Andy Burnham has assured the voters of Gorton and Denton he has “drawn a line” under his war with Number 10 and will only bring “nothing but positivity” to Labour’s by-election campaign for Angeliki Stogia, who was selected over the weekend. It’s been eight days since he declared the seat unwinnable after the NEC blocked him from standing…
Deputy Leader Lucy Powell also made the trip north. She too claimed Burnham was the only realistic hope for the seat when she backed him at the NEC vote, as Guido revealed in Labour Wars. It is still unclear whether Starmer himself will even step foot in the constituency. Although if you’re Angeliki Stogia, you’re hoping he’ll just be too busy…
Shadow national security minister Alicia Kearns told Times Radio she would have put a precondition on a China trip if she were PM:
“I would have put a precondition that I was not going to go if I was prime minister, unless Jimmy Lai was coming home with me. I would also put a precondition in the six months leading up to the visit that I wanted a reduction in hostile acts against our country. But that’s not what we saw. And actually, in contrast, what we saw was clearly the Chinese Communist Party did put a precondition, which was that the new embassy in London had to be signed off. So why is it okay for China to set preconditions and to make very clear red lines about what they require for a visit, but we go without having put any ourselves?”