Politics latest: Burnham vows to ‘save’ Labour as Streeting launches leadership bid

The “deindustrialisation and privatisation” of the UK has left areas like Makerfield “without good jobs and people unable to afford the basics,” Andy Burnham said speaking to Channel 4 News.

He said: “We need a different path completely. What is that path? Put more things back under stronger public control: energy, housing, water, transport.

“I’ve done that with buses in Greater Manchester. I was the first to do it. Margaret Thatcher deregulated them … and then they just work for the private shareholders and not for the paying public.

“I put them back under public control with the £2 fares, so you take that principle and apply it to energy and apply to the water – that’s what I think we need to do.”

Wes Streeting warned Labour risks becoming “handmaidens” to Nigel Farage in the next general election in his speech.

He said voters in last week’s election “issued a warning”.

“Never again must we allow a tyranny of silence in the name of party unity to send us on to avoidable defeat,” he says, adding that this is why he has called “for a battle of ideas, not personalities”.

He says Labour arrived in government “underprepared”, which led to the “early catastrophe” of the winter fuel cut.

For the “first time in history”, Labour’s biggest opponent is Reform UK and Nigel Farage, not the Conservative Party, he adds.

Streeting says that “unless we change course”, Labour stand to lose a General Election to Nigel Farage – becoming “handmaidens” to the Reform UK leader “and the breakup of the United Kingdom”.

“Imagine the consequences,” he says.

What is so remarkable about the crisis of leadership convulsing the Labour government is that it is all about process and personality rather than policy. It was triggered by Catherine West, a backbench MP who wanted the cabinet to change the prime minister without a leadership election but who now says that, if there is a leadership election, she might vote to keep Sir Keir Starmer.

Andy Burnham has said he is running in the Makerfield by-election to “save” Labour.

Speaking to the BBC, the mayor for Greater Manchester said Labour has to acknowledge it has “not been good enough”, adding it “requires a lot of change”.

“I want Labour solidly to be the part of working class people people are working class and that requires a lot of change,” he added.

It comes after he was given the go ahead by the NEC to run in the by-election.

Andy Burnham has called for an education reform and called to end the housing crisis.

In an interview with the Mirror Mr Burnham outlines his policies and said he wanted to reform education and make technical education the equal of the academic university route.

He also warned there would be no stability in Britain until “we end the housing crisis” and called for more council houses.

The Manchester Mayor also said he backed proportional representation in Westminster elections to help build a “new politics and a different way of thinking”.

In his first full interview after his return to national politics this week, Andy Burnham has highlighted that the UK has been on the “wrong path” since the 1980s.

He stressed that all parties had let the public down, including Labour, in an interview with the Mirror. But he took a hit at Nigel Farage, comparing Reform to Margaret Thatcher.

He said: “When Britain went on that wrong path in the 1980s, that devastation that communities like these felt, the leadership of Reform were the arch Thatcherites and I think people need to understand what they are. I hope the true character of Reform is tested in this, what do they actually believe?”

The so-called King of the North is set to challenge Keir Starmer to become the next prime minister. But in Manchester, he has ridden a wave first generated by two other unsung heroes, writes Chris Blackhurst

Andy Burnham is expected to drop his call to reverse Brexit as he faces a crunch by-election that could see him return to Westminster and even potentially enter No 10.

He will, however, still call for close ties between the UK and the European Union, according to reports.

The man who could be the UK’s next prime minister must first win the seat of Makerfield, which voted to leave the EU in 2016.