Burnham-Streeting latest: Streeting reopening Brexit wars by calling for UK return to EU ‘a bit odd,’ says Nandy

Labour might hope that Reform’s incompetence at a local level and a new leader in place will be enough to win back the North, but there is one big flaw in that calculation, writes Colin Drury:

When Susan Tapscott went to vote in the country’s local elections, there was just one party she considered. “Reform,” the retired legal worker tells me a week after she cast her vote. “They’re the only ones who understand how people are feeling… fed up with politicians, fed up with illegal immigration costing millions every day, fed up with the price of everything going up and nothing getting better.”

Here Kate Devlin looks at where would-be successors to Sir Keir Starmer stand on the European Union and what they have said in the past:

As the prime minister prepares to cling to office, Anne McElvoy assesses his chances of survival – and reveals the individual who will determine his fate (…and it’s not Andy Burnham):

As Keir Starmer spoke to party supporters in London after the rude rout of local elections, I watched him exude a mixture of defiance and irritation – that he should be pleading for his job less than two years into power. Damn the pesky voters turning the Red Wall a Reform-hued turquoise.

Never mind trailing the SNP, only a few seats ahead of Reform at Holyrood, and being blasted off the map in Wales. The prime minister has the look of a man who firmly believes he is in the right place, and yet many colleagues tell him the game is up.

Former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, who stepped down on Tuesday, described Sir Keir Starmer’s approach to holding tech companies accountable for children’s online safety as “timid”.

She told the BBC: “Timid is the best way that I can describe (his approach). I don’t think people understand exactly what I am talking about, necessarily, in my resignation letter, what I am talking about is stopping 91% of child sexual abuse online.

“The ability for children to take the naked images of themselves and do live streaming of their own sexual abuses is something that I had to try and stop.”

Ms Phillips said the process of trying to push for legislation to force tech companies to crack down on child sexual abuse images was “frustrating”.

She added: “That level of timidity on something that could stop child abuse, for example… I don’t think that the Prime Minister, for one second, doesn’t want to stop that child abuse, of course he does.

“But the willingness to have an argument on this in this instance with tech companies just wasn’t there.”

Jess Phillips said former health secretary and potential Labour leadership contender Wes Streeting showed “bravery and boldness” in government.

She told the BBC: “He once said to me that the process of me writing the Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy felt a little bit like me hanging him upside down by his ankles and shaking out his pockets, but the reality is, he stepped up and he got the right people to do the right thing.

“So there’s one example of where I found him very forthcoming.

“Now, the Prime Minister does definitely care about violence against women and girls, don’t get me wrong, but what I see from Wes is bravery and boldness.”

When discussing Wes Streeting’s call to rejoin EU, Kemi Badenoch said: “These people do not have a plan for the country.”

Speaking on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, she said: “The point I’m making is that things like scrapping green taxes off our energy bills, scrapping VAT off our energy bills, you can’t do that if you’re in the EU.

“We have an advantage over other countries when it comes to jet fuel and the rules around refuelling while we’re having this fuel price drop, because we’re not in the EU. We should be using the advantages of it, not going back to the past, rehashing this argument.

“It’s not going to be as simple as walking through a door. It’s going to be years more of negotiations, years more of the country not being governed. These people do not have a plan for the country, they’re just throwing this out there.”

Manchester’s mayor is at high risk of failure in his bid to return to the Commons, says John Rentoul – a loss that would leave the Labour government seriously weakened:

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said that rehashing the Brexit debate is a sign that the Labour Party “does not have a plan for this country”.

It comes after Wes Streeting made calls to rejoin the European Union as he called for a “proper contest” to replace Sir Keir Starmer and confirmed he would stand if the race is triggered.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has also been probed over his support for returning to the EU as he seeks to stand in the upcoming Makerfield by-election.

Asked for her response to the Brexit debate, Mrs Badenoch told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “The country wants us to make the best of Brexit, make the best of leaving the EU.

“The idea of starting again, going backwards, having all of these negotiations, this is a sign of the Labour Party that does not have a plan for the country, so they want to go back and refight wars, which were settled a long time ago. And I’m saying that we’re the only ones who have a plan.”

A woman leader of the Labour Party is “long overdue”, Lisa Nandy said, expressing frustration that those jostling to oust Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer are all men.

But the Culture Secretary also warned Labour against turning inwards, and said the public had been “completely” cut out of the conversation over the last week amid rumours of a leadership challenge.

She also ruled out standing should there be a Labour leadership contest.

Ms Nandy, the MP for Wigan, said during an interview with Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme that she was “not here to be a spokesperson for whichever man offers an opinion on politics in the Labour Party”.

She was asked why she repeatedly decided to refer to the two “men” who currently appear to be seeking to replace Sir Keir: Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting.

Ms Nandy replied: “It’s just not lost on me that I’m being interviewed by a man, being asked to give my views about several men in the Labour Party, who I’m clearly not a spokesperson for.

“I’m sorry if I’m coming across as a bit irritated.“I think what is really winding me up, if I’m honest, is that people told us loud and clear last Thursday that things weren’t good enough, that they needed far more fundamental, far more urgent change in their lives.

“Somehow we seem to have just cut them out completely of the conversation over the last week, and Westminster has gone into introspection mode, where the debate is being led about personalities and about individuals.”