Kitty Donaldson

EXC: In my column this evening I've written about how power has shifted to Andy Burnham, even as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer insists he will fight on. +What do Burnham's team really make of all the MPs and hangers-on making the trip to Makerfield? inews.co.uk/opinion/the-re…

New: Morgan McSweeney is back advising the Prime Minister – four months after he resigned over his role in the Mandelson scandal. The former No 10 chief of staff is advising Sir Keir Starmer in his moment of greatest peril, multiple government and Whitehall sources told The i Paper. McSweeney is helping the Prime Minister and has “never really gone away”, one minister said. “He has been on the end of the phone 24/7,” one source said. “He has been wargaming a leadership contest and believes Keir still has a chance if there are three or more [challengers] in the contest. He has been working out how the votes could go. It’s mad.” Exclusive with Richard Vaughn

EXC: Andy Burnham is being urged by Labour MPs to abandon a manifesto commitment on the state pension triple lock to free up cash for defence and young people. inews.co.uk/news/kill-stat… From @connie_dimsdale @cazjwheeler and me

Female Labour MP: Carns is “just another bloke, albeit one who’s probably killed someone with his bare hands... I guess if the Leader of the Free World is building a cage fight on his lawn, maybe we need a special forces cage fight in Downing Street.”

NEW: Labour MPs should “skip a generation” and install Al Carns as prime minister, supporters of the former defence minister told The i Paper. But fair to say the admiration is not universal... inews.co.uk/news/politics/…

Picking up some Cabinet unease Sir Keir Starmer may pick Luke Pollard as the new Defence Secretary. This is the damning verdict on Pollard earlier from Admiral Lord West in an exclusive interview with The i Paper:

EXC. A woman was found wandering around Parliament in the middle of the night after she hid in a toilet at the end of a tour. An investigation is now under way amid claims that security guards were asleep on the job

West said Starmer’s Government had the wrong priorities for spending. “Fiscal constraints are always there for everything, aren't they? It depends on what you see as most important. To be quite honest, welfare and national health don’t matter if there is a war and you lose it.”

"The Treasury needs to be kicked into shape; they've got to be told what to do. The Prime Minister is the First Secretary of the Treasury, after all. If one ran a ship like that, it would be a bit of a disaster. You go aground, and then you’d sink,” West said.

EXC: Alan West, a Labour peer and former head of the Navy, told The i Paper that Healey’s resignation is “very sad” and the defence settlement is a “terrible error for our nation.” He also compared Sir Keir Starmer's Government to a sinking ship...

No Labour minister who wants to be taken seriously by the military can take the job of Defence Secretary now John Healey has quit. If Sir Keir Starmer can't fill the role, does this start a domino effect...? Keep up to date on our live blog: inews.co.uk/news/politics/…

Exclusive: Rachel Reeves is planning to cut the tax burden faced by wealthy US expats, as she seeks to encourage more of them to relocate to Britain 1/

It’s not all good news for Andy Burnham. Even with his name recognition in the area, he’s not recapturing the coalition Starmer managed in 2024. According to the leaked data, he currently holds about 67 per cent of Labour voters who voted for the party in 2024.

Meanwhile in Makerfield it’s all to play for. About 17 % of voters are still undecided, according to the leaked poll.

EXC: Private constituency-wide polling in Makerfield seen by The i Paper shows Andy Burnham on 35%, Restore Britain on 13% and Reform UK on 24% 🧵 inews.co.uk/opinion/polls-…

Scoop: The Treasury is resisting a push to put a firm timeline on when the UK will spend 3% on defence as part of 11th-hour negotiations over the investment plan New wording on the pledge + the additional cash settlement are STILL yet to be agreed bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

🇬🇧🇪🇺Brexit reset deal this summer now in jeopardy Starmer is trying to get the EU to postpone the most difficult bit of negotiations - lower uni fees - and agree youth mobility without it inews.co.uk/news/politics/…