That is no great surprise, given that she has just taken on arguably the most demanding job in the cabinet, but it does mean journalists and remove her name from the runners and riders lists.<\/p>\n
Mahmood was speaking in a short interview about small posts. I will post those comments shortly.<\/p>\n
Share<\/a><\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n Show key events only<\/p>\n Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature<\/p>\n Mahmood says countries which don’t help with small boat returns could face cut in number of visas issued<\/p>\n In a pooled interview with Sam Coates from Sky News, Shabana Mahmood<\/strong>, the new home secretary, offered some clues to her approach to dealing with the small boats problem. Here are the main points.<\/p>\n She praised the \u201cvery strong\u201d policy foundation left by her predecessor, Yvette Cooper, but she said that she wanted to go \u201cfurther and faster\u201d and that she would would do \u201cwhatever it takes\u201d to secure the borders. <\/strong>She said:<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n I will be looking to go further and faster because I\u2019m very clear I have one top priority in this job and that is to secure the borders. I will do whatever it takes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Mahmood also said that people who had already worked with her in government knew she was \u201cnot the sort of person that hangs around\u201d. (That might be a clue as to why Mahmood got the job; No 10 reportedly felt Cooper was too slow at taking and implementing decisions.)<\/p>\n Mahmood suggested that countries that refuse to take back refused asylum seekers from the UK could face a cut in the number of visas issued to their citizens. <\/strong>And she said at the Five Eyes meeting today (see 9.35am<\/a>) she had been discussing how the UK could coordinate action on this front with its partners (the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand). She said:<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n I\u2019ve been talking to our Five Eyes partners about what more we can do to work together to make sure that our borders are secure and that our citizens feel safe.<\/p>\n We think that there is interesting space for collaboration, particularly on how we deal with countries who do not take their citizens back, making sure that we are able to return out of our countries people who have no right to be in our countries and send them back to their home countries.<\/p>\n So, for countries that do not play ball, we\u2019ve been talking about how we can take much more coordinated action between the Five Eyes countries. For us, that means including possibly the cutting of visas in the future.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Shabana Mahmood with her Five Eyes colleagues standing next to a drone on the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company on their summit. Photograph: Jack Taylor\/ReutersShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a007.32 EDT<\/p>\n Mahmood rules out being candidate for deputy Labour leader<\/p>\n Shabana Mahmood<\/strong>, the new home secretary, has told Sky News she \u201cwill not be running for deputy leader of the Labour<\/a> party\u201d.<\/p>\n That is no great surprise, given that she has just taken on arguably the most demanding job in the cabinet, but it does mean journalists and remove her name from the runners and riders lists.<\/p>\n Mahmood was speaking in a short interview about small posts. I will post those comments shortly.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>TUC leader Paul Nowak says Labour has not yet made ‘change’ it promised a ‘lived reality’ for people<\/p>\n Paul Nowak<\/strong>, the TUC<\/a> general secretary, also used his speech to the conference to urge the government to be bolder. People did not feel it was delivering change, he said.<\/p>\n Last July the government was elected on a manifesto that promised change. But we have to be honest; for too many people, change still feels like a slogan \u2013 not a lived reality. That cannot continue.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Nowak urged the government to show that it was on the side of working people.<\/p>\n My message to the government is simply this \u2013 deliver the manifesto on which you won a huge majority last July. Deliver good jobs, decent public services and better living standards in every corner of the country. Deliver the change people voted for and show working-class communities whose side you are on.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n He also called for the two-child benefit cap to be lifted, as well as a windfall tax on bank profits and gambling companies and new taxes on wealth.<\/p>\n If billionaires can afford fleets of private yachts, day trips into space, weddings that shut down Venice, they can pay a bit more tax.<\/p>\n And make it clear \u2013 a Labour government will never stand aside and watch a child\u2019s potential be wasted because of poverty. Lift the two-child cap and give our kids the future they deserve.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Share<\/a>TUC leader describes Reform UK as ‘rightwing conmen’, and condemns ‘inner ugliness’ of ‘xenophobe’ Robert Jenrick<\/p>\n Paul Nowak<\/strong>, the TUC<\/a> general secretary, used his speech to conference this morning to say that the TUC expected the government to deliver its workers\u2019 rights bill \u201cin full\u201d. He said employment rights were \u201coverwhelmingly popular with voters across the political spectrum\u201d.<\/p>\n And he condemned Reform UK<\/a> for its stance on employment rights. After saying that Nigel Farage claimed to represent working class people, he went on:<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the truth \u2013 there is a world of difference between what Nigel says and what Nigel does.<\/p>\n Every single Reform MP, including Mr Farage, voted against outlawing fire and rehire, against banning zero hours contracts and against day one rights for millions of workers.<\/p>\n So here\u2019s my challenge to Nigel Farage. Say you stand up for working people? Then ignore your wealthy backers and vote for that employment rights bill.<\/p>\n Say you\u2019re standing up for British industry? Then stop supporting Donald Trump and his destructive tariffs.<\/p>\n And say you believe in the NHS? Then look the British public in the eye and tell them why you support a US-style private healthcare system.<\/p>\n Nigel Farage, it is about time you came clean about whose side you\u2019re really on, because here\u2019s the truth \u2013 you are not representing working people, you are selling them out.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Addressing those considering voting Reform, Nowak said he understood why they were frustrated with mainstream politics. But he went on:<\/p>\n Ask yourself this fundamental question. Do you believe in your gut that that Nigel Farage really cares about the people of Clacton when he\u2019s off collecting his speaker\u2019s fees in the United States?<\/p>\n Do you believe that Richard Tice really worries about the people of Skegness while he\u2019s living it up at home in Dubai, or are they just rightwing conmen lining their own pockets?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n (Tice does not live in Dubai, but his partner, the journalist Isabel Oakeshott, does, and he says he visits her there every few weeks.)<\/p>\n Nowak devoted much more time in his speech to attacking Reform UK than he did to criticising the Conservatives. He said that the Tory party \u201closes credibility with every single day\u201d and he did not mention Kemi Badenoch, the party leader. But he did launch a strong attack on Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, who is widely seen as a likely replacement to Badenoch and who is now advocating policies that are even more extreme than Farage\u2019s<\/a>. Nowak said:<\/p>\n I just have to say this. No amount of TikToks, or ozempic, or expensive haircuts, will ever hide the eager inner ugliness of Robert Jenrick.<\/p>\n The man who ordered murals painted over in a reception centre for children seeking asylum is indeed a xenophobe, an opportunistic xenophobe hoping to create a political climate that ends up with far right folks laying siege to hotels and black and Asian people being threatened and harassed on our streets.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Paul Nowak addressing the TUC conference. Photograph: Sky NewsShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.45 EDT<\/p>\n Migration expert says there’s ‘increasing evidence of Brexit effect’ leading to small boat arrival numbers going up<\/p>\n Aside from the need to replace Angela Rayner, it seems the key aim of last week\u2019s cabinet reshuffe was Keir Starmer\u2019s desire to replace Yvette Cooper as home secretary with Shabana Mahmood. Starmer reportedly thinks she will adopt a more muscular approach to addressing the small boats problem.<\/p>\n With this in mind, the Today programme broadcast an interview early this morning with Peter Walsh, a senior researcher at the Migration Observatory<\/strong>, an Oxford University migration thinktank. When asked to explain why the small boat arrival numbers are at a record level, Walsh said Brexit was one factor. He explained:<\/p>\n If we look at the powerful geopolitical push factors, they\u2019re things like regime change. We think Afghanistan, war, civil conflict. And when we look at people crossing in small boats, where do they come from? Well, the top nationalities: Afghan, Eritrea, Iranian, Syrian, Sudanese \u2013 just those five nationalities account for almost two thirds of all small boat arrivals, and these individuals are from some of the most chaotic parts of the world.<\/p>\n But there are also some pull factors, and the question is, why not claim asylum in France, why come to the UK? A number of reasons recur there when we speak with asylum seekers. It\u2019s the presence of family members, the English language.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s also increasing evidence of a Brexit effect. We speak with asylum seekers now, and often they\u2019ve claimed asylum in the EU country, sometimes been refused, but they understand that because the UK is no longer a part of the EU, and no longer party to the EU\u2019s fingerprint database for asylum seekers, if they can get to the UK, they have another bite of the cherry and another chance to secure asylum status and remain in Europe.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Walsh said, that for people like this, if the UK was still in the EU their chances of being granted asylum here would be \u201cmuch diminished\u201d. He said:<\/p>\n In those circumstances, typically, flagged upon the system, the UK government would be able to issue a speedy refuse refusal and try and effect removal.<\/p>\n As it is, people arrive, we don\u2019t have that record, so we don\u2019t know who they are.<\/p>\n And also, even if we were [in that database], we wouldn\u2019t be able to return them, because we\u2019re no longer party to that Dublin system that allowed for the transfer of asylum seekers back to countries of first entry.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.17 EDT<\/p>\n Dawn Butler<\/strong>, who like Richard Burgon (see 8.52am<\/a>) was also a candidate in the 2020 deputy leadership contest, has posted this on social media hinting she is still interested.<\/p>\n This is an important time for MPs to get together to discuss who our next Deputy Leader will be. Unfortunately, there’s a tube strike, and it’s a very very short deadline. We must never be afraid of a fair process. <\/p>\n Pic – just a teaser \ud83d\ude09 pic.twitter.com\/O5BoRUsCAh<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Dawn Butler \u270a\ud83c\udffe\ud83d\udc99 (@DawnButlerBrent) September 8, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Share<\/a>Haigh attacks ‘unaccountable orthodoxy’ of OBR, as she says Labour not giving UK ‘full transformation’ it needs<\/p>\n Here is a summary of the main points in Louise Haigh<\/strong>\u2019s New Statesman article <\/a>published today under the heading \u201cThe fiscal straighjacket facing Labour must be broken\u201d. (See 8.52am<\/a>.) Although Haigh includes a line saying Labour should be \u201cshouting from the rooftops\u201d about its achievements, the article is mostly a critique of Rachel Reeves\u2019s fiscal orthodoxy, combined with a general call for more radicalism from the government.<\/p>\n Labour was elected in 2024 to rebuild Britain \u2013 not to steady the ship, but to remake it completely.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This is an implicit criticism not just of Keir Starmer\u2019s record, but of his election strategy too. Starmer promised \u201cchange\u201d, but he also defined change in terms of economic stability, which he described as an improvement on Tory chaos.<\/p>\n One year on, our mission of renewal is under threat. Economic circumstances and excessive deference to independent institutions are frustrating the democratic demand for change \u2026<\/p>\n Yet the damage wasn\u2019t just financial. It was institutional. The Conservatives embedded a model of governance where opaque watchdogs outrank democratic choice. Labour now runs the risk of exacerbating these issues.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Many Labour members would agree. But this also echoes arguments deployed by Reform UK<\/a>.<\/p>\n Originally created to provide an independent check on economic forecasts and help policymaking, [the OBR] has morphed into a gatekeeper of orthodoxy. Its models often underestimate the long-term returns of public investment and ignore the wider benefits of progressive taxation or public ownership.<\/p>\n We now know that Sure Start centres, for example, delivered \u00a32 of savings for every pound spent \u2013 yet their closure under Osborne was never flagged as a fiscal risk. Nor does the OBR\u2019s sustainability report warn that childhood poverty today will mean higher costs tomorrow.<\/p>\n Worse, its forecasting cycle entrenches short-termism: two fiscal events a year, judged against a five-year horizon. We plan defence, housing, and climate investment in decades, yet the watchdog looks only five years ahead. In my view, the OBR should publish supplementary long-term assessments so markets can see the real savings from social investment. Without that, governments are forced into short-term fixes even though the bond market itself takes a longer view.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Haigh suggested part of the reason for the failure of the government\u2019s Pip reforms was the inability of the OBR to make allowance for the proposed policies producing savings over the long term. And she also criticised the accuracy of OBR forecasts (a complaint also made regularly by the Tories).<\/p>\n Haigh said the OBR should revise its growth forecasts only once a year, not twice a year as it is required to do now under law passed by the Tories. <\/strong>She said this would \u201cgive ministers the space to design serious, long-term reforms \u2013 not scramble for short-term fixes to meet arbitrary fiscal targets\u201d. It is thought that Starmer thinks this too. But the government has been nervous about changing the way the OBR operates in case that gets interpreted as a weakening of fiscal discipline.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Haigh criticised the \u201cquantitive tightening\u201d policy being followed by the Bank of England. <\/strong>She said this was a result of the way George Osborne introduced quantitive easing when he was chancellor. The IPPR, a leftwing thinktank, has made the same argument.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n It is beyond comprehension that we have not already reformed our approach to the payment of interest on reserves held in the Bank of England reserves. Commercial banks are earning near-Bank Rate on hundreds of billions in deposits costing the taxpayer roughly \u00a340bn a year.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This is a view shared by various economists, and Reform UK has been making this argument for at least a year. Richard Tice, the party\u2019s deputy leader, is due to discuss the issue with the Bank\u2019s governor, Andrew Bailey, at a meeting soon<\/a>.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Zack Polanski, the new, leftwing leader of the Green party, will be speaking at the TUC<\/a> conference, later today, Sky News reports.<\/p>\n Share<\/a> Severin Carrell is the Guardian\u2019s Scotland editor.<\/p>\n Ian Murray, the former Scotland secretary unceremoniously sacked by Keir Starmer<\/a> on Friday, is back in government after an apparent revolt by his Scottish Labour allies and backbench MPs.<\/p>\n Murray, said to be \u201cfurious\u201d about his sacking, was unexpectedly made a junior minister in both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on Saturday night, as Starmer\u2019s reshuffle continued.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Douglas Alexander,<\/strong> his replacement in the Scotland Office, spoke to Murray\u2019s popularity in an interview with BBC Scotland when he was asked about his colleague\u2019s sacking.<\/p>\n He nodded at Murray\u2019s survival as the Labour\u2019s only Scottish MP following the rout in the 2015 general election at the hands of the Scottish National party \u2013 when Alexander lost his previous seat of Paisley and Renfrewshire South. He said:<\/p>\n I\u2019m somewhat biased. He\u2019s both a friend as well as a colleague. I\u2019ve campaigned with him, for him, and we owe him, as the Labour movement in Scotland, an immense debt of gratitude. In 2015, in the immediate aftermath after the referendum, he literally kept the flag flying for Scottish Labour in the really tough times. He showed extraordinary resilience as well as abilities, and in that sense I\u2019m delighted that he\u2019s back in government.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Alexander confirmed he would be playing a senior role in Scottish Labour\u2019s campaign to oust the SNP from power in next May\u2019s Holyrood election as a deputy campaign chair alongside Jackie Baillie, the Scottish party\u2019s deputy leader.<\/p>\n It is widely thought Alexander was brought in to help rescue the party: recent opinion polls show its support is plummeting, with Reform UK<\/a> nearly level, very largely due to Labour\u2019s unpopularity at UK level.<\/p>\n Alexander told the Sunday Show on BBC Scotland his job was to help defeat the SNP.<\/p>\n Our responsibility in the coming months is to do what we did just a couple of weeks ago in Barrhead [winning a council byelection], do what we did a couple of months ago in Hamilton [winning a Holyrood byelection], which is to take our case to the Scottish public and then disprove the critics and the cynics.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Challenged about the polls suggesting the SNP only a few seats short of winning an overall majority at Holyrood in May, which the SNP argues would be a mandate for a second referendum, Alexander said:<\/p>\n To continue the earlier football analogy, I\u2019m not really going to engage in post-match analysis when the game hasn\u2019t even begun, never mind finished.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not really interested in anticipating our defeat as Scottish Labour. I\u2019m way more interested in contributing to Scottish Labour\u2019s victory. And that\u2019s what each and every one of my colleagues as Scottish representatives at Westminster for the Labour party, and indeed my friends and colleagues in Holyrood are determined to deliver between now and May.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a006.19 EDT<\/p>\n New home secretary Shabana Mahmood chairs meeting of Five Eyes security alliance<\/p>\n Shabana Mahmood<\/strong> has met counterparts from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance for talks on international efforts to tackle smuggling gangs, PA Media reports. PA says:<\/p>\n In her first major engagement as home secretary,Mahmood hosted counterparts from the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand in London after the number of small boat crossings reached more than 30,000 in 2025.<\/p>\n Ministers are examining using military bases to house asylum seekers in \u201ctemporary but adequate\u201d accommodation as Sir Keir Starmer tries to get a grip on the migrants crisis.<\/p>\n Some 1,097 people arrived in the UK in 17 boats on Saturday, bringing the total in 2025 so far to 30,100 \u2013 a record for this point in a year.<\/p>\n The figure is 37% up on this point last year (22,028) and also 37% higher than at this stage in 2023 (21,918), according to PA news agency analysis.<\/p>\n Mahmood said the numbers were \u201cutterly unacceptable\u201d and that she expected migrant returns under a deal agreed last month with France to begin \u201cimminently\u201d.<\/p>\n Ahead of Monday\u2019s meeting, she said the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing pact would \u201cagree new measures to protect our border, hitting people smugglers hard\u201d.<\/p>\n She was joined at the talks by US secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem, Canadian public safety minister Gary Anandasangaree, Australian home affairs minister Tony Burke and New Zealand minister Judith Collins.<\/p>\n The group was also discussing new measures to tackle child sexual abuse online and the spread of deadly synthetic opioids.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Shabana Mahmood chairing a meeting of ministers from the Five Eyes security alliance at the Honourable Artillery Company, Armoury House, in the City of London. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt\/PA Mahmood chairing the meeting. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt\/PAShabana Mahmood meeting the US homeland security secretary Kristi Noem (right) ahead of the meeting. Unite\u2019s general secretary, Sharon Graham<\/strong>, has issued a warning to the government, saying it should enact full reforms of workers\u2019 rights in order to fulfil a \u201cpromise to the British people\u201d, Jessica Elgot<\/strong> reports.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Labour’s new deputy leader should be a woman, not from London, and not ‘oppositional’, Harriet Harman says<\/p>\n Harriet Harman<\/strong>, who served as deputy Labour leader under Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband (although Brown never made her deputy PM), has said the party should not let the deputy leadership contest become a debate about the case for a \u201cnew direction\u201d. She was speaking in an interview on the Today programme. Here are are main points.<\/p>\n An election for the deputy leadership when Labour is in government, just shortly after our first year of government, is very different than a deputy leadership election when you\u2019re trying to set out a new direction for the party, rebuild the party after an election defeat.<\/p>\n And what I think we need is \u2026 somebody who is not a counterpoint to the leader, but is complementary to the leader, will broaden the reach of the leader and galvanise the party \u2026<\/p>\n The role of the deputy leader is not to provide an alternative, oppositional voice. It\u2019s to be part of a team. The clue is in the name.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I think that, in terms of extending the breadth of the leadership, it probably needs to be somebody from outside London, and it definitely needs to be a woman. But there are 185 Labour women MPs, many very talented \u2026<\/p>\n With a prime minister and a deputy prime minister representing London constituencies, the party might well think that the extending of the reach that the deputy provides should be somebody from outside London, but definitely a woman. I don\u2019t think we can have a male prime minister, a man as deputy prime minister and a male deputy leader of the party.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n If Labour MPs agree with Harman, and they want a deputy leader loyal to Keir Starmer<\/a>, then Shabana Mahmood, the new home secretary, Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, and Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, would all fit the bill. But they have all got quite important jobs already, and so may not be interested.<\/p>\n Non-cabinet ministers who would meet the Harmen criteria include Jess Phillips and Alison McGovern.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a004.25 EDT<\/p>\n Labour accused of ‘stitch-up’ over deputy leadership contest, as Louise Haigh joins debate with call for ‘economic reset’<\/p>\n Good morning. The Labour party has had 18 deputy leaders in its history<\/a>, but only two of them have also served as deputy PM and one of those, Angela Rayner, resigned last week. In the reshuffle that started on Friday, Keir Starmer in effect decoupled those posts, appointing David Lammy as deputy PM (as well as justice secretary). Labour said there would be an election for a new deputy leader to replace Rayner and today the timetable for that election will be set. There is no guarantee that the winner will even have a job in government.<\/p>\n Elections are, by definition, divisive, and the easiest option for Keir Starmer would be for Labour MPs to coalesce behind one consensus candidate. Under the rules, an MP needs the support of 20% of the PLP (80 MPs) to be nominated and so it is possible that this could happen. Anyone perceived as a \u201crebel\u201d candidate might struggle to reach this threshold. Ministers, and cabinet ministers, are free to enter the contest. If Lammy were to stand, and win, he could re-unite the deputy PM and deputy leader jobs, but there is a strong sense in the party that the deputy leader should be a woman, and should represent a seat outside London, and Lammy does not seem interested anyway. At this point there is no obvious favourite, but Annabelle Dickson <\/strong>and Bethany Dawson<\/strong> have a good guide to potential candidates in their London Playbook<\/a> for Politico.<\/p>\n Already, there is a row about process. Here are the key developments this morning.<\/p>\n Deputy leadership candidates will only have four days to collect the 80 MP nominations they need, it is being reported<\/a>.<\/strong> Labour\u2019s national executive committee will reportedly set 5pm on Thursday as the deadline for nominations, with the ballot taking place between 8 and 23 October \u2013 with the election over well before the budget, which is taking place on 26 November.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Richard Burgon, one of the leading figures in the leftwing Socialist Campaign group in parliament, and a candidate for deputy leader in 2020, has accused the party of a stitch-up.<\/strong> In a post on social media<\/a> last night, he said:<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n I\u2019ve been warning about attempts to fix the deputy leadership election \u2013 and what I\u2019ve heard is now being proposed is the mother of all stitch-ups. Just a couple of days to secure MPs\u2019 nominations!<\/p>\n This is a desperate move to keep Labour members\u2019 voices out of this race and to dodge serious discussion on what\u2019s gone wrong over the last year \u2013 from the positions on disability benefits cuts, on winter fuel payments, on Gaza and more. This outrageous timetable shows a leadership that\u2019s unwilling to listen and to learn the lessons needed if we\u2019re to rebuild support and stop Nigel Farage.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary and a potential candidate for the deputy leadership, has published on the New Statesman\u2019s website <\/a>what amounts to a pitch for the job, demanding \u201can economic reset\u201d and \u201ca decisive break with the fiscal rules and institutional constraints that hold back renewal\u201d.<\/strong> It is a serious intervention, and, by implication, a damning critique of Rachel Reeves, the chancellor. Here is an extract.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n There is a democratic argument at the heart of this as well. A Labour government with a landslide majority in parliament cannot \u2013 and should not \u2013 be stopped from delivering the change we clearly set out in our manifesto simply because of assumptions made by the OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility]. If we let unelected institutions dictate the limits of change, we betray the people and communities who put their trust in us.<\/p>\n And if mainstream politics can\u2019t deliver proper renewal, populists like Nigel Farage will fill the void. Britain\u2019s economy is broken not just in outcomes but in architecture. Unless we rewrite the rules, we risk managed decline dressed up as moderation.<\/p>\n I am devastated by the departure of Angela Rayner last week, who consistently offered a challenge to the establishment orthodoxy. Her absence is a real loss to those of us who want to see bold, radical thinking at the heart of government. The reshuffle has been billed as a political reset, but if we are serious about delivering on our priorities, it must offer more than a change of personnel around the Cabinet table. What the country needs now is an economic reset: a decisive break with the fiscal rules and institutional constraints that hold back renewal. Only then can Labour turn its democratic mandate into the transformation Britain so urgently needs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Haigh would have difficulty winning a deputy leadership contest, because of her resignation last year<\/a> over a 10-year-old conviction relating to mobile phone fraud, but a lot of Labour members will probably agree with the argument in her New Statesman article. I will post more from it soon.<\/p>\n Here is the agenda for the day.<\/p>\n Morning: Paul Nowak, TUC general secretary, speaks at the TUC conference in Brighton. The delegates are debating motions<\/a> relating to the economy and public services in the morning, and workers\u2019 rights in the afternoon.<\/p>\n 11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.<\/p>\n Noon: Labour\u2019s national executive committee meets to decide the timetable for the deputy leadership election.<\/p>\n 2.30pm: John Healey, the defence secretary, takes questions in the Commons.<\/p>\n 3pm: Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, speaks at an event to launch the children\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n 6pm: Starmer speaks to Labour MPs at a private meeting of the parliamentary Labour party (PLP).<\/p>\n And at some point today Shabana Mahmood, the new home secretary, is chairing a meeting the Five Eyes security alliance.<\/a><\/p>\n If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm BST at the moment), or message me on social media. I can\u2019t read all the messages BTL, but if you put \u201cAndrew\u201d in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.<\/p>\n If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X<\/a>, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.<\/p>\n I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can\u2019t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.<\/p>\n\n
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![\"Severin](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/severin_carrell_140x140.jpg\")
Severin Carrell<\/p>\n\n
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Photograph: Kin Cheung\/APShare<\/a>Labour must improve workers\u2019 rights to fulfil promise to voters, says Unite\u2019s Sharon Graham<\/p>\n\n
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