Britain, Brexit, government and governance June 2026-

Britain, Brexit, government and governance
May 2024- June 2026

19 July
The Andy Burnham I’ve met over the past 20 years gives me hope for British politics
John Harris
(The Guardian) … Inevitably, you can already see some of the likely faultlines in the Burnham regime, and auguries of possible difficulties to come. He not only wants to radically reshape the state and rebalance and reindustrialise the country, but to somehow roll back 40 years of neoliberalism, oversee the building of historic numbers of council houses, and all the rest: it amounts to a coherent and potentially inspirational story, with real emotional bite. But there is a profound tension between these aspirations, and some of the identifying features of Labour’s new leader.
… As he prepares to cross the Downing Street threshold, other questions abound. Being collegiate and comparatively humble might look like the right way to behave, but quite apart from the heft and determination required for his domestic agenda, how will he fare at diplomatic-cum-wartime hardball with such men as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin? This may not be a world that suits conscientious consensus-builders and egalitarians: it may demand the rapier-like confidence and egos of big gorillas who only know how to hoard power for themselves.
How Britain’s new prime minister can revive Labour
His supporters are more northern and more Green than Sir Keir’s
(The Economist) Moving house is always stressful. Around noon on Monday July 20th, Andy Burnham will move into 10 Downing Street and become prime minister. His predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, will leave his house keys, Larry the cat and an unhelpful political legacy.
Labour MPs hope that by picking the former Greater Manchester mayor to replace Sir Keir they can clean the slate after two troubled years in power. Opinion polls suggest they might be right—at least for now. Mr Burnham is more popular than Sir Keir (a low bar), but he also has better ratings than the outgoing prime minister did two years ago, when he came to power. … Though Mr Burnham’s popularity might be equally short-lived, the data suggest that the new Labour leader could build a more enduring electoral base by uniting Britain’s fragmented centre-left voters.

17 July
A new entente? Bayeux tapestry’s UK arrival ‘closes loop’ on Brexit tensions
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy is among first viewers as epic embroidery is unpacked at British Museum, a landmark in Anglo-French diplomacy
(The Guardian) In the decade after Brexit, the relationship between Britain and France has been defined by rows over fishing rights, Channel crossings and trade. Boris Johnson even mocked Emmanuel Macron, telling his French counterpart to “donnez-moi un break”.
This week, that fractious chapter gave way to one of the most significant acts of cultural diplomacy between the two countries in decades. Almost 1,000 years after it was created, the Bayeux tapestry arrived at the British Museum, transported from France under cover of darkness, the culmination of years of painstaking negotiations between London and Paris.

17 July
Andy Burnham promises to end Labour infighting as he becomes party’s leader
Government has ‘last chance’ to get it right, says incoming PM, while anxiety surrounds his choice of chancellor

24 June
After a decade of turmoil, can Burnham break the UK’s curse?
Ten years ago today, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.
(GZERO media) The helter-skelter in Westminster, where the Houses of Parliament are located, has been unceasing ever since. Just yesterday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced he will resign. His successor – likely Andy Burnham – will be the seventh PM in the last decade. For context: there were only five different leaders in the 37 years prior to the Brexit vote, dating back to the start of Margaret Thatcher’s premiership.
Brexit has directly contributed to the upheaval. Theresa May’s tenure was blighted by it, as she was unable to force through a vote that would formally take the UK out of the trade bloc before she exited office in 2019. Ever since the UK left in 2020, the economy has been stagnant. What’s more, net migration has increased over the last few years as the UK struggles to put a cap on non-EU movement – Brexiteers had argued that it would have the opposite effect.
As such, Burnham – assuming he enters office – may reverse some aspects of the UK’s exit from the EU.
Brexit vote: 10 years on
A decade after the UK’s defining referendum on EU membership, how has the country changed?
(The Guardian) The fact that the country is now set for its seventh prime minister in the decade since Brexit speaks volumes. The vote in 2016 to leave the European Union deeply fractured Britain, a country that remains volatile and impatient for change to this day.
Change has come to the UK as a result of Brexit – only not for the better, as senior economics correspondent Richard Partington explains for our special report this week. We revisit the buildup to the vote as key figures at the time recall how it shook the country’s politics. And there’s even a quiz to test your memory of the more arcane sideshows of it all.
31 May
Richard Partington: The disaster of Brexit is a warning against simple solutions to hard problems