Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics.
Andy Burnham is set to officially launch his campaign as the Labour candidate in the Makerfield byelection this morning, as he seeks a return to parliament after nine years.
Also this morning, the Greens have re-opened its candidate selection process for the byelection after Chris Kennedy pulled out less than 12 hours after being announced as the party’s candidate.
We should be hearing from Burnham from about 10.45am for the official launch, although he has already been pictured out and about canvassing in the Greater Manchester constituency this week.
He is widely expected to challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership if he becomes an MP, but the prime minister has said he will be out campaigning in support of Burnham ahead of the vote on 18 June.
“Yes, and I’ve said to the whole Labour movement that I want everybody to be involved in the campaign, whatever other discussions are going on, it’s really important – that’s a straight fight between Labour and Reform,” Starmer said.
Meanwhile, Kennedy, the Green’s candidate for the byelection, withdrew from the ballot nine hours after being announced, with the party citing “personal and family reasons”.
The Times reported it had approached Kennedy about a series of social media posts he had shared about an attack on Jewish ambulances in north London in April. An Instagram video shared by Kennedy described the arrests of two men over the incident as “total bullshit to keep the false flag flying”, the paper reported.
Read the full report here:
In other news, the Guardian’s business reporter Lauren Almeida reports UK government borrowing hit its second-highest level for April on record, as pressure on public finances continues to grow. There was a £24.3bn deficit in the UK’s finances last month, official figures showed. For more, follow our business live blog here.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
