Andy

PM tells regional mayors he is keen to see tournament hosted in UK for first time after almost eight decadesAndy Burnham has said he wants to bring the men’s World Cup to the UK in 2042, a move which would see the tournament return to these shores for the first time in almost eight decades.At a meeting in No 10 North in Manchester on Friday, the prime minister told regional mayors he was keen for the tournament to be played in the British Isles. Continue reading...

Appeals court slashes judgment to $1.5m in a significant legal victory for the rightwing Infowars founderA Texas appeals court has slashed the $50m judgment to $1.5m against Alex Jones, founder of the rightwing platform Infowars, over falsely calling the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut a hoax.The ruling does not affect a $1.4bn judgment against Jones in Connecticut, but is a significant legal victory for Jones after he and his company, Free Speech Systems, were found liable for damages for claiming the mass shooting didn’t happen. Continue reading...

PM wants to reduce department’s stranglehold on public purse and bring long-term thinking to economic policyAndy Burnham is far from the first prime minister to dream of taming the power of the mighty Treasury.Boris Johnson all but forced the resignation of Sajid Javid by handpicking his team; Margaret Thatcher favoured her economic adviser Alan Walters over Nigel Lawson, prompting the latter’s furious resignation; Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s power struggle was the stuff of Whitehall legend. Continue reading...

The prime minister has announced a £442m plan to get rough sleepers off the streets by Christmas. It solidifies tackling homelessness as a central policy for Andy Burnham’s government, and gives voters a measure by which to judge his success – although without a concrete target for ministers to hit.Nosheen Iqbal speaks to social policy editor Patrick Butler – watch on YouTube Continue reading...

PM says public money alone won’t solve problem but ‘we did it in the pandemic, we can do it again’UK politics live – latest updatesAndy Burnham has said government money alone may not be enough to get rough sleepers off the streets by Christmas, as he issued a “rallying call” for councils, charities and communities to help solve the problem.Speaking on a visit to the north-east of England, he said he felt “very passionately” about tackling homelessness and wanted the wider society to play a part in wiping it out. Continue reading...

A mother, father and their teenage daughter died after getting into difficulty in water off Shoreham-by-Sea, and a younger girl remains in hospitalAndy Burnham has warned of the dangers of open-water swimming as he called the deaths of a mother, father and their teenage daughter who got into difficulty in water off Sussex “a terrible family tragedy”.The prime minister expressed his sympathies to their loved ones as a young girl from the same family remained in a critical condition in hospital. Continue reading...

PM’s plan to shield households from more pressure risks being overwhelmed by wider price risesUK inflation rises to 2.9%Business live – latest updatesJuly’s increase in inflation, to 2.9%, is likely to be the first of several, underlining the challenge facing Andy Burnham in shielding consumers from a fresh cost of living squeeze this autumn.Rising energy bills, as an increase in Ofgem’s quarterly price cap came into force, were the main driver of the jump in inflation, from 2.6% in June. Continue reading...