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Sir Keir Starmer said of Andy Burnham: ‘I hope he wins the by-election, and he’ll play a big part in the Labour Government’ |
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Pieter Snepvangers Political Reporter |
Andy Burnham, on the eve of one of the biggest by-elections in a generation, has set his stall out.
He told Sir Keir Starmer he would not accept a job in Cabinet, after he was offered a chance to play a “big role” if he won in Makerfield today.
A source close to the Greater Manchester Mayor said he would lose the “wind of change” if he joined Starmer’s Cabinet and became “associated with the Government’s failings”.
If Burnham wins the by-election, he is expected to launch a leadership challenge within weeks, triggering a summer of upheaval for Sir Keir and his party.
First, however, he needs to win, and his biggest challenge comes in the shape of Reform UK.
Supping on a pint of Wainwright Golden Ale and enjoying a rare moment of sunshine, Nigel Farage was in high spirits when I met him yesterday afternoon. The Reform UK leader was confident pollsters had undervalued his party’s chances in Makerfield.
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Nigel Farage reads The Reformer, his party’s by-election newspaper, at the Fox at Roby Mill pub |
Throughout the campaign, successive polls have given Burnham around a 10-point lead over Reform’s Robert Kenyon, but that doesn’t tell you the full story. In more than half of the polls, the combined vote share of Reform and Restore Britain would be enough to defeat the Labour Mayor.
This has given Farage a spring in his step. “On the eve of Brexit, no one thought Leave would win and we did,” he said with a mischievous grin. “Maybe this is another one of those. You can’t discount it.”
Read the full story here ➤
Tomorrow morning, slightly earlier than usual, we’ll bring you the result of and all the reaction to this Left vs Right showdown, plus analysis of the Right vs Right subplot.
Elsewhere, the political divide could not be more perfectly illustrated than with the story leading the front page of the newspaper this morning.
St George’s Crosses and Union Flags have become a regular sight on lamp posts across the country since the Raise the Colours campaign took off on social media last summer.
St George’s Crosses and Union Flags have been flown from motorway bridges and lamp-posts across the country since last summer’s Raise the Colours campaign |
More have been hoisted in recent days in support of England at the World Cup (more on that below). One council, however, has launched a legal battle to ban raising flags in the street, making it punishable by up to two years in prison.
Continue reading ➤ |
England’s two biggest stars, Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham, were both on the scoresheet |
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Oliver Brown Chief Sports Writer, at AT&T Stadium, Dallas |
It was a night of pure, exhilarating chaos in Texas. So many times at recent major tournaments you have been desperate for England to release the handbrake, to go full-throttle, and at this shamelessly over-the-top World Cup they at last came to the party in glorious style.
This 4-2 victory over Croatia could just as easily have finished 7-3, with electrifying waves of attack and half the team queuing up to score. True, the defensive frailties made it a tough watch for manager Thomas Tuchel, but for everybody else it was a tonic.
“Be brave, be English,” Tuchel had instructed them. England paid little heed to the second part, surging forward here in Dallas with a level of abandon that would have been unthinkable under Gareth Southgate.
They embraced the first, conjuring some of the finest passages of play witnessed from England at this level in the past 25 years. Jude Bellingham’s second-half solo goal, purging the frustrations of a careless first half, was sumptuous, before Marcus Rashford’s lethal finish provided the gloss.
Captain Harry Kane, who also scored twice, urged his team-mates to sustain the aggression. “Let’s just go,” he said, and that message should surely be England’s guiding principle for the rest of the World Cup. Far better to see them as the great entertainers than as the joy-crushers trying to grind everybody else into submission.
Are the stars aligning? It is too early for wild predictions, but consider the last time England won 4-2 at a World Cup: the final in 1966.
Continue reading ➤
You can read the full report here and see the England player ratings here. Meanwhile, Jason Burt explains why the side look so different under Thomas Tuchel. Plus, here are the latest World Cup results:
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Allister Heath A triumph for the Manchester Mayor could usher in a radical Leftist coalition determined to destroy conservative values Continue reading ➤
Tim Stanley When there are cuts to be made, Miliband goes bush Continue reading ➤
Poppy Coburn Social media hasn’t messed up the young. The state has Continue reading ➤ |
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Asylum seekers were coached by pro-migration charity Imix |
When Fiona Bruce took questions from two small boat migrants on an “immigration special” episode of Question Time, there were suspicions that the BBC show was a set-up. It can now be revealed that they were placed in the audience by campaigners seeking to shift public opinion and “build support for immigration”. Craig Simpson, our Arts Correspondent, explains how Question Time was used to push pro-migration messaging. For subscribers only ➤ |
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Based on a quiet industrial estate outside Bristol, Avon Barrier is a discreet player in the war on terror, writes Colin Freeman. It makes gates and bollards, the kind of street furniture we barely notice in our everyday surroundings. The firm’s products, though, are designed to withstand a truck being driven into them at speed, aka a “Weaponised Vehicle Attack”, or WVA. I visited Avon to learn about “hostile vehicle mitigation”, and how it’s changing the face of Britain’s high streets. Continue reading ➤ |
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Iranian security forces beneath a portrait of Mojtaba Khamenei, 40 days after the death of his father, Ali Khamenei |
Mojtaba Khamenei is quietly purging his own father’s men, writes Akhtar Makoii. Inherited power isn’t real power. To rule Iran, he must dismantle the networks his father built by sidelining generals, replacing loyalists and outmanoeuvring rivals who know the system far better than he does. With rivals regrouping and 60 per cent inflation crushing ordinary Iranians, the Islamic Republic’s future hangs in the balance. This analysis is available only to subscribers ➤ |
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Hepburn pictured in 1938, the year she was branded ‘box office poison’ |
Katharine Hepburn’s tempestuous rise from “box office poison” to record-breaking Oscar winner is sensationalised in a new novel. Yet the truth, involving an affair with Howard Hughes, an heiress calling herself “Miss Hepburn’s husband” and dozens more, is sensational enough, writes Tim Robey. Continue reading ➤ |
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Prof Prabhakar Rajan: We need to improve GP recording of risk factors and continue open conversations about PSA testing |
I specialise in researching and treating prostate cancer, but my experience is not limited to the professional, writes Prof Prabhakar Rajan. My father was diagnosed with the disease 13 years ago and was successfully treated, so I know how important it is to get the message out to men about a cancer with more than 56,000 new cases diagnosed annually in this country. Jeremy Clarkson’s diagnosis has thrust the issue into the limelight – here are a few things that everyone should know. Continue reading ➤ Here is another helpful article to read this morning:
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Sophia Money-Coutts and Cleo Watson |
Welcome to The Poshcast, a riotously funny and irreverent examination of the dirtiest c-word of all: class.
It’s hosted by us, Sophia Money-Coutts and Cleo Watson, two good pals who met a few years ago at a party and bonded over dogs and writing bonkbusters while knocking back margaritas.
After a childhood spent riding ponies, then a spell at Tatler before writing several novels featuring eccentric toffs, Sophia brings her lifelong understanding of the aristocracy to the table; Cleo worked in Conservative politics before writing a couple of very saucy novels not at all based on her experiences of lords calling women “fillies” or of bundling MPs out of strip clubs.
Together, with the tally-ho enthusiasm of two Jilly Cooper characters, we’ll navigate listeners through the choppy waters of how to behave nowadays.
Forget war! Forget energy prices! Every week, we will debate the real questions that divide Britain. Is yours a shoes-on or shoes-off household? Have the Cotswolds become the naffest place in the country?
No subject is off-limits in our valiant quest to decode what “posh” really means. Do, please, keep on your shoes, take off your gloves and hold on to your hats for The Poshcast.
Listen to the first episode here ➤ |
Memories of HockneyEvery weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal reader correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories. Orlando writes...
Since David Hockney’s death was announced last Friday, we’ve received some fine tributes from readers. Hockney was himself an occasional contributor to the Letters page – chiefly as an eloquent advocate for smoking, drinking and being merry – so I hope he would have enjoyed them.
Alan Dodd recalled: “I had the privilege of being taught by him at Maidstone art school in the early 1960s, when he was still a student at the Royal College of Art.
“We watched him, on his first visit, climb a ladder and write on the wall in five-foot lettering the word ‘WORK’.
“During a later four-day drawing exercise, he crumpled a newspaper, put it on the floor and told us to draw it at the foot of a vertical sheet of paper. The next day he came in with a beautiful young man, who stood in his underpants on the newsprint; we then drew him.
“On the third day, we took a two-inch square section of what we had drawn and translated the marks in oil paint on to a two-inch square of white hardboard.
“On the fourth day, we cut this into small pieces, went down to the Medway and threw them in. A valuable lesson in how process is more important than result.”
Colin P Boyce, meanwhile, wished to register gratitude for Hockney’s guidance in life rather than art: “In recent years, he was photographed wearing his yellow Crocs (even at Buckingham Palace). This finally persuaded my wife to relent and lift her ban on my wearing my most comfortable footwear in public.”
Finally, I enjoyed this from Anne Barns-Graham: “Reading your wonderful coverage of David Hockney reminded me of my daughter, then aged five, telling her formidable great-aunt, the brilliant but rather intimidating artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, that she also wanted to be an artist when she grew up.
“Aunt Willie asked her to draw an apple. A round, red apple was drawn and shown. Aunt Willie shuddered and said: ‘You are far too happy and optimistic to be an artist’.” I think it’s fair to say that Hockney, with his inveterate joie de vivre, disproved that argument. You can add to these tributes here and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of this newsletter.
Please confirm in your reply that you are happy to be featured and that we have your permission to use your name. |
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1940 | Winston Churchill delivers his “finest hour” speech (see our front page from the following day below)
1970 | Edward Heath leads the Conservative Party to a general election win, replacing Labour
2023 | The Titan submersible vessel exploring the wrecked Titanic implodes in the North Atlantic Ocean
Birthdays: Alison Moyet (65), Isabella Rossellini (74), Sir Paul McCartney (84)
Plus, in the news today, Trawlerman, a horse at Royal Ascot, will wear ski goggles on the course. What is the reason for this?
Flying Black in ski goggles similar to those which will be worn by Trawlerman at Ascot |
1. The horse is blind
2. Sensitivity to sunlight
3. It’s a new style of blinker
4. To match its rider
Click one of the options to reveal the answer... |
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Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including The 1% Club, Cogs, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.
Yesterday’s Panagram was RADIATION. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle. |
Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow.
Chris Evans, Editor
P.S. I’d love to hear what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback here. |
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