Noa Hoffman

Andy Burnham has a boats problem – and no amount of glossy TikToks can make it go away. Since taking the top job, the Prime Minister has hit the ground running with a packed grid of announcements. They have focused on some of the most pressing issues of the day, including the cost of living, defence, NEETs and social care. Yet one subject has been conspicuously absent from the agenda: immigration. It remains one of voters’ top concerns, but Burnham has found far less time to discuss it than the opening of a new government office in Manchester. Downing Street has so far been remarkably successful at controlling the news agenda through its onslaught of announcements.

Andy Burnham has all but confirmed that tax rises are coming to fund major reforms to social care. In the Prime Minister's his first press conference with – gasp – real journalists, Burnham set out his approach to an issue that has plagued successive governments. Speaking at a Jewish care home in Golders Green, Burnham declared he was willing to make ‘difficult decisions’ and risk unpopularity to deliver a national care service. The Prime Minister indicated that he was prepared to put everything on the line to achieve his aim – including his premiership. Burnham said: ‘I know that this will require me to put what political capital I have on the table, and it could sort of wear down that political capital in some ways.

Ahead of another busy week of announcements, Andy Burnham today officially welcomed the hard left into his government’s parliamentary team. A new cohort of ministerial bag carriers – or PPSs – has been unveiled after much anticipation in the parliamentary Labour party (PLP). These posts were one of the last opportunities for Labour MPs to secure a plum job. While the government already spans the so-called soft left, Blue Labour and even a few surviving Blairites, the PPS door has now been opened to loud and proud Corbynites. It marks the first time ever they have been allowed to serve in a British government.

A Green party attempt to bolster its credibility on defence has triggered furious internal backlash. A group of members, academics, veterans and serving military personnel drew up a motion this month proposing an overhaul of Green defence policy. Its authors claim the proposals offer a ‘principled, credible’ approach to the military that ‘robustly protects the UK’ – and could help strengthen Zack Polanski’s national security credentials. Among the supposedly credibility-boosting measures are proposals to scrap the party’s commitment to end anti-ballistic missile-related activity in Britain and drop the pledge requiring drones to be under human control ‘at all times’, with every launch subject to parliamentary approval.

Andy Burnham’s new head of political strategy is a trustee of a charity that campaigns to repatriate Isis brides and abolish citizenship stripping, The Spectator can reveal. Matthew McGregor was today announced as one of the latest additions to Burnham’s incoming top team in Downing Street. He is currently chief executive of the activist organisation 38 Degrees and previously served as director of campaigns and communications at Hope Not Hate. Notably, McGregor also joined the board of the charity Reprieve in April 2022. The organisation aggressively lobbies the UK government to abolish citizenship stripping, which it describes as ‘brutal and harmful’.

Andy Burnham last week issued a grovelling apology for Labour’s position on Gaza. In a three-minute social media video, he lamented his party’s weak response to the conflict in Israel while vowing to ‘do better’ on Palestine. A sentence or two was devoted to a bog-standard, tick-box condemnation of anti-Semitism before Burnham returned to listing his Gaza credentials – much to the delight of party activists and MPs. How has Burnham found ample time to grovel over Palestine but has yet to clear his diary for the domestic plight of British Jews? Days later, the incoming prime minister has still found no time to address what lies behind much of the anti-Semitism he fleetingly addressed: radical Islam and its growing legion of supporters on the left.

A 26-year-old man has been arrested this evening by Devon and Cornwall police in connection with the ‘suspicious’ death of Ann Widdecombe. The firebrand former MP, 78, was found dead at her Devon home on Thursday morning after sustaining a serious head wound. Widdecombe, who lived alone, was discovered covered in blood by her cleaner. Devon and Cornwall Police Assistant Chief Constable Matt Longman said there is 'no information' at this time to imply the murder was a 'politically motivated crime'. He added that the incident is not being treated as terror-related. Asked by journalists whether the suspect, a white British national, was known to the victim, he responded: 'We remain open-minded throughout the investigation, and we’re making those enquiries.