Jonathan Reynolds’ industrial strategy is straight out of the 60s Opinion Jonathan Reynolds, the new business secretary, has set out a vision for publicly owned services, with private sector partnerships, still under public control – a baffling vision from some eccentric economic bestiary, says Eliot Wilson Andrew Murray Burnham has been in Downing Street for two weeks now. He promised – new Prime Ministers always promise [...]
Andy Burnham must shake Britain out of ‘analysis paralysis’ and get building Opinion To address the UK’s broken infrastructure delivery model, Arup advocates for a new approach that prioritizes locally-led, outcome-focused projects and creative financing to better connect communities and drive economic growth, says Andrew Nothstine Andy Burnham has already set out his governing philosophy and guiding aims. His ‘north stars’ are economic growth in every postcode through [...]
‘Moron premium’ – Westminster turmoil has ‘cost taxpayers £35bn’ since 2022 Politics Secretive plotters and vengeful strategists in Westminster have cost taxpayers around £35bn since 2020, new research by one of the world’s top insurance companies has found. In a study into the costs of political fragility facing European governments, researchers at Allianz Trade found that the UK government continued to pay a “distinct political premium” due [...]
Andy Burnham should show London he cares by funding this one transport project July 23, 2026 The ascendancy of the ‘King of the North’ has spooked London. James Ford outlines that this can easily be fixed by greenlighting the West London Orbital Railway London is anxious. The new Prime Minister is not just something of an unknown quantity, but – worse still – he is (whisper it quietly) Northern. Now, we’ve [...]
‘Fantastic news’ as Burnham brings Britain’s AI minister into Cabinet July 21, 2026 Andy Burnham has promoted Kanishka Narayan to a Cabinet position as Britain’s AI minister as part of his first major government reshuffle, handing artificial intelligence its first dedicated seat at the Cabinet table. Narayan will attend Cabinet for the first time after surviving Burnham’s sweeping reshuffle, which saw several senior ministers leave government and the [...]
Victory wasted: The cautionary tale of Keir Starmer July 20, 2026 Keir Starmer sold himself as a non-politician, and proved again and again why political skills matter, writes Eliot Wilson.
Forget Burnham, what will Starmer do next? July 16, 2026 The end of a premiership means finding an epilogue, so what will Keir Starmer’s be, asks John Oxley Around the summer parties of Westminster, the key conversation is “What will Andy actually do?” The presumptive PM has always been something of a political enigma (or weathervane, depending on your perspective). He has been out of [...]
Businesses can’t keep waiting for political stability July 7, 2026 We’ve created a hidden economy of underemployment. Thousands of highly skilled, self-employed professionals don’t appear in the unemployment figures because, technically, they have work. But many are quietly living off savings while they wait for businesses to regain the confidence to make decisions, says Aceil Haddad I was so annoyed watching the political drama unfold [...]
Fractured politics has its upsides – trust me, I led Vote Leave June 30, 2026 For all the challenges of multi-party politics, the policy competition it encourages is already bearing fruit, writes former Vote Leave chief Matthew Elliott.
What if Andy Burnham had become Labour leader in 2015? June 24, 2026 On his third try, Andy Burnham looks all but certain to become Labour leader. But what if he had taken the reins of the party eleven years earlier? Matt Kenyon imagines an alternative timeline… 2015 It’s a world that looks a lot like our own. There’s just one, seemingly minor, difference: A cluster of well-meaning [...]