EXC: UK govt is “stripping back” onerous public procurement rules in pro-growth shake up of system, Louise Haigh tells FT Overhaul will make job creation/skills development the only ‘social value’ requirement for biz competing for Whitehall contracts worth £90bn annually www.ft.com/content/9878...

UK to strip back procurement rules to focus on job creation, says Louise Haigh

Burnham’s de facto deputy PM says requirements for businesses vying for Whitehall contracts will be streamlined

ft.com

Solidarity everlasting with my friend Luciana Berger. HOW can she still have to explaining and fighting this bullshit?! What is wrong with the Tory party?!

Ex-MP urges Tories to drop candidate jailed for campaign of antisemitic abuse against her

Luciana Berger says Joshua Bonehill-Paine should have no role in public life because of ‘his racism and his view of women’

theguardian.com

Great piece from my friend Laurence. Worth reading for all the reindustrialisation sneerers - life sciences innovation and manufacturing coming back to the site of the Longbridge plant, 20 years on. This is what we mean.

Laurence Turner MP@larry-turner.bsky.social · yesterday

Birmingham is the place where the future is made. Wrote this piece a few weeks ago and glad to see it now on LBC - on the success and potential of Birmingham's life sciences sector, including for the critical Longbridge to Selly Oak corridor. www.lbc.co.uk/article/birm...

Reform’s first substantive act running Sandwell Council? Taking holiday food vouchers off more than 7400 kids in my constituency - one of the lowest wage places in the country

Remember - this month kids ride free across all West Midlands buses!

EXCLUSIVE: Voters across the political spectrum are warming to Britain's new PM Andy Burnham and believe he’ll deliver on his promises, The POLITICO Poll by Public First has found. 🔗 www.politico.eu/article/what...

It’s a cob, Andy, and it needs to be a bit more done on top! The rest of what you’re saying is 👌

UK Prime Minister Updates@downingstreet.bsky.social · 5d ago

What do you call one of these...

This is good news for the West Midlands. More money will stay in the region, and go towards the things that matter most to the people that live here.

A stronger role for MPs in scrutiny and accountability is very welcome. This, along with Pride in Place, is changing the role of an MP / recognising what many MPs already do: speaking for their constituents about all local services, and expecting answers (which are often not forthcoming)

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social · 5d ago

Good to see acknowledgement of the accountability challenge. Want more detail on this though.

Making Jen’s point for her This is Reach’s Black Country Live / Birmingham Mail take on today’s announcement They have fantasised a council tax rebate into being

Jennifer Williams@jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 6d ago

A bit on something that’s worrying me as.ft.com/r/9fe0cfe2-f...

Incredible news that our West Midlands Mayor will get to retain a share of locally-paid income tax as of right - which opens up huge opportunities to invest in transport, housing and jobs in our Black Country - Birmingham - Coventry region

Love this so much. Policy made for places like ours.

Glad to see UEFA stand firm against these diabolical FIFA proposals. Football is all of ours - not for sale

Liked this a lot by former Aussie PM Malcolm Turnbull supporting the amendment I have put down for compulsory voting

Compulsory Voting in the UK?

An Australian solution may help heal Britain's fractured democracy.

open.substack.com

To build a stronger, fairer society, I’ve set out three key priorities as Minister for Women & Equalities: Halving violence against women and girls. Lifting record numbers of children out of poverty. Supporting women in work, by closing the gender pay gap.

Loving the reply guys who believe their tweet will be the one that turns me in favour of the state being allowed to kill terminally-ill people. I have politics, I have values and I thought about this for decades. Really not.

Absolutely the right position from the new PM - and a massive consensus position across Parliament Now to concentrate on fixing palliative care

Paul Brand@paulbrand.bsky.social · last wk.

BREAKING: Andy Burnham says the assisted dying debate should wait until after palliative care and social care have been fixed. “It’s very challenging to introduce that wider debate” when the systems are in crisis, he says. ‘Not now’, in other words.

Which is why Labour has brought in NHs-style collective bargaining which will cover all care workers no matter who they work for

Paul Brand@paulbrand.bsky.social · last wk.

Louise Casey makes the point that care is underpaid compared to the NHS - another example of a Cinderella service so painfully laid bare during Covid-19. Care workers get an average annual salary of £23k. NHS healthcare worker starts on £25k. We undervalue care as a society.

Which isn’t to say that I don’t agree with @stephenkb.bsky.social’s assertion in today’s newsletter, writ large for young people in my ends- “The rate of young people who become Neets is ultimately downstream of the strength of their local economies, not the curriculum”

Antonia Bance MP@antoniabance.bsky.social · last wk.

In the last two weeks I have talked to two local headteachers wanting to bring in technical options for 14-16s (both automotive related, no surprise), and every conversation with a manufacturing employer comes round to finding the workers they need Glad to see the PM’s announcement today

Very pleased to see this, which will matter a lot to a small handful of families, some of whom live in my ends

Parents on benefits to get £4,500 a year if child starts apprenticeship

The annual bursary aims to end a ‘benefit trap’ that can leave families worse off when teenagers move from education into paid training

thetimes.com

In the last two weeks I have talked to two local headteachers wanting to bring in technical options for 14-16s (both automotive related, no surprise), and every conversation with a manufacturing employer comes round to finding the workers they need Glad to see the PM’s announcement today

I would personally see a broader and more equal electorate, in which younger, poorer, and more insecure people were no longer consistently under-represented, as a major egalitarian and democratic advance.

Gerry Hassan@gerryhassan.bsky.social · last wk.

Why do you think demanding that all UK subjects vote on the threat of punitive punishment is some kind of advance? We have an unwritten UK constitution. We have zero fundamental rights. Yet some folk want to fundamentally rebalance the state-subject relationship. Deal with the real issues.

Honoured to become Chair of the Labour Party. I joined our party as a teenager and saw first hand the difference a Labour government makes. I'll work with members to build the election-winning machine that sees off Reform for good and secures a second Labour term.

From the Putney Debates onwards, defenders of limited participation in parliamentary elections have always claimed that democratising reforms to expand the electorate are both impossible and a threat to individual liberty. Sad to see these tropes wheeled out again in opposition to universal voting.

Gerry Hassan@gerryhassan.bsky.social · last wk.

The UK is not going to move to compulsory voting. This would be a state assault on the individual's right not to participate and massive state over-reach. Only ten countries in the world have enforceable compulsory voting and the UK is not going to join them anytime soon.

👏👏👏 I've come round to compulsory voting, if done on the basis Nick sets out here. Partly because it will help tackle democratic decay, but also because we need to push back at the idea that politics is basically shopping - where you just get to demand what you want. Citizenship involves duties.

Nick Garland@npjgarland.bsky.social · last wk.

1/ Great reporting in The Times on the emerging momentum behind support for compulsory voting, which @ippr.org called for a couple of weeks ago: www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

If you polled mandatory jury duty with all the massive inconvenience that imposes, you’d get similar. A quick walk to the local primary school once every four years palls by comparison. Obvs we should do this. Why I put down an amendment to the elections bill saying so.

YouGov@yougov.co.uk · last wk.

Britons are divided on whether the UK should introduce compulsory voting for general elections, amid reports the government is considering such proposals as part of a raft of future electoral reforms Support: 43% Oppose: 47% yougov.com/en-gb/daily-...

I know. One poll doesn’t make a summer etc etc. But… 😍

Luke Tryl@luketryl.bsky.social · last wk.

Our latest voting intention sees cross over. Labour move ahead by 4. Their first lead since March 2025 & highest share since Nov 24 🌹 LAB 28% (+4)
⏩ REF 24% (-2)
🌳 CON 22% (nc)
🔶 LIB DEM 12% (+1)
🟢 GREEN 8% (-3)
🟡 SNP 2% (nc) N = 2061| Dates 24-27/7| Change w 22/7

So pleased to see this. Need to make sure it covers projects that aren’t strictly public procurement but are in receipt of huge public funds. The imported Chinese fabricated steel at Net Zero Teesside CCS must never be allowed to happen again

I'll buy British on a scale never seen before, vows new Chancellor John Healey

JOHN Healey today vows to go on a “buy British” blitz on a scale the country has never seen before. The new Chancellor said every pound the government spends will be focused on creating new jobs an…

thesun.co.uk

Andy Burnham rules out early election in exclusive BBC interview

Andy Burnham rules out early election in exclusive BBC interview

The new prime minister told Laura Kuenssberg that people "voted for a manifesto" that he would honour, when pressed on whether there will be an early general election.

bbc.co.uk

This is a massive deal for our region, covering the Black Country, Birmingham and Coventry - finally we’re getting the cash to help ourselves grow again

Andy Burnham will give mayors income tax cash for cities

The PM’s devolution agenda accompanies plans for defence, social care and jobs for the young

thetimes.com