LONDON — Britain’s Liberal Democrats are holding fire against Andy Burnham — for now.

The centrist party has studiously avoided criticizing the new Labour prime minister during his first weeks in power, instead pushing the same “constructive opposition” approach followed during predecessor Keir Starmer’s early stint in Downing Street.

“I like what he’s doing,” says 2024-intake Lib Dem MP Martin Wrigley. “I like the way he’s going, focusing on things that matter.” The question is: how long can it last?

A person familiar with Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey’s thinking, granted anonymity because their job does not authorize them to speak publicly, says the party hopes Burnham removes the “performative hostility” from Westminster.

“That style of politics really suits the populist parties, both on the left and the right, and it isn’t the sort of politics that we as Liberal Democrats want to do,” they argued.

But while not rocking the boat has landed well with Lib Dem MPs, there is still a call for a distinctive identity for the party in a highly competitive political environment, with Labour enjoying a “Burnham bounce” in the opinion polls on the left, and Tory Leader Kemi Badenoch’s personal brand on the up.

Duty of care

Davey — whose party enjoyed its best-ever result at the 2024 election but remains only just in double digits in national polls — has already made one big play in the Burnham era: being helpful on reforming social care.

The creaking social care system in England is a policy challenge governments of all stripes have failed to meet — leaving families with drained finances and cash-strapped local authorities plugging the gaps.

The Lib Dem leader, who cares for his disabled son, attended a virtual cross-party meeting after Burnham, whose own father is in a care home with Alzheimer’s, called for an open conversation on a fix.

This proactive approach has so far landed well with Davey’s troops. “I don’t think we’re going to sink the process if we don’t get everything we want,” says Lib Dem Shadow Commons Leader Bobby Dean. “If we can get cross-party consensus on one element, then we should get on with that element straight away.” 

Indeed, Mike Storey, the Lib Dems’ co-deputy leader in the House of Lords, says the party will “cooperate fully on social care … and we’ll do it with no strings attached.” 

The person familiar with Davey’s thinking laid out the approach, saying “People are put off” by opposition parties that “decide to just immediately say ‘oh, they’re terrible. They’re breaking everything again’” when a new government arrives.

Tom Lubbock, co-founder of polling agency J.L. Partners, agrees a conciliatory approach makes sense for now as “you just look a bit mad if you just go in studs-up within the first couple of months.”

But there’s some angst about making sure the Lib Dems clearly separate themselves from Labour.

Party of the countryside 

It’s not the first time the Lib Dems have tried to play nice with a Labour prime minister.

But Davey’s party soon found ways to differentiate themselves from the increasingly unpopular Keir Starmer.

After Starmer’s government changed inheritance tax rules for farmers, the Lib Dems spied an opening — dubbing it the “family farm tax” and ramping up campaigning.

The party has an “extraordinary niche and an extraordinary opportunity” to pose as the “Countryside Alliance arm of the Labour Party,” argues Lubbock — in other words, a progressive rival to Labour that rural voters can still get behind.

Burnham’s focus on reviving urban areas may lend itself to this approach, with Lib Dem figures poised to exploit any perception “Avanti Andy” is shuttling between London and Manchester, another major city.

Adam Dance, who represents the rural constituency of Yeovil, warns Burnham “can’t be a prime minister just for Manchester and the biggest cities” and says “he needs to understand rural areas.” 

Northern MP Tom Gordon also challenges the prime minister’s claim to represent northern England, arguing this “does feel slightly performative.” He reckons voters “don’t hate him [Burnham] yet” as “he’s not had long enough to make any really unpopular decisions.”

Left vs. right blocs 

Much of the Lib Dems’ success under Davey has come from wooing disillusioned Conservatives, targeting Tory-held seats in the home counties — dubbed the “blue wall.”

But winning remaining Tory areas next time round could be harder if the Lib Dems appear too closely aligned with a Labour government. 

Lubbock argues the Lib Dems will do “much worse” if supporters of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK “get on the Conservative bandwagon” to help defeat Labour nationally. That would be a mirror of the way some Labour supporters tactically backed the Lib Dems in 2024 to oust the Tories.

Though the Tories are still stuck below 20 percent in most polls, there are signs of recovery. YouGov data last month put Badenoch’s net favorability score at the highest of any Conservative leader for more than five years. Her position is undeniably more stable than it was 12 months ago.

While Lib Dems are optimistic Badenoch’s moves to the right on net zero and human rights will push more One Nation, centrist Conservatives in their direction, their Tory rivals sound bullish.

Tory MP Gregory Stafford, who saw off a challenge by the Lib Dems to win Farnham and Bordon two years ago, doesn’t think there are more Tories left for the Lib Dems to poach.

“All I’m seeing is those people coming back, not the other way round,” says Stafford about voters who bid the Tories farewell in 2024. Despite his narrow win, he thinks some of the 6,000 Reform UK voters in his seat will return — thanks to Badenoch.

“They see demonstrably in Kemi a leader that both they like as a person, but also speaks their language and speaks to the policies that they’re concerned about,” he argues.

As such, the Lib Dems may settle for a stronger attack against the right.

“People just don’t feel listened to,” says the party’s Scotland spokesperson Susan Murray. “When they don’t feel listened to, they are open to populism.” She argues that both the Lib Dems and Labour are “not succeeding in getting that message [of hope and opportunities] across.” Dean adds, “There’s a massive demand out there for a liberal party to make a bold offer to the country and at the moment that space feels vacated.” 

It’s a perceived weakness Stafford, the Conservative MP, plans to leap on at the next election. “The real danger for the Liberal Democrats is that they are seen as a patsy party that might champion local issues locally, but actually have nothing to say distinctive on the national stage,” he argues.

Roz Savage, who entered the Commons for the Lib Dems in 2024, recognizes the outfit has a “PR challenge that people think of us as the nice party.” Instead, a “bigger story” is required about a future Lib Dem government, she says.

“When we talk to Lib Dem voters in focus groups, they don’t really have a clear vision for what the Lib Dem party should stand for,” says Merlin Strategy’s Head of Research, Julian Gallie. People often back them as a vote against other parties, the political analyst says.

MPs also want the Lib Dems to reach beyond their traditional strongholds and target historically Labour areas — including Newcastle and Hull. Both have Lib Dem-run city councils, but are the kind of areas in which Burnham will fancy he can improve Labour’s standing. Meral Hussein-Ece, the Lib Dems’ Lords equality spokesperson, says the party must also do more to understand “the diversity of this country, which I don’t think we’ve done very well so far.” 

Lib Dem conference in Brighton next month will give the party a chance to lay a marker for the expected general election in 2029. But MPs want more than set-piece events to present a distinctive vision. 

“We do have to do better at utilizing the likes of social media and capturing the attention all the time, not just when we get the spotlight shined on us,” argues Gordon, the Harrogate and Knaresborough MP.

The Lib Dems, he says, have to drive “conversation on our own terms, rather than always having to just respond.” 

LONDON — Since becoming Britain’s prime minister, Andy Burnham — the Greater Manchester mayor for nine years — has leapt at any chance to promote his old stomping ground.

POLITICO highlights six times Burnham awkwardly shoe-horned the city into his premiership. 

1) No. 10 North 

Downing Street too London-centric? Just make a Manchester one.

Manchester’s Heron House building is the site of a new No.10 North, dubbed the “situation room for growth” by the PM. Burnham has vowed to work from the building regularly, alongside other Cabinet ministers. 

When its inaugural meeting took place with regional mayors, the PM (who is married and has three kids, remember) said this might be the “best day of my life.” In a sign that Burnham’s living his best life, there’s even a gold “The Queen Is Dead” disk on the wall from Manchester indie legends The Smiths.

“It’s definitely gone down well here,” says University of Manchester academic Robert Ford of Burnham’s regular references to the city.

“It’s a clever bit of messaging, because it signals to people up here, where he remains very popular, that he hasn’t forgotten about the city that he’s just departed from, and is continuing to place it at the heart of everything.”

2) Inviting Trump to Manchester

From Buckingham Palace to … the Salford Lads’ Club?

During his first call with Donald Trump — a pivotal diplomatic moment — Andy Burnham offered the U.S. president an invite to Manchester. 

The U.K. is hosting the G20 next year, and it’s widely expected to take place in the city. Any excuse…  

3) Oman-chester

Looking to build some rapport with a world leader? Try the local angle.

A summary of Burnham’s first call with Sultan of Oman Haitham bin Tariq Al Said shows that the PM talked about the country’s Al Batinah North Growth Hub — “inspired by the Manchester Growth Hub that the prime minister set up in his former role as mayor of Greater Manchester.”

That’s two Manchesters in one sentence.

4) Boosting Mancunian bands

It’s not just the gold disk on the wall of No. 10 North.

Burnham’s put his love of Manchester’s musical history front and center.

He dad-danced to New Order’s “True Faith” on becoming Labour leader, and used a TikTok blind ranking of five bands which included … four from Manchester.

And, of course, his official Spotify playlist during the Makerfield by-election was flooded with songs by Mancunian artists.

5) ‘Manchester of India.’

Improving diplomatic ties cuts both ways as world leaders try to get in Burnham’s good books by referencing his favorite city.

During a call with Indian PM Narendra Modi, Burnham praised the contributions of Indian communities to the U.K., while Modi noted the links between the two leaders’ home cities of Manchester and Ahmedabad, in Gujarat, respectively. The Indian leader called it the “Manchester of India.”

No. 10 put it in their readout of the call — obvs.

6) Chatting Manchester slang

Burnham’s TikTok game includes educating the entire U.K. on the finer points of Greater Manchester dialect.

In a weekend post promoting his devolution agenda, the prime minister declared he couldn’t be convinced a bread roll is called anything but a “barm” — the north-west slang for a bap.

Burnham was trying to make the point that what works in one place doesn’t succeed in another — with the help of the Mancunian metaphor.

LONDON — On the ropes, Nigel Farage is going for a right hook.

The Reform UK leader — who has faced intense pressure over his finances over the summer  —  came out swinging Monday at a Westminster press conference focused on his core issue: borders.

Reform is pushing plans for a military drive —  dubbed “Operation Fortress” — which it claims would ensure no small boat carrying undocumented migrants reaches the English coastline.

Under its proposals, an “integrated surveillance command” to track boats using drones, space satellites and infrared feeds would be established using the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, Royal Marines and British Army. 

Small boats would be intercepted at sea with their occupants detained, medically-assessed and given food and water before being returned on military inflatable boats to the country they came from, most likely France.

“I am entirely confident that under a Reform government, within a fortnight, there would be no more boats,” Farage — who took questions at a press conference for the first time since early May — told reporters. 

“If the Royal Navy is not there to protect this country from invasion, then, frankly, I can’t see what its purpose is,” he added.

Seizing the agenda

The Reform announcement comes as the ruling Labour Party enjoys a modest bounce in opinion polls two weeks after swapping out Keir Starmer as prime minister for former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.

Burnham has seized the agenda, announcing a flurry of spending commitments in his first fortnight in charge, and struck a more optimistic tone than his predecessor.

He also moves into No. 10 Downing Street with the salience of immigration slightly diminished. The number of people arriving in the U.K. on small boats was 43 percent lower between Jan. 1 and Aug. 1 this year compared to last year.

But Savanta’s Political Research Director Chris Hopkins explained that immigration remains a top issue for voters.

“It is important Burnham doesn’t ignore the issue given its general importance in U.K. politics,” he said. Hopkins adds that “getting the tone right is a tricky tightrope for a Labour prime minister to walk,” especially with the risk of turning off potential Labour-to-Green switchers on the left.

Easier said than done

Burnham has so far tried to show he’s on the front foot on migration. He has retained Shabana Mahmood as home secretary, one of the few holdovers from the Starmer era and a figure who has riled up some on the Labour left with more stringent immigration rules.

During a visit to Dover over the weekend, Burnham — with the famous white cliffs in the background — promised a “relentless” focus on small boat crossings.

“People want to see this issue addressed,” the prime minister said. “The public don’t like the idea that the border looks like it’s not controlled. We need to bring back that control, but also we need to offer support for people who genuinely need it,” he added.

Labour MP Sojan Joseph, whose Ashford constituency is near the Kent coast where many small boats arrive, praised Burnham’s approach so far — though argued that more action is needed.

“We must continue the positive work we’ve already done to reduce the number of small boat crossings and to close asylum hotels, with the hotel in my constituency already closed, to restore order to our borders — and deliver where the previous Tory government failed,” Joseph said.

On Monday, Burnham’s official spokesperson dismissed Reform’s proposals, insisting the Royal Navy already has “primacy for small boat crossings” and that border patrol officers have “significant capabilities and skills that make them the best suited candidate to lead small boats operations in the channel.”

In a BBC interview, former navy commander Tom Sharpe also questioned whether the Royal Navy has the capability to enforce Farage’s plans. Reform is “talking about the largest maritime operation in the Channel since World War Two, a very evocative image, but that’s not the reality,” he said.

Reform has also faced a host of questions about what it would do if France rejects the small boats that have been turned around and sent back to its coastline. Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesman, said France would be committing a “crime against humanity” if it ordered French forces to block a “humanitarian mission landing civilians in safety and forcing them back out to sea, directly endangering their lives.”

Battle of the narratives

Beyond questions about its viability, Farage’s success will depend on whether he can keep attention on this policy — and away from the multiple controversies surrounding his party.

Farage is facing a special election in his seaside seat of Clacton next week, which he has billed as a chance for the public to show it is unfazed by “establishment” scrutiny of a £5 million gift he received from a cryptocurrency investor before the last election. Shortly before the Reform press conference kicked off Monday, the parliamentary standards watchdog confirmed it is separately investigating the party’s Deputy Leader Richard Tice over an allegation he failed to declare an interest.

The Reform UK leader is also facing pressure on his right flank from Rupert Lowe’s rival Restore Britain outfit.

Farage faced questions Monday about the potential for an alliance with Lowe’s breakaway party, which continues to poll in the single digits but threatens to split the vote on the right. The Reform UK chief said he would “do whatever I could for us to have a sane center-right alliance to beat Labour at the next general election” — though Lowe has continued to direct social media barbs at Farage in the hours since the press conference.

Right-wing splits aside, Farage will be hoping he can keep the political conversation on his terms — and not Burnham’s.

ATHENS — As Spain and France began to gain control over devastating wildfires that last week sparked one of their largest peacetime evacuations, Greece was battling multiple blazes on Sunday — and a sense that its odyssey is far from over.

Two firefighters, a Greek and a Danish national, died after a pair of helicopters battling a major wildfire burning out of control west of Athens crashed in midair. Another Greek and a British national were recovered alive.

Television footage showed one of the helicopters exploding and plunging to the ground in flames after the collision. Foreign firefighting and helicopter crews are often deployed in Greece to help tackle wildfires.

Another three Greek firefighters died last Wednesday while tackling wildfires in Crete and on the Peloponnese, a rugged peninsula in southern Greece.

While a fire that has been burning since Friday around Porto Germeno on the Gulf of Corinth some 60 ​kilometers northwest of Athens has subsided, on Saturday the flames crossed a mountain to the south, fanned by strong winds of up to 130 kilometers per hour, and reached the settlement of Veniza closer to the capital. According to initial estimates, the fire has destroyed around 200 houses in the area.

On Sunday flames spread rapidly through western Attica, a region that encompasses Athens, threatening communities and an industrial district outside Megara, about 30 kilometers from the capital. Speaking on state TV Ert, the president of the firefighters’ federation, Nikos Lavranos, described it as a “huge front” and a “black blanket covering an area of around [25 acres].”

Dozens of settlements have been evacuated, and firefighters are focusing on preventing the flames from advancing toward Megara, pop. 30,000. Greece’s firefighting service said more than 2,500 people had been evacuated in western Attica by late Sunday afternoon.

“Unfortunately, we have uncontrolled fires in far too many areas. As soon as the fire brigade arrives at one spot, just as the fire is being brought under control, it flares up again in another spot,” Megara Mayor Panagiotis Margetis told Open TV.

Firefighters were also fighting another blaze in the Peloponnese on Sunday as well as on the island of Cephalonia in the Ionian Sea between Greece and Italy. More than 500 firefighters have been deployed across Greece.

Wind speeds are set to drop significantly on Monday, according to the National Meteorological Service, which should ease the work of the fire services.

Europe has been ravaged by wildfires this summer after months of record-breaking heat and little rain. Scientists have found that climate change vastly increased the likelihood of Western Europe’s record-breaking heat wave in late June as well as a spring drought — both events that made the land more fire-prone.

Wildfires in France and Spain forced the evacuation of over 300,000 people last month.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his “deepest sorrow” for the “tragic accident” of the helicopters, and pledged state support for those whose homes were destroyed.

“There are moments when the force of nature and the intensity of weather conditions exceed all human planning and every operational capability,” he said in a social media post on Sunday. “These are extremely difficult days for our country.”

MANCHESTER — Labour’s Bev Craig won the Greater Manchester mayoral by-election Friday night and will now succeed British Prime Minister Andy Burnham in the region’s top job.

Craig came top with 309,525 votes, with Reform UK’s Sian Astley trailing on 157,178 votes. The Green Party placed third.

The victory was achieved with a second round under the city’s supplemental vote system, which allows voters to pick a first and second-preference candidate.

Speaking at the Co-Op Live arena to the east of the city, Craig said she stands “ready to serve” her 3 million constituents.

“Every single decision I take as your mayor of Greater Manchester will pass the test of making your life better,” Craig pledged.

The vote was triggered after three-time mayoral contest winner Burnham resigned the job in June to return to Westminster, where he swiftly claimed leadership of the governing Labour Party and became prime minister. There had been concern that Burnham’s move would allow Reform UK — which performed strongly in local elections in England earlier this year — to seize the mayoralty.

Craig will now be have to deal directly with Burnham, who has promised to devolve more powers to England’s mayors as a part of a devolution package. The post currently comes with powers over transport, policing, and housing.

Turnout for the special election was noticeably lower than when Burnham last ran back in 2024, with only 25 per cent of voters heading to the polls this time, compared to 32 per cent at the last vote. POLITICO witnessed some voters on doorsteps Thursday evening learning of the election for the first time.

Counting continued late into the night as the re-instated supplementary voting system took the contest to a second round for the first time ever.

Reform diverted

In the weeks before the election, polls put Craig firmly in the lead. Reform UK had initially been expected to pose a strong challenge, but some of its resources were diverted South as Nigel Farage called a separate by-election in his constituency of Clacton in a bid to shut down scrutiny of his finances.

The Greens set about targeting areas in which they knew they already had support. While out door-knocking in Longsight, an area in the constituency of Gorton and Denton, candidate Geraldine Coggins said they were “going for the hat-trick,” after winning a councilor and an MP in recent votes. Zack Polanski’s party threw money at an air campaign, too, pumping out Instagram videos featuring the leader, Gorton and Denton MP Hannah Spencer, and Coggins.

Greater Manchester has a huge electorate of 2.1million voters, and there were only 5 weeks to campaign. “You can’t hit all those doors,” explained Coggins.

Coggins’ Instagram account reached 4.6million views in the past 30 days and campaign ads had been shown on screen 50.7million times, according to her team.

Meanwhile, Craig spent some £53,000 on digital ads between Meta and Google, and told POLITICO before the vote: “People have been stopping me in the street. And I’ve been really high-profile and visible in my campaign even when other parties went hard on their attacks.” A yellow Labour battle bus cruised the streets as voters went to the polls Thursday. One campaigner shouted “Vote Bev today” through a microphone while fellow activists cheered and waved posters from the top deck.

Meanwhile, Reform seemed to have toned down their own efforts. One Bolton resident said they had not received a single campaign leaflet from Reform, which traditionally relies on social media and letters rather than door-knocking, despite receiving an influx during the local elections in May where the party made big strides, especially in the north of the city region.

The party’s candidate Sian Astley drew some criticism for backing out of hustings hosted by local media outlet the Manchester Mill, and spent just £14,000 on digital ads.

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to correct the name of Reform UK’s candidate.