Andy Burnham telephoned the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, on Sunday to congratulate her on the Greenland settlement with the United States, days before his first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump at the UN General Assembly in New York. Hours later his party chair, Bridget Phillipson, used the Sunday broadcast round to concede that Trump's war with Iran has made John Healey's Budget next month materially harder. This is UKFCP's 24 hours in politics round-up.
The Budget is due next month and the party conference season is under way, with the Liberal Democrats meeting in Brighton and Labour's gathering still to come. Burnham, who succeeded Sir Keir Starmer over the summer, has yet to meet the US president in person.
Burnham courts Trump before New York
Downing Street said Burnham had congratulated Frederiksen and the Kingdom of Denmark on a deal benefiting the US, Greenland and Denmark, and that he would pass on his congratulations to Trump. The two leaders also discussed Ukraine, according to the Press Association. The Greenland agreement is due to be signed next week, when Burnham and Trump are expected to meet.
Phillipson said the economy was in a strong position but that there were "very real challenges" from the Middle East conflict, and that inflationary pressure from the US campaign would make the Chancellor's task harder. Asked about Burnham's past criticism of Trump, she told Sky News it was "politics" and no bar to a strong relationship. Davey dismissed the Greenland deal as a "pretend" victory.
Lib Dems demand a 10p fuel duty cut
Davey called for an immediate 10p-a-litre cut in fuel duty to run until at least Christmas, and for the 3p rise scheduled for January to be scrapped. The party costs the package at about £2bn, funded by higher energy revenues, and says it would take 12p off pump prices.
"Petrol and diesel prices are higher than they've been for a long time because of Trump's mad war with Iran, and people need help now," Davey told the BBC.
Daisy Cooper, the deputy leader, launched a 30-page growth plan attacking a "computer says no" economy and proposed a Growth and Defence Partnership with the EU. On the same day Julian Brazil, the Lib Dem leader of Devon County Council, told the BBC the party was "sleepwalking into irrelevance" and said the evidence was that Davey was not the right leader.
Phillipson rounds on Ratcliffe
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the INEOS founder and Manchester United co-owner, told the BBC he had lost confidence in Britain, blaming high taxes and high immigration. "If you continue to tax everyone to death, they're all going to leave. And that's what's happening," he said.
Phillipson, responding on the Sunday round, said Ratcliffe had forfeited his standing in the argument by making such pronouncements while living abroad. He has been a tax resident of Monaco for several years. She also acknowledged that youth unemployment would continue to rise, while rejecting the charge that the government was responsible.
Reform UK's Welsh leadership falls vacant
Reform UK's leader in Wales, Dan Thomas, stood down after being arrested on suspicion of assault and controlling or coercive behaviour. Thomas said he had been released without charge and denied wrongdoing. No charge has been reported. On the same day, the Senedd member James Evans defected to Plaid Cymru.
"It's been challenging but we've come through it," the party's chief whip in the Senedd, Llŷr Powell, told the BBC. ITV Wales reports that a new leader is expected to be named on Monday, with the deputy leader, Helen Jenner, the strong favourite.
Also in the last 24 hours
- Ipsos put Labour four points clear on 27 per cent, with Reform UK on 23 and the Conservatives on 21, though seven in ten said they were dissatisfied with how the government is running the country.
- Chiltern Railways passed into public ownership, the latest operator to transfer to the state under the government's rail programme. The RMT is balloting for strike action over driver-only operation and plans to demonstrate at London Marylebone on Monday.
- The Home Office consultation on curtailing the undercover policing inquiry closed, with victims accusing ministers of engineering a cover-up. Shabana Mahmood is said to be concerned about the inquiry's length and its £144m cost.
- The government launched a national taskforce on misogyny and violence against women and girls.
- Phillipson told women in Piddington raising safety fears over plans to house 1,256 males at a former military site that all women in society are unsafe.
- Phillipson urged the public to guard against the normalisation of racism coming from parts of the right.
Reform UK Wales is expected to name Thomas's successor on Monday, the same day the RMT protests outside Marylebone.
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