 30 degrees Celsius, or 27 degrees Celsius for those doing strenuous work, beyond which employers would have a statutory duty to introduce effective control measures, such as installing ventilation or moving staff away from windows and sources of heat.”

The EDM has had the support of MPs from Labour, Your Party, the DUP and the Greens. Its primary sponsor is the Labour MP Rebecca Long-Bailey.

At the time of writing, 22 MPs have signed the EDM. They are as follows:

1. Rebecca Long-Bailey – Labour
2. John McDonnell – Labour
3. Ian Lavery – Labour
4. Jeremy Corbyn – Your Party
5. Mary Kelly Foy – Labour
6. Ian Byrne – Labour
7. Jon Trickett – Labour
8. Kate Osborne – Labour
9. Bell Ribeiro-Addy – Labour
10. Nadia Whittome – Labour
11. Grahame Morris – Labour
12. Steve Witherden – Labour
13. Richard Burgon – Labour
14. Andy McDonald – Labour
15. Brian Leishman – Labour
16. Jim Shannon – Democratic Unionist Party
17. Neil Duncan-Jordan – Labour
18. Apsana Begum – Labour
19. Siân Berry – Green
20. Ellie Chowns – Green
21. Hannah Spencer – Green
22. Adrian Ramsay – Green

EDMs are rarely debated, but are used as a way for MPs to raise issues, highlight campaigns and illustrate the scale of support in the House of Commons for a particular issue.

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development

Image credit: UK Parliament – Creative Commons

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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is so incenced at the work of anti-extremist campaign group Hope not Hate, that he has filed a second complaint against the organisation in under a month.

Hope not Hate has done outstanding work in holding Reform to account, exposing the party’s candidates for holding bigoted and hateful views while also campaigning against the politics of hate and division that they expose.

Farage of course, would rather such crucial work not happen.

He filed a complaint against the organisation earlier this month, claiming in a letter to the Charity Commission that Hope Unlimited Charitable Trust (HUCT) was funding private company Hope Not Hate Limited’s “political activities”.

Under UK charity law, a charitable trust can fund political activities, but only if the activity is directly intended to support its charitable purpose and does not cross into party politics.

Farage has tried to claim that Hope not Hate is funded entirely by grants from HUCT, and accused Hope not Hate of sending leaflets to Makerfield homes endorsing Labour candidate Andy Burnham at next month’s by-election and rejecting his party Reform UK.

That complaint has been rejected this week, with the Charity Commission finding that there was no case to answer.

Now Farage has filed a second complaint, this time to the Electoral Commission, claiming that Hope not Hate breached the spending cap in the Makerfield by-election imposed on local non-party campaigners of £700 without having to register with one of the candidate campaigns.

He claims Hope not Hate racked up thousands of pounds in spend in the month leading up to the by-election on Facebook alone.

Responding to his latest meltdown and complaint, Hope not Hate said its campaigning in Makerfield was ‘carefully tracked so as to remain within relevant electoral law spending limits’.

It added: “What Nigel Farage is really objecting to is the work Hope not Hate has done since the last General Election: exposing countless Reform candidates with records of racism, misogyny and extreme views, and ensuring voters understand who Reform is asking them to elect.”

“We are a thorn in Reform’s side because our work is effective. That is why this is the second complaint in such a short space of time. It will not be the last attempt to shut down legitimate scrutiny and it will not work.”

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Two of Britain’s biggest trade unions have joined forces in a bid to prevent Ed Miliband from being appointed Chancellor over his rush towards net zero policies which they say undermines industries and workers’ jobs.

Although Andy Burnham, who is expected to replace Keir Starmer as Prime Minister without a contest, has not made clear who he wants as his pick for Chancellor, several names have been mooted, including Ed Miliband, Wes Streeting and Shabana Mahmood.

Unions are said to be most opposed to Miliband, arguing that his policies towards the North Sea oil have damaged jobs in the sector and would undermine job security.

The FT reports that both Unite and the GMB have teamed up to oppose Miliband, with Gary Smith, General Secretary of the GMB, reported to have met Burnham and told him his views on the Chancellorship, telling Burnham that the impact of net zero policies on the North Sea Oil and gas industries was ‘shameful’ and ‘economic madness’.

Last week, Sharon Graham, the General Secretary of Unite, Labour’s biggest financial backer, warned Burnham not to make Miliband chancellor, saying that the country needed someone at the Treasury who ‘doesn’t decimate industry’.

Graham told the Times: “It is no secret that I disagree with Ed on almost every issue relating to a workers’ transition. Ed only seems to be interested in one side of the equation, rushing Britain to net zero with almost no thought for jobs, skills and national security.

“In my view, a Labour chancellor needs a vision for Britain that understands the skills we have, nurtures those skills and sees Britain as an industrial force that can lead in industries, not decimate them.

“Good investment in British industry is a no-brainer. Anyone who does not get that it matters where things are made and produced should not be chancellor.”

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The government has published its draft legislation to ban LGBT+ conversion practices in England and Wales.

Conversion therapy refers to medical, psychiatric, psychological, religious, cultural or other attempts which seek to change someone’s gender identity or sexuality.

The government’s proposed ban will set the criminal threshold for conversion practices as conduct that aims to change someone’s sexual orientation or transgender identity through abusive acts that seriously harm the victim. 

According to the government, conversion therapy is still happening in England and Wales because of legal loopholes in legislation that covers domestic violence, coercive control and communications.

The new legislation would create new criminal offences of carrying out abusive conversion practices that cause serious harm, alarm or distress to the victim; and encouraging or assisting an abusive practice performed outside England and Wales.

Carrying out abusive conversion practices could see offenders sentenced to up to five years in prison.

On announcing the legislation, Olivia Bailey MP, Minister for Equalities, said: “Legal loopholes have left LGBT+ people vulnerable to these harmful acts which is why we must legislate.

“Conversion practices are driven by the false belief that being LGBT+ is shameful and can be forcibly changed.

“No-one should face abuse just because of who they are. That’s why we are delivering on our manifesto commitment to ban abusive conversion practices.”

The bill has been welcomed by LGBT+ rights campaign group Stonewall. Simon Blake, Stonewall’s CEO said: “People from the LGBTQ+ community are not broken or in need of ‘fixing’. That’s why I’m so pleased the government have published a draft bill to ban conversion practices that attempt to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. These practices are abuse, and every day without a ban in place leaves people at risk of serious harm.

“This is testament to the hard work of campaigners and survivors who have bravely shared their stories and refused to give up. We look forward to continuing our work with sector partners, Parliament, and government to ensure the legislation is robust and effective.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

Image credit: Quinn Dombrowski – Creative Commons

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One of the first polls for the Manchester Mayoral election, which was triggered by the resignation of Andy Burnham, shows just how much of a tight race it is between Reform and Labour. 

The survey, carried out by FocalData on behalf of campaign group Hope Not Hate, put Labour on 33.2 per cent of first preference support, with Reform UK close behind on 30.1 per cent. 

The Greens were third on 12.5 per cent, followed by the Conservatives on 11.1 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 7.6 per cent.

Labour are hoping to retain the mayoralty and have picked Manchester Council leader Bev Craig as their candidate, who is a close ally of Burnham.

Reform are yet to announce their candidate (let’s hope they properly vet them this time) but believe they can mount a serious challenge for the seat.

The contest will be seen as a crucial first test for Burnham and the Labour Party, as they seek to build on recent momentum following the Makerfield by-election result. 

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Jon Lansman helped found the left wing Labour faction Momentum and worked on Jeremy Corbyn’s 2015 leadership campaign.

While he was once a key Corbyn ally, in an interview with Jewish News Lansman has indicated the two have very different views on the future of the left in Britain.

Corbyn, having been expelled from Labour for standing as an independent in the 2024 general election, established Your Party – a new party on the left – last year.

Lansman doesn’t share Corbyn’s view that this could be a powerful force in politics. He told Jewish News “I think it’s obvious Your Party is going nowhere”.

Elsewhere in the interview, Lansman gave his backing to Andy Burnham’s bid to replace Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour Party.

He said: “I’ve spent the last fifty years fighting for an inclusive, pluralist left—and I think Andy Burnham is right for this time,” later adding: “He’s got political experience, he connects with working-class voters, and he’s not afraid of radical ideas.”

Lansman went on to say: “Would I have liked to have seen someone further to the left? Maybe. But ability and experience count.

“Andy has proven he can deliver results and communicate across divides. He’s not just another politician—he’s someone who can unite Labour and reach out beyond it.”

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

Image credit: Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung – Creative Commons

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With Andy Burnham’s victory in the Makerfield by-election, there’s now a vacancy in his previous role. On July 30, around two million voters across Greater Manchester will go to the polls to elect his replacement as their mayor.

With the by-election less than a month away, some of the runners and riders are already being announced. These are all the candidates who’ve been confirmed so far.

Who is the Labour Party candidate for Manchester Mayor?

Labour has announced that its candidate in the by-election will be Bev Craig.

Craig has long been a fixture of politics in Manchester. She was first elected as city councillor in 2011, and became leader of Manchester City Council in 2021. She also serves as the vice chair of the Labour Group within the Local Government Association.

With Burnham having won the mayoralty in 2024, Craig is undeniably the favourite. However, with Labour’s recent local election performance and low poll ratings, she will face competition from Reform and the Greens, potentially alongside other candidates.

Who is the Green Party candidate for Manchester Mayor?

Speaking of the Greens, they’ve also announced who they’ll be putting forward for the post – Geraldine Coggins, a councillor in Trafford.

Coggins has been a councillor since 2018 and is the leader of the Green Group – the third largest party – on Trafford Council.

The Greens have recent history in selecting councillors from Trafford to contest by-elections. Hannah Spencer served on the council from 2023 until she was successfully elected as the MP for Gorton and Denton earlier this year.

Can the Greens pull off a similar trick across the whole of Greater Manchester?

Who is the Workers Party candidate for Manchester Mayor?

Remember the Workers Party? That’s the small fringe outfit that bills itself as an ‘anti-woke’ left wing party led by George Galloway.

As a man who rarely misses an opportunity to pop up to stand in a by-election, Galloway has confirmed that he intends to stand for Manchester mayor. That’s despite him currently living in what he describes as a ‘self-imposed exile’ in Russia.

Galloway has a patchy electoral record. He served as a Labour MP for more than 15 years – first for Glasgow Kelvin and then for Bethnal Green and Bow. After being expelled from Labour, he was elected as a Respect MP in the 2005 general election, before failing to get re-elected to parliament in 2010. In 2012, he won a by-election in Bradford West, only to lose his seat at the 2015 general election.

He then spent years failing to win three different parliamentary seats, before getting elected in the Rochdale by-election in February 2024. He would go on to lose his seat five months later in the general election.

Will Galloway have a shot? His history suggests that he could achieve something sensational or he could be little more than a footnote.

Who is the Restore Britain candidate for Manchester Mayor?

Rupert Lowe’s extreme splinter from Reform – Restore Britain – has also announced it will be fiedling a candidate in the election. The party has said that Marlon West will be its candidate.

Rather than focusing on the far-right positioning on immigration that Restore has been known for, Lowe has said that West “will push to attract genuine business investment, cut wasteful public spending including on the GMCA’s own bloated administration, protect greenfield land from developers, and overhaul a transport network that has failed commuters for years.”

In the Makerfield by-election, Restore picked up 7 per cent of the vote and came third. While it is incredibly unlikely Restore can win the mayoral election, could they pick up enough first preference votes on the right to prevent Reform making it through to the second round?

Who are the other candidates for Manchester Mayor?

Other parties are yet to announce their candidates for the contest, including the Tories, Lib Dems and Reform. Check back for updates on their candidates.

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

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Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has been widely condemned for the disgraceful language she used at PMQs today, calling Labour MPs ‘traitors’ and accusing them of ‘betrayal’, after Keir Starmer announced his resignation earlier this week.

Badenoch wasted no time in attacking the Labour Party after Starmer’s resignation, calling Cabinet ministers “traitors and deserters” or “loyal and incompetent”.

She also accused energy secretary Ed Miliband of “treachery” and “betrayal” for backing Andy Burnham, claiming he was “killing jobs” while chancellor Rachel Reeves was “killing economic growth”.

The Tory leader then launched an unprecedented attack on Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, calling her a “spiteful class warrior” for adding VAT to private school fees.

As Labour backbenchers shouted back at her, the Tory leader said: “It’s amazing, I’ve never seen this much excitement on the Labour benches. They’re cheering so loudly while there are 400 knives stuck in his back.”

The speaker of the Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, was among those who criticised Badenoch’s language: “Can I just say, think about the language we use, because when we leave this chamber don’t be surprised if constituents feel they can use the same language.”

“Let us show a bit more decorum and respect to each other.”

Badenoch was also criticised online, with one social media user writing: “Jo Cox was assassinated on our streets by a white supremacist terrorist radicalised by the toxic hate he heard daily.

“Today Kemi badenoch brazenly called her fellow MPs “traitors” in Parliament, forcing the Speaker to call her to order for this disgrace.

“This is reckless. This is classless. This is utterly mannerless. Utterly disgusting inflammatory garbage.”

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Jamie Stone is the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross and the chair of the House of Commons Petitions Committee.

“Nay lad, we don’t vote Liberal in these parts.”

That was Batley and Spen during a by-election some five years ago. Amid the red-brick, Coronation Street backdrop of this part of Yorkshire, I soon tried a different tact.

“Morning, lovely day isn’t it. I’m out doing the by-election rounds and I’m wondering, are you a betting person? If so, who do you think will win the seat?”

“Oh, well that’s kind of you to ask – it’s got to be Kim…”

So I returned to Westminster with the rather unsurprising intelligence that Labour would comfortably hold the seat. Later that day, who should I bump into on the House of Commons terrace overlooking the Thames but the new Leader of the Labour party Keir Starmer.

“Keir, it’s in the bag. I’ve been up there – without a shadow of a doubt, you’ve won.”

Now the reason I’m telling you this is because Keir’s reaction was interesting. He looked quite startled, almost jumped out of his skin in fact (i’m not that frightening, am I?) – almost as if he’d been caught off guard by his own success. “Do you really think so? Are you sure?”

It struck me then that a different sort of political leader might have replied, “Of course we are, Jamie – you don’t need to tell me that.” Or even: “Isn’t it about time you faced reality and joined the Labour party”. Instead, there was only cautious optimism. The pragmatism of a good, decent person doesn’t always translate to the qualities necessary for leadership. 

That small, fleeting exchange told me something important about Keir Starmer and his leadership style. When the chips were down, certainty did not seem to be his natural habitat.

Another giveaway is the fact that I don’t even once remember seeing him in the House of Commons tea room engaging in gossip and swapping information in between votes. 

Nor did I ever see him in the tea room around the corner, where the real temperature of Parliament is often taken. If you want your finger on the pulse of the House, being amongst your colleagues engaging in this kind of chatter matters more than it might seem. In fact, when previous Prime Ministers were in trouble they were to be seen making the rounds alongside loyal supporters in an often vain attempt to secure support amongst the rank and file of their party’s membership. 

The trouble with power, particularly at the level of Prime Minister, is how easily it can isolate you. It is very easy to retreat into Number 10 and gradually lose the instinctive read of your own parliamentary party who you once socialised with. 

My conclusion – rightly or wrongly – was that Keir is a decent, diligent, hard-working man, but perhaps without that extra gear of bonhomie, that “one of the lads” instinct that can make all the difference in leadership politics. None of this is a criticism; it is simply an observation of a style that he did not adopt. And, unfairly or otherwise, the most superficial airs of charisma can matter enormously when pressure builds.

In retrospect, one can see how a series of political U-turns and certain misjudgements accumulated into a perfect storm that ultimately led to his resignation during the recent political upheaval. And, of course, sometimes fatal misjudgements such as the appointment of Peter Mandelson… 

At the end of all this, I am not a member of his party – but I can say that when I raised issues on behalf of my constituents, Keir Starmer always took the time to respond properly. That alone is not nothing in modern politics.

And when I look back at some of his predecessors, it takes only a moment to recall just how damaging the Johnson and Truss years were. They were periods that did real harm to the reputation of the office of Prime Minister and, in many eyes, to the credibility of British politics itself. That charge cannot fairly be laid at Starmer’s door.

In conversations across Parliament in his final days in office, it was clear that even many who opposed him recognised his diligence and seriousness. I wish him well. There is no doubt he is a respected statesman who has worked hard all his life for the right reasons. 

He kept us out of a war and did his best to safeguard the special relationship with the United States and on the international stage. There can be no doubt that he made our country proud on many occasions. A refreshing change from the leaders that came before him. 

Perhaps now, in a slightly different world, the next Prime Minister might consider finding him a role that will allow him to put these talents to good use. Foreign Secretary might suit him rather well.. 

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The demands for electoral reform are growing, with more than 80 Labour MPs, 20 per cent of the Parliamentary Labour Party, now signing an amendment calling for a National Commission on Electoral Reform, the largest ever call for voting system change by Labour backbenchers.

Over 140 MPs from across Parliament have so far signed Alex Sobel MP’s amendment in total, up from 64 when it was initially tabled last month. Labour signatories in recent weeks include former Ed Miliband aide Polly Billington MP, leading Tribune MP Justin Madders, and former health minister and close Wes Streeting ally Zubir Ahmed MP.

With Andy Burnham in pole position to succeed Keir Starmer and become Prime Minister, he has reiterated his support for Proportional Representation in recent weeks, having already committed in 2025 during a Labour conference fringe, where he said: “I’m here to endorse the Labour for a New Democracy call for a National Commission to be set up in this parliament – and a manifesto commitment to a system of Proportional Representation to be introduced into Westminster elections in the next Parliament.”

With widespread support among Labour backbenchers, the membership and unions for proportional representation, MPs are hopeful that if he becomes Labour leader, he will lead on the issue. There are expectations that Burnham will make an announcement on plans for a National Commission on Electoral Reform.

Alex Sobel said: “A multi-party electorate is now embedded in British politics – it’s past time Westminster caught up. Labour simply cannot afford to be wrong-footed on this and we do not have time to waste: a renewed Labour government must launch a National Commission on Electoral Reform as a matter of urgency.”

Zubir Ahmed said: “For most people, Westminster feels remote and dysfunctional. First Past the Post is increasingly making Parliament look less and less like what people actually voted for. To restore public trust in politics, we need to ensure voters are fairly represented. Proportional Representation is a key part of that – any future Labour leader should establish a National Commission as a matter of urgency.”

Labour MPs have rowed in behind the amendment on social media and through speeches Parliament including recently: Nadia Whittome, Anna Dixon, Andrew Ranger, Simon Opher, Lizzi Collinge, Clive Lewis, Scott Arthur.

In 2022, Labour’s members voted overwhelmingly at the party’s annual conference to endorse PR for general elections. Four of Labour’s “big five” affiliated trade unions have formal policy in favour of electoral reform (USDAW, CWU, Unison, Unite).

It comes amid majority public support (53%) for Proportional Representation, up from 27% in 2011. This includes a plurality of voters for all major parties, including Reform UK and the Conservatives.

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