Clarification comes after PM fuelled speculation about EU-UK relationship in series of interviews at weekend
Downing Street has been forced to clarify Andy Burnham’s stance on whether the UK would return to having freedom of movement with the EU after the prime minister said an “honest discussion” was needed on the issue.
Burnham fuelled speculation about a return to freedom of movement in an interview at the weekend, prompting questions about how close the UK could become to Brussels.
Andy Burnham claims revising Brexit would ‘bring people together’. The PM wants to look again at issues like free movement, but rules out joining the euro or Schengen. Would rejoining the EU bring up old wounds and risk further division?
Plus, as chancellor John Healey gears up for a tricky budget, what should you be looking out for?
The prime minister previously said that he wanted a debate on how Britain can establish a closer relationship
Speaking at his rough sleeping summit in Downing Street this morning, Andy Burnham expanded on the claim he made on Good Morning Britain about tackling rough sleeping being cheaper than ignoring the problem. (See 11.13am.)
He said:
We’ve also got to be conscious when we speak to the rest of the country, the taxpayers of this country, that actually to leave people sleeping rough has financial consequences. It doesn’t work for anybody and it doesn’t work for the public purse, because if you leave people in a position where they are in and out of A&E, and in and out of a hospital bed, that doesn’t make sense for anybody.
There is a rock-solid business case to do something to end homelessness, to put people on a path to recovery, so that they can contribute once again. And that should be the thinking that we take to this conversation.
Burnham is throwing another £432m at a problem he failed to solve in Greater Manchester. Under Labour, rough sleeping has hit record highs – yet their answer is always more taxpayers’ money and more empty promises.
[John] Healey must use his budget this week to cut taxes for working people, get the ballooning benefits bill under control, and stop pushing up energy prices.
John Healey is expected to confirm on Wednesday that the full state pension will rise by £489 to £13,036 – equivalent to 3.9%.
However, the rise will push about one million people on low incomes who rely on the state pension above the £12,570 personal allowance threshold, meaning they would be dragged into paying income tax.
EU exit has damaged economy and failed to bring promised benefits, says PM, but he rules out big pre-election changes
Brexit has not “played out” like it was promised to the public, has weakened the economy and the current deal is not good enough, Andy Burnham has said, while ruling out any major changes in the current parliament.
The prime minister said Britain had ended up with a “harder Brexit than was proposed in the referendum campaign” and it had not helped to control the small boats crisis. Backing the home secretary’s tougher immigration rules, he said Brexit had weakened the UK’s ability to control its borders as it could no longer send people back to Europe.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham's office has issued a campaign urging people to prepare household emergency stockpiles.
Richard Pohle / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
The UK has issued a three-day essentials checklist it hopes its people will prepare at home.
Top leaders say they want to bolster national resilience amid fears of the world growing more dangerous.
The list includes items such as 9 liters of bottled water per person and charged power banks.
The UK is telling families to prepare three days' worth of food, water, and essentials amid concern that natural disasters, armed conflict, and other emergencies are becoming more frequent.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham's office launched the "Be Ready" campaign last week, urging British people to arrange household stockpiles including the following items:
Three days of non-perishable food, such as dried fruit or tinned meat
Nine liters of bottled water, or about 2.4 gallons, per person
Hygiene and bathroom products, including wet wipes and hand sanitizer
Warm clothing, sleeping bags, and blankets
Light sources, such as flashlights with batteries
A charged power bank
An FM radio
Cash and cards, copies of identification documents, and important information such as a note of personal medical dosages
A first aid kit and other essential medical supplies
Ready-made baby formula and diapers
Pet food and bottled water
The idea is to give households the ability to hold out for three days while cut off from supplies or payment systems.
Burnham said the campaign was started as "unexpected events seem to be becoming more and more common," but urged people not to panic.
"It's about just taking sensible measures to have enough in the house to tide you over should there be a difficult situation," he told local media on Friday.
The campaign encourages people to build their stockpiles gradually, for example by adding some items to regular shopping trips, and to check them every six months to replace any that have expired.
It comes as government agencies and companies around the world temporarily shut down their websites last week after a major security flaw was found in an open-source programming language that powers about 70% of the internet.
"We're going to find these sorts of things happening more and more," said the UK's defense minister, Wes Streeting, on Friday. "And it's not just from foreign states engaging in espionage or sabotage. It's also organized criminals."
About 400,000 British homes also lost power at some point over the weekend as two back-to-back storms battered northern Europe.
But UK officials have also increasingly warned about the need to deter the threat of war in Europe, and are hoping to raise their country's national resilience in the face of such a possibility.
"Our adversaries' willingness to harm us is not new. What has changed is their capacity. By 2030, their force strength and war economy could put them in a position to attack," Streeting told The Telegraph on Sunday.
Login
