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August 14, 2026, 02:16 PM - 6 min read
Hope, far from being mere rhetoric, can be a powerful force in politics. Whether Burnham’s tour of the UK, and the announcements made along the way, will be enough to inspire such hope remains to be seen.
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August 11, 2026, 12:06 PM - 6 min read
Can the new PM make a success out of Starmer’s failure on prisoners? After a blitz of small wins, Burnham is finding that like his predecessor, there is only so much he can control on the big calls.
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August 7, 2026, 01:26 PM - 6 min read
The history of British democracy is not only a history of winners. It is also the history of the losers, loners and long-shots whose campaigns reveal what voters find funny, what they find unacceptable, and what they are, in the end, prepared to take seriously. A man in a bin costume standing against the man who forced this election is a small but revealing window into the shifting boundaries of British politics.
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August 3, 2026, 01:00 PM - 5 min read
A diverse cabinet can still pursue policies that many minority communities oppose. Inclusion at the top no longer guarantees substantive representation below. That is the defining political challenge of Britain’s “post-first” era. The politics of representation have moved beyond celebrating symbolic milestones. The politics of the “first” have given way to the politics of governing. The central question is no longer who gets into the room, but what they do once they are there.
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July 25, 2026, 04:33 PM - 5 min read
Apart from Starmer himself, ministers sacked or not reappointed in Burnham’s takeover include chancellor Rachel Reeves, deputy prime minister and justice secretary David Lammy, housing secretary Steve Reed, business secretary Peter Kyle, health secretary James Murray, and Cabinet Office minister Darren Jones.
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July 22, 2026, 07:28 PM - 4 min read
The Prime Minister said affordable and reliable public transport is essential for ensuring that people can access employment, education, healthcare and other vital services without being constrained by rising travel costs.
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July 17, 2026, 04:14 PM - 4 min read
Born in Liverpool and raised in a village between Liverpool and Manchester, Burnham comes from a working-class family. His father worked as a British Telecom engineer and his mother was a receptionist.
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July 7, 2026, 12:46 PM - 5 min read
It is widely expected that Burnham will become prime minister through an internal Labour party manoeuvre rather than a general election. But this would reinforce the same uncomfortable point. The UK accepts major political transitions without the electorate ever casting a vote. Once again, the public may simply be expected to accommodate the outcome.
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June 24, 2026, 05:16 PM - 4 min read
Prime Minister Keir Starmer continued his final weeks in office, appearing at the weekly Prime Minister's Questions session in Parliament before travelling to Berlin for talks with European leaders on Ukraine, European security and the Middle East.
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