EXCLUSIVE Sir Keir Starmer will not seek to block Andy Burnham from becoming the Labour candidate in Makerfield, the BBC understands. An ally of Keir Starmer said: “Keir is focused on bringing the party together so it can tackle the issues facing working families.”

BREAKING Labour MP Catherine West says that if cabinet has not removed Keir Starmer by Monday she’ll challenge him for the leadership. She tells Radio 4's PM she already has 10 backers and is confident she’d get more www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c1...

After appointment of Harriet Harman as the PM's adviser on women and girls, Gordon Brown has just arrived in Downing Street

Olly Robbins's position is that the Foreign Office was put under pressure to expedite Mandelson's case, but giving him clearance was the right call. No 10's position is the exact opposite: there was not undue pressure, but Robbins nevertheless made the wrong call at the end of the vetting process

The King got heckled in Clitheroe this morning, about Andrew and Epstein. Files release fallout all over the place in Britain

NEW: Who was John Pond? This August 2009 email exchange which was forwarded to Jeffrey Epstein included Mandelson, the PM's PPS Jeremy Heywood, the minister/adviser Shriti Vadera and... John Pond. Two sources have told the BBC that John Pond was in fact Gordon Brown, then the PM

BREAKING Kemi Badenoch has sacked Robert Jenrick from the shadow cabinet, removed the whip and suspended his party membership. She says she was "presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect" to Reform

EXCL: The government is to announce new powers making it easier to mobilise tens of thousands of former armed forces personnel to prepare for war. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

NEW Shabana Mahmood announces not only that Craig Guildford, the chief constable of West Midlands Police, no longer has her confidence after a "devastating" independent review, but also that the government will reintroduce the power for home secretaries to sack chief constables

EXCL: Kemi Badenoch has questioned whether businesses can afford the current minimum wage and suggested that it should not increase further www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

What to read into Keir Starmer's comments about Brexit this week? Well, not that much. My analysis: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

15 months in, Labour MPs are still craving a compelling story from Keir Starmer. Read my analysis for BBC News here www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Breaking: Hadush Kebatu has been deported to Ethiopia. He left the UK on a flight last night. Shabana Mahmood: “I have pulled every lever to deport Mr Kebatu and remove him off British soil. I am pleased to confirm this vile child sex offender has been deported."

#Newscast 🎧- new allegations about Prince Andrew; and which party has the best plan to bring down your energy bills? With Henry Zeffman, Simon Jack and me www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Angela Rayner has helped Keir Starmer defuse left-wing discontent. What if she were replaced as deputy leader by someone whose express mandate was to represent left-wing discontent? www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c0...

Rayner's political future under threat after stamp duty admission — my analysis www.bbc.com/news/article...

Why Starmer wants No 10 rejig after a year in power -- my analysis www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

EXCL: Kemi Badenoch is reshuffling her shadow cabinet today. And she has persuaded James Cleverly, defeated leadership candidate and former Foreign and Home Secretary, to make a frontbench comeback

STARMER'S STORMY YEAR A new BBC Radio 4 programme by me and ace producer Leela Padmanabhan, available NOW From winter fuel to welfare, tax to Trump - I've been speaking to insiders from the PM down to uncover the real story of the past 12 months www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

STARMER'S STORMY YEAR A new BBC Radio 4 programme by me and ace producer Leela Padmanabhan, available NOW From winter fuel to welfare, tax to Trump - I've been speaking to insiders from the PM down to uncover the real story of the past 12 months www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

EXCL: International law is at the heart of Sir Keir Starmer's government and its approach to foreign policy, the attorney general Richard Hermer has said. In his first broadcast interview, he said the government was "determined to lead on international law issues” www.bbc.com/news/article...

New: President Zelensky of Ukraine is visiting the UK today for talks with Keir Starmer

Assisted dying passes by 314 votes to 291 Or, if you prefer, British politics’s favourite ratio: 52-48

Why was Keir Starmer's honeymoon so short lived? Were Labour prepared for government? Has the prime minister found a new purpose on the world stage? Does Labour's strategy need to change to deal with fragmented multi-party politics?

Great piece on Tory woes "You go from having a whole department of thousands of civil servants filling your red box with briefings to working out how to respond to the government in the House of Commons all by yourself," says one shadow minister, sitting alone at a table in parliament. 🥺 😂😂😂

The Conservative Party faces serious problems — is its leader one of them? My BBC InDepth piece on the despondency among Tory MPs www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Is it a sign of strength from a pragmatic government willing to listen to criticism and act fast in response? Or a sign of weakness from an ideologically unmoored government which does not know what it believes? My analysis of Keir Starmer's winter fuel u-turn www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Is it a sign of strength from a pragmatic government willing to listen to criticism and act fast in response? Or a sign of weakness from an ideologically unmoored government which does not know what it believes? My analysis of Keir Starmer's winter fuel u-turn www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

NEW: Senior government figures are discussing whether to reverse the controversial winter fuel policy within weeks. Any announcement could coincide with the spending review next month although the talks are fluid and have not yet reached a conclusion www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Can Keir Starmer become our first truly post-Brexit prime minister? My analysis for BBC News Starmer banks on public being over Brexit www.bbc.com/news/article...

NEW: The government's new rules making migrants wait 10 years instead of 5 to qualify for permanent settlement in the UK are set to apply to people already in the country, subject to consultation www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

NEW: Conservative MP Patrick Spencer has been charged in relation to two sexual assaults which reportedly occurred at the Groucho Club in August 2023. He was first elected for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich in July last year. news.met.police.uk/news/patrick...

Breaking: Met Police have made an arrest in relation to the fires at properties linked to Sir Keir Starmer A 21-year old man was arrested in the early hours of this morning on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life

It was a real privilege to travel to Ukraine this weekend with the prime minister and other leaders. My report for BBC News made with Jack Slater and Imogen Wallace:

Labour MPs rage over election results - but party divided on next steps www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Seven thing we learnt from the local elections www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Exclusive: The Cabinet Office is cutting a third of its jobs as Pat McFadden seeks to lead by example on civil service reform www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

💥Still awaiting formal confirmation but government sources believe Sentencing Council is about to suspend the guidelines which were due to come into force tomorrow Really big and interesting moment if so:

One point worth noting on this morning's sentencing story. Shabana Mahmood has written to the Sentencing Council urging them to change course. But a government source confirms this morning she cannot order them to do so (1/2)

Breaking: Oliver Ryan has been suspended from the Labour Party www.bbc.com/news/article...

NEW: Parliament’s national security strategy committee has written to Keir Starmer complaining that Jonathan Powell hasn’t agreed to speak to them. They have contacted the National Security Adviser 3 times to ask for a session. Every previous NSA has given evidence to them

NEW: The government is preparing to put welfare reform at the centre of its economic agenda. Rachel Reeves wants to end the “perverse incentives” in the system, with more people who receive sickness benefits set to be told to seek work

This is a lovely short piece about a type and business model journalism that is being lost and drifting off into the night. pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/w...

Breaking: Suspended Labour MP Mike Amesbury has pleaded guilty at Chester Magistrates' Court to assault by beating after punching a man in Frodsham, Cheshire in October

My analysis of what trouble in the markets could mean for Labour’s economic plans www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are now calling for Rachel Reeves to cancel her trip to China as the pound falls and government borrowing costs rise www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

NEW: Keir Starmer just announced that Tulip Siddiq has referred herself to the independent adviser on ministerial standards, Laurie Magnus. He advises the PM on whether ministers have broken ethics rules www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c4...

Bit embarrassed to do this but... my phone was stolen out my hand by someone on a bike this AM. They've managed to change the email for my Apple ID (1/2)

NEW: A hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice at 2pm today will consider whether the alleged Chinese agent "H6" should remain anonymous

EXCL: Civil servants have been told they will have to "do things differently" by the new cabinet secretary Chris Wormald on his first day in the job www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...