Like all Prime Ministers, Andy Burnham is finding that events can upset even the best laid plans.
On Friday the PM was diverted from his cost of living tour around the UK, to view the devastation in Stourbridge, where 19 homes were completely destroyed after wild grassland fires caught up with suburbia.
The scenes of flames completely gutting detached and semi-detached UK homes were apocalyptic, and the PM responded by temporarily banning disposable barbecues, announcing extra resources for firefighters and sending an emergency phone alert warning against “any activity that could start a fire”.
What record Ebola outbreak tells us about a future pandemic
Hard to believe it, but a few years on from the worst global pandemic in more than a century, our world is ignoring an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that is breaking records by the week.
What’s the situation?
This week, the director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was on track to become the deadliest ever outbreak of the disease.
It has already killed more than 2,000 people and is caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus – for which there is no vaccine or treatment.
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Dire warnings from experts
“What’s terrifying is that the virus is way ahead of us,” one UN source said. “We are chasing the virus.”
Alan Doss, British head of the UN’s Peacekeeping mission in Congo, said: “The world seems to have forgotten that the first human infections of HIV/Aids occurred in Congo, but years later it became such a defining issue for Western public health. “
Aid cuts hinder response
A source from the WHO said: “From the closure by Trump of the giant USAID, to the reduction in Europe of aid programmes too, you know we are looking at a world shutting its eyes to a catastrophe in the making.”
The UK government is cutting development assistance to the DRC by 29 per cent.
What Clacton voters think as Farage re-elected
From spoiled ballots to voting for a bin, there is a palpable frustration and exasperation with the state of British politics.
‘This is England – it’s how it should stay’
Farage supporter Jane Smith tells The i Paper she cast her ballot for him because “he’s trying to get people out who shouldn’t be here”.
“A lot of people are for Farage,” she said. “Because he’s going to his best to get the immigrants out.”
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‘There are better ways to spend that money’
Nicola Lott, 51, abstained from voting – but on reflection wishes she had spoiled her ballot. She works in recruitment for a care company, is positive about immigration and says “we wouldn’t have an NHS” without it.
The money spent on the by-election could have been better used to tackle “areas of deprivation”, Nicola added.
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‘I voted for somebody with a tin on their head’
Dan Casey, 87, said “lots of people didn’t vote because they just thought it was a total farce”.
Casey added, incredulous: “I’ve never ever known anybody not to turn up to the count. It’s his election, he called it, and he doesn’t even turn up for the count.”
Count Binface said he was “the winning candidate of the candidates who bothered to turn up for the results”.
What asylum seekers are entitled to after entering the UK
Reform UK has accused Vodafone of “facilitating the invasion of Britain” by giving out free SIM cards to Channel migrants.
Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, said he wrote to the Vodafone board, threatening the company’s leadership with jail time under a future Reform government, after learning it issues free SIMs to charities supporting migrants.
The company is reported to have supplied refugee charity Care4Calais with more than 2,000 SIMs.
What are asylum seekers actually entitled to?
- Asylum seekers are entitled to accommodation, which could be in a flat, house, a hotel or a hostel, or bed and breakfast.
- At the end of March, 97,519 people were receiving asylum support. Of these, 72,768 were in non-hotel accommodation.
- People receiving asylum support get £49.18 per week to cover essential expenses. This works out at £7.02 per day.
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Healthcare and employment
Asylum seekers may receive free healthcare on the NHS if they need to see a doctor or get hospital treatment. They are also entitled to free prescriptions for medicine, free NHS dental care, free eyesight tests, and help towards the cost of glasses.
In most cases, people seeking asylum are banned from working while their claim is considered. Instead, they must access support through the Home Office.
He also announced the UK would look at buying firefighting aircraft, which followed exclusive reporting in The i Paper that the RAF has no fire fighting capability, and calls by the Fire Brigades Union for such resources.
But longer term, the Prime Minister now faces an enhanced problem of two of his foreign secretary’s pet projects – electric vehicles and North Sea drilling.
Big decisions looming
In the way of politics, the timing of these two issues could not be more resonant. The consultation on whether to allow drilling in the Rosebank oil and gas field ends on Monday, meaning the PM will have to say yes or no very soon. And a consultation on watering down the target for the transition to electric vehicles was announced on Friday.
When Ed Miliband was in charge of net zero, he championed the take up of electric vehicles, and was against new gas and oil licences in the North Sea.
For Green-minded MPs -Miliband among them – and voters, these are totemic issues as to how seriously Burnham will take climate change.
Miliband may have been moved up to foreign secretary, but that didn’t stop him publishing a video on Thursday in which he described climate change as a “serious national security threat to the British people”.
It was a challenge to the PM. If something is a national security issue, it means more money, more focus and more special equipment.
The party argues that re-approving the North Sea Gas and oil fields does not technically violate its election pledge to stop issuing new oil and gas licences as they had been approved by the Conservatives, and then put under review. But the move would still be likely to divide Labour MPs.
Asked how adapting to the climate emergency sits alongside taking more gas and oil out of the ground, Burnham told the the UK will not be able to stop using fossil fuels “for some time” but that accelerating the use of oil and gas could “help pay for the transition”.
Wrong to break our manifesto pledge
But a Labour MP said it would “clearly be wrong for us to break our manifesto pledge by granting new oil and gas drilling licenses”, adding this would “line the pockets of big oil without lowering bills for consumers”.
They noted that constituents want to see the PM “addressing the climate emergency” and that a failure to do so could push voters over to the Green Party.
“We are beginning to see previous Labour voters who have gone over to the Greens return to us, but I am worried that unless we take meaningful action on this area, they will go back,” they said.
But Mike Reader, Labour’s parliamentary representative for SERA – the party’s environmental campaign group – said the party’s manifesto is clear in stating that oil and gas “remain part of our energy mix for the long term”.
He added: “What is also clear is the evidence that tackling the climate crisis, cutting bills and rebuilding our energy security are one and the same fight.”
Green Party leader Zack Polanski described Burnham’s uncertainty over North Sea oil and gas as “a deeply irresponsible abdication of responsibility”, adding that more drilling today makes extreme weather “more likely and more dangerous” in the future.
Electric Vehicles target also at stake
Burnham also faces a major decision over whether to water down net zero rules for electric vehicles (EVs), with a consultation on relaxing sales targets opening today.
Labour MP Perran Moon, chair of the Electric Vehicle All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), said it is “worrying” that ministers are considering watering down the UK’s Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate. This currently requires car makers to ensure 80 per cent of their sales are EVs by 2030, but could be watered down following a consultation.
“The Government appears to be listening to vested automotive manufacturer interests, relying on dodgy data and rolling back from the greatest challenge of our time,” he said in a strong message to the PM.
Moon urged ministers to be “running towards” complicated, costly challenges around meeting net zero commitments, telling The i Paper: “We’re at a crossroads in our commitments to clean power by 2030 and minimising the UK’s impact on climate change.”
However, another Labour MP said decisions on North Sea drilling and EV mandates are “not too controversial” among their colleagues.
They said current EV rules have been “unachievable for a long time” and decisions on Jackdaw and Rosebank “make sense” during the transition to net zero, adding: “Better to use what we have while we still use it.”
‘Country built for a climate that no longer exists’
But Labour MP Chris Hinchliff echoed Miliband in arguing climate change is a “national security risk” and although the Cobra meeting held by the Prime Minister over the spate of heatwaves shows “the penny is starting to drop” there must be investment into proper adaptation.
“Our country is built for a climate that no longer exists,” he said. “We must invest in adapting to a hotter climate or living standards will drop like a stone.”
Left-wing Labour MP Jon Trickett said Burnham must prioritise “saving lives” by investing in emergency services.
“It is clear that climate change is part of the cost of living crisis; energy and water bills keep rising whilst the companies profiteer,” he said, adding: “We need a total rupture with the status quo economically, politically and environmentally – nothing less will do.”
Fleur Anderson, chair of the Environment All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), called on the Cobra meeting to “initiate a long-term climate resilience strategy” which would be run by the PM’s team or the Cabinet Office.
“This is not just a fires or food crisis but needs all government departments to build in climate resilience all the time,” she said.
Burnham held the first Cobra meeting of his premiership on Wednesday afternoon, where Cabinet ministers were understood to discuss how to make the system more resilient, from protecting our food security to preventing heat-related deaths. Water supplies are also an issues.
One Labour backbencher welcomed extra investment in the fire service, saying the climate is “one of those things like defence where avoiding paying upfront leads to far worse costs in damage, destruction, insurance premiums going up”.
But another called for the PM to go further, demanding “serious commitments” to addressing issues such as water leakage from broken pipes, the lack of food security and planning for “repeats of this year and extreme weather conditions”.
‘Wildfires now a permanent summer fixture’
“We need to tackle climate change with the seriousness it deserves as a significant threat to this country’s resilience,” they said, adding: “We cannot keep fiddling whilst the world burns.”
“Wildfires are now a permanent summer fixture for the foreseeable future in Britain,” a spokesperson for the Fire Brigades Union said, adding that changes in the environment, rising temperatures and droughts are making it “more likely fires will begin”.
Climate scientists have warned that the UK is “almost completely unprepared for what’s coming”.
Bill McGuire, a professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London (UCL), warned homes, schools and hospitals will become “unliveable heat traps”, transport and energy infrastructure will falter and “standpipes in the streets” due to water shortages will become common.
Responding to Burnham’s initial plan to ban BBQs in response to the wildfires, Green Party leader Zack Polanski said: “We’re in the fifth heatwave of the summer, and thousands are already estimated to have died from extreme heat this year. Meanwhile the extreme weather has wiped billions off the UK’s economy in just a few months.
“And yet the single concrete action we have heard from this government is the Prime Minister considering a ban on disposable barbecues. The lack of seriousness is frankly shocking.”
A government spokesperson said: “Tackling the threats posed by climate change requires consistent and coordinated action across every department. From £710m to fund upgrades to our school estate to the construction of nine new reservoirs across the country – the government is taking the necessary steps to ensure our country is more resilient and our communities are kept safe.
“In addition to these long-term plans, the government is taking concrete action to tackle the immediate affects of extreme weather conditions. Funding for the fire service has increased by £100 million and water companies have been directed to step-up their work to fix leaks and preserve water.”