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Andy Burnham has revealed his key focus for Labour amid mounting speculation that the Manchester mayor could challenge Sir Keir Starmer for party leadership.Appearing on BBC News on Thursday (25 September), said that his main goal is to support the government in building a plan to beat Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. In an interview with The Telegraph on Wednesday, Mr Burnham said MPs have been privately urging him to challenge Sir Keir to become prime minister.Discussing this further, Mr Burnham said: “It’s not a matter for me. This is ultimately a matter for the party in Westminster to decide”, saying that his role is to “support the party in whatever way I can”. More

Nigel Farage has said Republicans “have to get used to things being said that they don’t like” after late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel was suspended last week having made comments about the death of MAGA commentator Charlie Kirk.Responding to a caller on Nick Ferrari’s LBC programme on Wednesday (September 24), the Reform UK leader expressed how the political party supporters “need to be careful, otherwise they’re going to be guilty of the very thing they accused the other side of.”Jimmy Kimmel returned to his show on Tuesday night, assuring his audience that it was “never [his] intention to make light of the murder of a young man.” More

Donald Trump has begun his second state visit to the UK at the invitation of King Charles III and prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.The US president and the UK prime minister are set to meet at Chequers on Thursday, 18 September. They will view the Sir Winston Churchill archives and hold a bilateral meeting.They will later attend a business reception at the site hosted by chancellor Rachel Reeves.White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg and political editor David Maddox break down exactly what the two could be expecting from this week’s events. More

The Independent visited Windsor in Berkshire ahead of Donald Trump’s state visit to the town on Tuesday (16 September), where he and his wife Melania will be staying until Friday (19 September).American flags line the streets, hundreds of armed police guard every corner, and queues of tourists spill out onto the pavements.The mood among local councillors, businesses, and residents, as Windsor prepares to make itself ‘Trump ready’, is varied. While some are critical of prime minister Keir Starmer rolling out the red carpet, others welcome it as a boost for the local economy.A protest organised by the Stop Trump group is expected outside Windsor castle upon the president’s arrival. More

The Independent visited Windsor in Berkshire ahead of Donald Trump’s state visit to the town on Tuesday (16 September), where he and his wife Melania will be staying until Friday (19 September).American flags line the streets, hundreds of armed police guard every corner, and queues of tourists spill out onto the pavements.The mood among local councillors, businesses, and residents, as Windsor prepares to make itself ‘Trump ready’, is varied. While some are critical of prime minister Keir Starmer rolling out the red carpet, others welcome it as a boost for the local economy.A protest organised by the Stop Trump group is expected outside Windsor castle upon the president’s arrival. More

A Labour MP has used the emergency parliamentary debate to defend the process behind Lord Mandelson’s appointment, arguing it is no different to past failures made in the vetting of senior staff.But John Slinger’s speech was branded “risible” by the father of the house Sir Edward Leigh on Tuesday (16 September).He said: “That speech we just heard was absolutely risible, frankly, and I would just give him some advice. You know, don’t do the whips’ dirty work.”Mr Slinger rose again to tell Sir Edward: “Please don’t patronise me.”Sir Iain Duncan Smith then intervened to add: “Advice for the member opposite… those that lick the feet of the unworthy get for themselves nothing but a dirty tongue.” More

Elon Musk and JD Vance are interfering in other countries’ politics in a way that “they would never tolerate” in the United States, Sir Nick Clegg has said.It comes as Sir Keir Starmer faces calls to sanction the tech billionaire, after he called for the dissolution of parliament at Saturday’s rally organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson.The US vice president has previously criticised free speech in the UK, and a legal case in which a former serviceman who silently prayed outside an abortion clinic was convicted of breaching the safe zone around the centre.Speaking on ITV’s Peston on Monday, 15 September, the former deputy prime minister said: “Look at the way in which Tommy Robinson sort of fawned on Musk, look at the way in which Farage fawns about Trump, that, you know, they’re seeking to turn this country into sort of little MAGA Britain.”We need to be just much clearer in calling out that this is in whatever shape or form, a form of extraterritorial interference into our democratic culture… which they would never tolerate in the US.” More

Zoe Gardner from the Stop Trump Coalition has issued a stark warning ahead of planned protests against Donald Trump’s state visit, which they have organised “to give a voice” to the “huge amount of opposition” to his Windsor Castle stay.She said: “Our demonstration will be front page news; the pushback of not just Trump himself, but this far-right politics of hatred.”The group are holding large-scale demonstrations in Windsor on Tuesday (16 September) and in London on Wednesday (17 September)- an estimated 250,000 people marched on the streets of the capital to protest the president’s last state visit in July 2018. More