Labour accused of ‘stitch-up’ over deputy management contest, as Louise Haigh joins debate with name for ‘financial reset’
Good morning. The Labour social gathering has had 18 deputy leaders in its historical past, however solely two of them have additionally served as deputy PM and a kind of, Angela Rayner, resigned final week. Within the reshuffle that began on Friday, Keir Starmer in impact decoupled these posts, appointing David Lammy as deputy PM (in addition to justice secretary). Labour mentioned there could be an election for a brand new deputy chief to switch Rayner and right now the timetable for that election will likely be set. There isn’t any assure that the winner will also have a job in authorities.
Elections are, by definition, divisive, and the best possibility for Keir Starmer could be for Labour MPs to coalesce behind one consensus candidate. Below the principles, an MP wants the assist of 20% of the PLP (80 MPs) to be nominated and so it’s potential that this might occur. Anybody perceived as a “insurgent” candidate may wrestle to achieve this threshold. Ministers, and cupboard ministers, are free to enter the competition. If Lammy had been to face, and win, he may re-unite the deputy PM and deputy chief jobs, however there’s a robust sense within the social gathering that the deputy chief must be a girl, and may symbolize a seat exterior London, and Lammy doesn’t appear anyway. At this level there isn’t a apparent favorite, however Annabelle Dickson and Bethany Dawson have a very good information to potential candidates of their London Playbook for Politico.
Already, there’s a row about course of. Listed here are the important thing developments this morning.
Deputy management candidates will solely have 4 days to gather the 80 MP nominations they want, it’s being reported. Labour’s nationwide govt committee will reportedly set 5pm on Thursday because the deadline for nominations, with the poll happening between 8 and 23 October – with the election over nicely earlier than the price range, which is happening on 26 November.
Richard Burgon, one of many main figures within the leftwing Socialist Marketing campaign group in parliament, and a candidate for deputy chief in 2020, has accused the social gathering of a stitch-up. In a put up on social media final night time, he mentioned:
I’ve been warning about makes an attempt to repair the deputy management election – and what I’ve heard is now being proposed is the mom of all stitch-ups. Simply a few days to safe MPs’ nominations!
This can be a determined transfer to maintain Labour members’ voices out of this race and to dodge severe dialogue on what’s gone unsuitable over the past 12 months – from the positions on incapacity advantages cuts, on winter gas funds, on Gaza and extra. This outrageous timetable reveals a management that’s unwilling to pay attention and to study the teachings wanted if we’re to rebuild assist and cease Nigel Farage.
Louise Haigh, the previous transport secretary and a possible candidate for the deputy management, has revealed on the New Statesman’s web site what quantities to a pitch for the job, demanding “an financial reset” and “a decisive break with the fiscal guidelines and institutional constraints that maintain again renewal”. It’s a severe intervention, and, by implication, a damning critique of Rachel Reeves, the chancellor. Right here is an extract.
There’s a democratic argument on the coronary heart of this as nicely. A Labour authorities with a landslide majority in parliament can not – and shouldn’t – be stopped from delivering the change we clearly set out in our manifesto merely due to assumptions made by the OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility]. If we let unelected establishments dictate the bounds of change, we betray the individuals and communities who put their belief in us.
And if mainstream politics can’t ship correct renewal, populists like Nigel Farage will fill the void. Britain’s financial system is damaged not simply in outcomes however in structure. Except we rewrite the principles, we threat managed decline dressed up as moderation.
I’m devastated by the departure of Angela Rayner final week, who persistently provided a problem to the institution orthodoxy. Her absence is an actual loss to these of us who wish to see daring, radical pondering on the coronary heart of presidency. The reshuffle has been billed as a political reset, but when we’re severe about delivering on our priorities, it should provide greater than a change of personnel across the Cupboard desk. What the nation wants now’s an financial reset: a decisive break with the fiscal guidelines and institutional constraints that maintain again renewal. Solely then can Labour flip its democratic mandate into the transformation Britain so urgently wants.
Haigh would have issue successful a deputy management contest, due to her resignation final 12 months over a 10-year-old conviction regarding cell phone fraud, however loads of Labour members will in all probability agree with the argument in her New Statesman article. I’ll put up extra from it quickly.
Right here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Paul Nowak, TUC basic secretary, speaks on the TUC convention in Brighton. The delegates are debating motions regarding the financial system and public providers within the morning, and employees’ rights within the afternoon.
11.30am: Downing Road holds a foyer briefing.
Midday: Labour’s nationwide govt committee meets to determine the timetable for the deputy management election.
2.30pm: John Healey, the defence secretary, takes questions within the Commons.
3pm: Bridget Phillipson, the training secretary, speaks at an occasion to launch the kids’s plan.
6pm: Starmer speaks to Labour MPs at a personal assembly of the parliamentary Labour social gathering (PLP).
And sooner or later right now Shabana Mahmood, the brand new dwelling secretary, is chairing a gathering the 5 Eyes safety alliance.
If you wish to contact me, please put up a message beneath the road when feedback are open (usually between 10am and 3pm BST for the time being), or message me on social media. I can’t learn all of the messages BTL, however when you put “Andrew” in a message geared toward me, I’m extra more likely to see it as a result of I seek for posts containing that phrase.
If you wish to flag one thing up urgently, it’s best to make use of social media. You may attain me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, however particular person Guardian journalists are there, I nonetheless have my account, and when you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I’ll see it and reply if needed.
I discover it very useful when readers level out errors, even minor typos. No error is simply too small to appropriate. And I discover your questions very attention-grabbing too. I can’t promise to answer to all of them, however I’ll attempt to reply to as many as I can, both BTL or generally within the weblog.
Share
Up to date at 04.24 EDT
Key occasions
Present key occasions solely
Please activate JavaScript to make use of this characteristic
Migration professional says there’s ‘growing proof of Brexit impact’ resulting in small boat arrival numbers going up
Except for the necessity to substitute Angela Rayner, it appears the important thing purpose of final week’s cupboard reshuffe was Keir Starmer’s want to switch Yvette Cooper as dwelling secretary with Shabana Mahmood. Starmer reportedly thinks she is going to undertake a extra muscular method to addressing the small boats downside.
With this in thoughts, the At this time programme broadcast an interview early this morning with Peter Walsh, a senior researcher on the Migration Observatory, an Oxford College migration thinktank. When requested to clarify why the small boat arrival numbers are at a file stage, Walsh mentioned Brexit was one issue. He defined:
If we have a look at the highly effective geopolitical push components, they’re issues like regime change. We predict Afghanistan, conflict, civil battle. And after we have a look at individuals crossing in small boats, the place do they arrive from? Properly, the highest nationalities: Afghan, Eritrea, Iranian, Syrian, Sudanese – simply these 5 nationalities account for nearly two thirds of all small boat arrivals, and these people are from among the most chaotic components of the world.
However there are additionally some pull components, and the query is, why not declare asylum in France, why come to the UK? Quite a lot of causes recur there after we communicate with asylum seekers. It’s the presence of members of the family, the English language.
However there’s additionally growing proof of a Brexit impact. We communicate with asylum seekers now, and sometimes they’ve claimed asylum within the EU nation, generally been refused, however they perceive that as a result of the UK is now not part of the EU, and now not social gathering to the EU’s fingerprint database for asylum seekers, if they’ll get to the UK, they’ve one other chew of the cherry and one other probability to safe asylum standing and stay in Europe.
Walsh mentioned, that for individuals like this, if the UK was nonetheless within the EU their possibilities of being granted asylum right here could be “a lot diminished”. He mentioned:
In these circumstances, sometimes, flagged upon the system, the UK authorities would have the ability to concern a speedy refuse refusal and try to impact removing.
As it’s, individuals arrive, we don’t have that file, so we don’t know who they’re.
And in addition, even when we had been [in that database], we wouldn’t have the ability to return them, as a result of we’re now not social gathering to that Dublin system that allowed for the switch of asylum seekers again to international locations of first entry.
Share
Up to date at 06.17 EDT
Daybreak Butler, who like Richard Burgon (see 8.52am) was additionally a candidate within the 2020 deputy management contest, has posted this on social media hinting she remains to be .
This is a crucial time for MPs to get collectively to debate who our subsequent Deputy Chief will likely be. Sadly, there is a tube strike, and it is a very very quick deadline. We must not ever be afraid of a good course of.
Pic – only a teaser 😉 pic.twitter.com/O5BoRUsCAh
— Daybreak Butler ✊🏾💙 (@DawnButlerBrent) September 8, 2025
Share
Haigh assaults ‘unaccountable orthodoxy’ of OBR, as she says Labour not giving UK ‘full transformation’ it wants
Here’s a abstract of the details in Louise Haigh’s New Statesman article revealed right now below the heading “The fiscal straighjacket going through Labour have to be damaged”. (See 8.52am.) Though Haigh features a line saying Labour must be “shouting from the rooftops” about its achievements, the article is usually a critique of Rachel Reeves’s fiscal orthodoxy, mixed with a basic name for extra radicalism from the federal government.
Labour was elected in 2024 to rebuild Britain – to not regular the ship, however to remake it fully.
That is an implicit criticism not simply of Keir Starmer’s file, however of his election technique too. Starmer promised “change”, however he additionally outlined change by way of financial stability, which he described as an enchancment on Tory chaos.
One 12 months on, our mission of renewal is below risk. Financial circumstances and extreme deference to unbiased establishments are irritating the democratic demand for change …
But the harm wasn’t simply monetary. It was institutional. The Conservatives embedded a mannequin of governance the place opaque watchdogs outrank democratic alternative. Labour now runs the danger of exacerbating these points.
Many Labour members would agree. However this additionally echoes arguments deployed by Reform UK.
Initially created to supply an unbiased test on financial forecasts and assist policymaking, [the OBR] has morphed right into a gatekeeper of orthodoxy. Its fashions usually underestimate the long-term returns of public funding and ignore the broader advantages of progressive taxation or public possession.
We now know that Certain Begin centres, for instance, delivered £2 of financial savings for each pound spent – but their closure below Osborne was by no means flagged as a fiscal threat. Nor does the OBR’s sustainability report warn that childhood poverty right now will imply increased prices tomorrow.
Worse, its forecasting cycle entrenches short-termism: two fiscal occasions a 12 months, judged towards a five-year horizon. We plan defence, housing, and local weather funding in a long time, but the watchdog appears solely 5 years forward. In my opinion, the OBR ought to publish supplementary long-term assessments so markets can see the true financial savings from social funding. With out that, governments are compelled into short-term fixes although the bond market itself takes an extended view.
Haigh advised a part of the explanation for the failure of the federal government’s Pip reforms was the shortcoming of the OBR to make allowance for the proposed insurance policies producing financial savings over the long run. And he or she additionally criticised the accuracy of OBR forecasts (a grievance additionally made commonly by the Tories).
Haigh mentioned the OBR ought to revise its progress forecasts solely yearly, not twice a 12 months as it’s required to do now below legislation handed by the Tories. She mentioned this could “give ministers the area to design severe, long-term reforms – not scramble for short-term fixes to fulfill arbitrary fiscal targets”. It’s thought that Starmer thinks this too. However the authorities has been nervous about altering the way in which the OBR operates in case that will get interpreted as a weakening of fiscal self-discipline.
Haigh criticised the “quantitive tightening” coverage being adopted by the Financial institution of England. She mentioned this was a results of the way in which George Osborne launched quantitive easing when he was chancellor. The IPPR, a leftwing thinktank, has made the identical argument.
It’s past comprehension that we’ve got not already reformed our method to the cost of curiosity on reserves held within the Financial institution of England reserves. Industrial banks are incomes near-Financial institution Fee on a whole bunch of billions in deposits costing the taxpayer roughly £40bn a 12 months.
This can be a view shared by numerous economists, and Reform UK has been making this argument for a minimum of a 12 months. Richard Tice, the social gathering’s deputy chief, is because of talk about the difficulty with the Financial institution’s governor, Andrew Bailey, at a gathering quickly.
Share
Zack Polanski, the brand new, leftwing chief of the Inexperienced social gathering, will likely be talking on the TUC convention, later right now, Sky Information reviews.
ShareSeverin Carrell
Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.
Ian Murray, the previous Scotland secretary unceremoniously sacked by Keir Starmer on Friday, is again in authorities after an obvious revolt by his Scottish Labour allies and backbench MPs.
Murray, mentioned to be “livid” about his sacking, was unexpectedly made a junior minister in each the Division for Tradition, Media and Sport and the Division for Science, Innovation and Know-how on Saturday night time, as Starmer’s reshuffle continued.
On Sunday, Douglas Alexander, his alternative within the Scotland Workplace, spoke to Murray’s reputation in an interview with BBC Scotland when he was requested about his colleague’s sacking.
He nodded at Murray’s survival because the Labour’s solely Scottish MP following the rout within the 2015 basic election by the hands of the Scottish Nationwide social gathering – when Alexander misplaced his earlier seat of Paisley and Renfrewshire South. He mentioned:
I’m considerably biased. He’s each a pal in addition to a colleague. I’ve campaigned with him, for him, and we owe him, because the Labour motion in Scotland, an immense debt of gratitude. In 2015, within the quick aftermath after the referendum, he actually stored the flag flying for Scottish Labour within the actually robust instances. He confirmed extraordinary resilience in addition to talents, and in that sense I’m delighted that he’s again in authorities.
Alexander confirmed he could be taking part in a senior function in Scottish Labour’s marketing campaign to oust the SNP from energy in subsequent Could’s Holyrood election as a deputy marketing campaign chair alongside Jackie Baillie, the Scottish social gathering’s deputy chief.
It’s broadly thought Alexander was introduced in to assist rescue the social gathering: latest opinion polls present its assist is plummeting, with Reform UK practically stage, very largely attributable to Labour’s unpopularity at UK stage.
Alexander informed the Sunday Present on BBC Scotland his job was to assist defeat the SNP.
Our accountability within the coming months is to do what we did simply a few weeks in the past in Barrhead [winning a council byelection], do what we did a few months in the past in Hamilton [winning a Holyrood byelection], which is to take our case to the Scottish public after which disprove the critics and the cynics.
Challenged concerning the polls suggesting the SNP just a few seats in need of successful an general majority at Holyrood in Could, which the SNP argues could be a mandate for a second referendum, Alexander mentioned:
To proceed the sooner soccer analogy, I’m not likely going to interact in post-match evaluation when the sport hasn’t even begun, by no means thoughts completed.
I’m not likely involved in anticipating our defeat as Scottish Labour. I’m far more involved in contributing to Scottish Labour’s victory. And that’s what every one among my colleagues as Scottish representatives at Westminster for the Labour social gathering, and certainly my associates and colleagues in Holyrood are decided to ship between now and Could.
Share
Up to date at 06.19 EDT
New dwelling secretary Shabana Mahmood chairs assembly of 5 Eyes safety alliance
Shabana Mahmood has met counterparts from the 5 Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance for talks on worldwide efforts to deal with smuggling gangs, PA Media reviews. PA says:
In her first main engagement as dwelling secretary,Mahmood hosted counterparts from the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand in London after the variety of small boat crossings reached greater than 30,000 in 2025.
Ministers are inspecting utilizing navy bases to accommodate asylum seekers in “non permanent however enough” lodging as Sir Keir Starmer tries to get a grip on the migrants disaster.
Some 1,097 individuals arrived within the UK in 17 boats on Saturday, bringing the full in 2025 to date to 30,100 – a file for this level in a 12 months.
The determine is 37% up on this level final 12 months (22,028) and in addition 37% increased than at this stage in 2023 (21,918), in keeping with PA information company evaluation.
Mahmood mentioned the numbers had been “totally unacceptable” and that she anticipated migrant returns below a deal agreed final month with France to start “imminently”.
Forward of Monday’s assembly, she mentioned the 5 Eyes intelligence-sharing pact would “agree new measures to guard our border, hitting individuals smugglers arduous”.
She was joined on the talks by US secretary of homeland safety Kristi Noem, Canadian public security minister Gary Anandasangaree, Australian dwelling affairs minister Tony Burke and New Zealand minister Judith Collins.
The group was additionally discussing new measures to deal with baby sexual abuse on-line and the unfold of lethal artificial opioids.
Shabana Mahmood chairing a gathering of ministers from the 5 Eyes safety alliance on the Honourable Artillery Firm, Armoury Home, within the Metropolis of London. {Photograph}: Jordan Pettitt/PA Mahmood chairing the assembly. {Photograph}: Jordan Pettitt/PAShabana Mahmood assembly the US homeland safety secretary Kristi Noem (proper) forward of the assembly.
{Photograph}: Kin Cheung/APShare
Labour should enhance employees’ rights to fulfil promise to voters, says Unite’s Sharon Graham
Unite’s basic secretary, Sharon Graham, has issued a warning to the federal government, saying it ought to enact full reforms of employees’ rights as a way to fulfil a “promise to the British individuals”, Jessica Elgot reviews.
Share
Labour’s new deputy chief must be a girl, not from London, and never ‘oppositional’, Harriet Harman says
Harriet Harman, who served as deputy Labour chief below Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband (though Brown by no means made her deputy PM), has mentioned the social gathering shouldn’t let the deputy management contest grow to be a debate concerning the case for a “new route”. She was talking in an interview on the At this time programme. Listed here are are details.
An election for the deputy management when Labour is in authorities, simply shortly after our first 12 months of presidency, may be very completely different than a deputy management election if you’re making an attempt to set out a brand new route for the social gathering, rebuild the social gathering after an election defeat.
And what I believe we want is … anyone who shouldn’t be a counterpoint to the chief, however is complementary to the chief, will broaden the attain of the chief and galvanise the social gathering …
The function of the deputy chief is to not present another, oppositional voice. It’s to be a part of a staff. The clue is within the identify.
I believe that, by way of extending the breadth of the management, it in all probability must be anyone from exterior London, and it positively must be a girl. However there are 185 Labour girls MPs, many very gifted …
With a primary minister and a deputy prime minister representing London constituencies, the social gathering may nicely assume that the extending of the attain that the deputy offers must be anyone from exterior London, however positively a girl. I don’t assume we are able to have a male prime minister, a person as deputy prime minister and a male deputy chief of the social gathering.
If Labour MPs agree with Harman, they usually desire a deputy chief loyal to Keir Starmer, then Shabana Mahmood, the brand new dwelling secretary, Bridget Phillipson, the training secretary, and Lisa Nandy, the tradition secretary, would all match the invoice. However they’ve all obtained fairly essential jobs already, and so will not be .
Non-cabinet ministers who would meet the Harmen standards embody Jess Phillips and Alison McGovern.
Share
Up to date at 04.25 EDT
Labour accused of ‘stitch-up’ over deputy management contest, as Louise Haigh joins debate with name for ‘financial reset’
Good morning. The Labour social gathering has had 18 deputy leaders in its historical past, however solely two of them have additionally served as deputy PM and a kind of, Angela Rayner, resigned final week. Within the reshuffle that began on Friday, Keir Starmer in impact decoupled these posts, appointing David Lammy as deputy PM (in addition to justice secretary). Labour mentioned there could be an election for a brand new deputy chief to switch Rayner and right now the timetable for that election will likely be set. There isn’t any assure that the winner will also have a job in authorities.
Elections are, by definition, divisive, and the best possibility for Keir Starmer could be for Labour MPs to coalesce behind one consensus candidate. Below the principles, an MP wants the assist of 20% of the PLP (80 MPs) to be nominated and so it’s potential that this might occur. Anybody perceived as a “insurgent” candidate may wrestle to achieve this threshold. Ministers, and cupboard ministers, are free to enter the competition. If Lammy had been to face, and win, he may re-unite the deputy PM and deputy chief jobs, however there’s a robust sense within the social gathering that the deputy chief must be a girl, and may symbolize a seat exterior London, and Lammy doesn’t appear anyway. At this level there isn’t a apparent favorite, however Annabelle Dickson and Bethany Dawson have a very good information to potential candidates of their London Playbook for Politico.
Already, there’s a row about course of. Listed here are the important thing developments this morning.
Deputy management candidates will solely have 4 days to gather the 80 MP nominations they want, it’s being reported. Labour’s nationwide govt committee will reportedly set 5pm on Thursday because the deadline for nominations, with the poll happening between 8 and 23 October – with the election over nicely earlier than the price range, which is happening on 26 November.
Richard Burgon, one of many main figures within the leftwing Socialist Marketing campaign group in parliament, and a candidate for deputy chief in 2020, has accused the social gathering of a stitch-up. In a put up on social media final night time, he mentioned:
I’ve been warning about makes an attempt to repair the deputy management election – and what I’ve heard is now being proposed is the mom of all stitch-ups. Simply a few days to safe MPs’ nominations!
This can be a determined transfer to maintain Labour members’ voices out of this race and to dodge severe dialogue on what’s gone unsuitable over the past 12 months – from the positions on incapacity advantages cuts, on winter gas funds, on Gaza and extra. This outrageous timetable reveals a management that’s unwilling to pay attention and to study the teachings wanted if we’re to rebuild assist and cease Nigel Farage.
Louise Haigh, the previous transport secretary and a possible candidate for the deputy management, has revealed on the New Statesman’s web site what quantities to a pitch for the job, demanding “an financial reset” and “a decisive break with the fiscal guidelines and institutional constraints that maintain again renewal”. It’s a severe intervention, and, by implication, a damning critique of Rachel Reeves, the chancellor. Right here is an extract.
There’s a democratic argument on the coronary heart of this as nicely. A Labour authorities with a landslide majority in parliament can not – and shouldn’t – be stopped from delivering the change we clearly set out in our manifesto merely due to assumptions made by the OBR [Office for Budget Responsibility]. If we let unelected establishments dictate the bounds of change, we betray the individuals and communities who put their belief in us.
And if mainstream politics can’t ship correct renewal, populists like Nigel Farage will fill the void. Britain’s financial system is damaged not simply in outcomes however in structure. Except we rewrite the principles, we threat managed decline dressed up as moderation.
I’m devastated by the departure of Angela Rayner final week, who persistently provided a problem to the institution orthodoxy. Her absence is an actual loss to these of us who wish to see daring, radical pondering on the coronary heart of presidency. The reshuffle has been billed as a political reset, but when we’re severe about delivering on our priorities, it should provide greater than a change of personnel across the Cupboard desk. What the nation wants now’s an financial reset: a decisive break with the fiscal guidelines and institutional constraints that maintain again renewal. Solely then can Labour flip its democratic mandate into the transformation Britain so urgently wants.
Haigh would have issue successful a deputy management contest, due to her resignation final 12 months over a 10-year-old conviction regarding cell phone fraud, however loads of Labour members will in all probability agree with the argument in her New Statesman article. I’ll put up extra from it quickly.
Right here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Paul Nowak, TUC basic secretary, speaks on the TUC convention in Brighton. The delegates are debating motions regarding the financial system and public providers within the morning, and employees’ rights within the afternoon.
11.30am: Downing Road holds a foyer briefing.
Midday: Labour’s nationwide govt committee meets to determine the timetable for the deputy management election.
2.30pm: John Healey, the defence secretary, takes questions within the Commons.
3pm: Bridget Phillipson, the training secretary, speaks at an occasion to launch the kids’s plan.
6pm: Starmer speaks to Labour MPs at a personal assembly of the parliamentary Labour social gathering (PLP).
And sooner or later right now Shabana Mahmood, the brand new dwelling secretary, is chairing a gathering the 5 Eyes safety alliance.
If you wish to contact me, please put up a message beneath the road when feedback are open (usually between 10am and 3pm BST for the time being), or message me on social media. I can’t learn all of the messages BTL, however when you put “Andrew” in a message geared toward me, I’m extra more likely to see it as a result of I seek for posts containing that phrase.
If you wish to flag one thing up urgently, it’s best to make use of social media. You may attain me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, however particular person Guardian journalists are there, I nonetheless have my account, and when you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I’ll see it and reply if needed.
I discover it very useful when readers level out errors, even minor typos. No error is simply too small to appropriate. And I discover your questions very attention-grabbing too. I can’t promise to answer to all of them, however I’ll attempt to reply to as many as I can, both BTL or generally within the weblog.
Share
Up to date at 04.24 EDT
