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Alex Wickham: NEW: Bloomberg Saturday read…

NEW: Bloomberg Saturday read — Andy Burnham is planning to move quickly after Makerfield to secure a coronation. His supporters think John Healey’s resignation kills off Keir Starmer’s chances of survival. They think Wes Streeting and Al Carns don’t have the numbers, and that Burnham can quickly get 250+ Labour MPs and most of the cabinet to back him. — Starmer insists he’ll fight, but the question is what the cabinet does. Burnham’s supporters want them to tell the PM to agree a handover. Before Healey resigned, Starmer’s allies hoped he could battle on because most of the cabinet would back him to stay. Aides suggest the calculus is changing and Healey’s brutal exit makes it more likely they tell Starmer it’s over. — Even Starmer loyalists are very critical of the PM. They wish he’d been bolder, found the defence money from welfare, net zero or elsewhere, and sacked Ed Miliband. Several allies say they can’t believe Miliband and Shabana Mahmood (who they say privately plotted with Burnham and Miliband to oust Starmer) are still in the cabinet, but Healey isn’t. One says that’s the final evidence of his lack of authority, political judgment and decision-making ability. — Starmer’s relationship with Rachel Reeves has been tested to the limit. Her resistance led Starmer to renege on his Munich speech and overrule Healey and Jonathan Powell. She effectively buried his survival strategy of focusing on security. Reeves allies argue it’s her job to make the numbers add up and if Starmer wanted more money for defence he could have imposed more departmental cuts but was unwilling. — Burnham will not keep Reeves on as his chancellor, despite her allies pitching her to stay. Reappointing her would not be the change he’s promising, one Burnham supporter says. They say they spoke to Reeves around the locals and came away believing she would help them persuade Starmer to go, but she didn’t follow through. — The turmoil is rattling UK allies. European diplomats contacted British counterparts in recent days complaining about the uncertainty over the UK’s defence spending plans, the slow pace of the uplift and Healey’s departure. They’ve also asked for information about Burnham’s plans for foreign policy and defence but got no answer. — If Burnham does become PM he’ll face the same problems. His critics say he’s never uttered a word of substance on defence or foreign policy, shows no interest in it and has no plan. It is not impossible that in the next few months the British PM has to join negotiations with Putin over Ukraine. “Can you imagine Burnham doing that?” asks one official, especially with Powell likely to leave with Starmer. — Starmer’s chaos also distracted from what might otherwise have been a bad week for Burnham. He got away with his WASPI gaffe thanks to Healey. Labour MPs are also critical of his plans on immigration. One aide said his proposal to end asylum hotel contracts and move responsibility for housing migrants to local authorities is amateurish and toxic. — It all leaves Labour MPs in a state of total despair. Starmer looks finished but Burnham has no obvious plan and keeps making basic mistakes that foreshadow another troubled premiership, one said. If Burnham loses Makerfield, Labour appears to have no other options.

Liz Webster: Britain’s decision to Brexit…

Britain’s decision to Brexit has already imposed a significant economic and practical cost for far fewer gains than were promised. But Brexit isn’t done hurting us. In a world of trade wars, energy shocks and geopolitical instability, choosing to erect barriers with our largest market has made Britain more exposed, less resilient and less able to absorb global shocks. The cruel irony is that Brexit was sold as a route to prosperity and control. Instead, it has left Britain facing the very thing economists fear most: stagflation - higher prices, weaker growth and falling living standards.

Liz Webster: Newsnight @gilliantett…

🚨 Newsnight @gilliantett cut to the chase: “This clearly is a mess of Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves’ making, bc they should’ve seen it.” She said Healey and Cairns have “played a masterstroke” by detonating a political landmine. But while Westminster fights internal battles and obsesses over fiscal rules and defence budgets, British 🇬🇧 farming is being allowed to decline. This government came in treating farming as an industry it could afford to neglect, repeating the mistake of treating a strategic sector as expendable. 🔥 Food is not just another industry. 🔥 Food is part of defence. The 1947 Agriculture Act understood this lesson after WW2: a country that cannot feed itself is vulnerable to war, blockades, climate shocks and hostile powers controlling supply chains. Food production is as fundamental to national resilience as energy, infrastructure and defence capability. We need to restore the principles of the 1947 Agriculture Act: treating food production as a public good and a national security priority. Food security is national security.

Andrew Bridgen: You will be told that deporting illegal migrants…

You will be told that deporting illegal migrants and foreign born criminals is an extreme political stance. This is wrong The extreme stance is giving illegal migrants ( who are criminals) free accomodation in 4* hotels , free food , clothes , phones, internet and moving them to the front of the queue for healthcare , housing etc. The Government position is the extreme stance. Never forget this.

Liz Webster: Brexit was sold as “taking back control”…

🚨 Brexit was sold as “taking back control” of our borders. Instead, it delivered the opposite. By leaving the EU, Britain lost key cooperation tools (like the Dublin Regulation for returns) while raising public expectations it couldn’t meet. Result? Record small boat crossings across the Channel, over 200,000 since 2018, turning what was once a defensive moat (Dunkirk 1940) into a smuggling superhighway.

Kathy Gyngell: The Left has reacted with hot rage…

The Left has reacted with hot rage to a comment made by @Nigel_Farage that he had reacted with cold rage to the fatal stabbingof #HenryNowak. And most especially to the way he finessed the remark: that, given the circumstances of that murder, he expects the rest of us to react in the same way. Expects, not urges, straightforward empathynot being the same as incitement, save in the Left hive mind for which all distinctions in logic are transactional. Farage is taken by many to be the villain here. Or so the architects, generals and worker bees of the vicious ‘culture of nice’ are requiring the rest of us to conclude. I’m at a loss to know what for these people the correct response to footage of child sacrifice should look like? @Sean_Walsh_1967

Liz Webster: Nigel Farage’s promises deliver the opposite…

⚠️ Nigel Farage’s promises deliver the opposite: He swore leaving the EU would “take back control” of migration. Instead we got record small boat crossings, lost EU cooperation tools, and a border more porous than ever. Now he claims leaving the ECHR will fix it. Same dodgy salesman, same false promises. Voting Farage consistently delivers the exact opposite of what he sells: fewer rights, weaker security, a poorer country for most, while crypto billionaires and a tiny elite get richer.
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