Burnham calls on Fifa president Gianni Infantino to resign over World Cup sell-off plans – UK politics live | Andy Burnham
Burnham calls on Fifa president to resign over World Cup sell-off plans
Josh Halliday
Andy Burnham has called on the Fifa president Gianni Infantino to resign over his “outrageous” plans to sell a stake in the World Cup.
Asked about the Fifa proposals during a visit to a community centre in Sheffield on Friday, the prime minister said:
“My view is strengthening – this was an outrageous suggestion. The idea that it could even be brought forward, in my view, shows that the Fifa general secretary is the wrong man to lead the organisation.”
When told the Fifa president was sticking to its plans despite a furious backlash from Uefa and other membership bodies, Burnham said: “Oh wow. Have they actually done that? Oh wow.”
Key events
Autumn budget to be delivered on 28 October, chancellor confirms
The chancellor, John Healey, said he will deliver his first budget on 28 October, which he promises will meet Labour’s existing “fiscal rules” and “give businesses and families some of the stability they need to plan for the future”.
Healey, the former defence secretary, will need to make tough choices and reveal details about how he will fund the government’s latest policy announcements, including cuts to VAT on electricity bills and business rates for pubs, as well as commitments to increase defence spending.
He took up his position at a time of soaring energy prices, inflationary pressures and sluggish growth across the UK economy.
Josh Halliday
The Guardian’s north of England editor, Josh Halliday, has looked into Labour’s expected electoral fortunes in the Greater Manchester mayoral byelection race – and how the voting system could work in the party’s favour. Here is an extract from his analysis piece:
The byelection is taking place under the supplementary voting system, which means that if no single party achieves 50% then second-choice preferences will come into play.
Labour is widely seen as having an advantage under this system as it is more likely to be picked as the second choice for Green, Lib Dem and even some Conservative voters. Reform UK, by contrast, cannot count on such broad support.
The More in Common poll found that Labour’s lead would stretch to 30 points if Reform UK finished second, as Craig is the most popular second choice for most Greens and a sizeable chunk of Conservatives.
Anything short of a strong second-place finish would be a blow to Reform UK, which won more than 100 seats in Greater Manchester in the May elections, including all but one of the 25 up for grabs in Wigan – the council of Burnham’s new constituency – and 18 out of 19 in Tameside, both once solidly Labour areas.
One senior Labour figure said the party expected to do much better in these areas in the mayoral byelection, having won back voters who backed Reform UK only two months ago in what many saw as a protest vote against Keir Starmer.
Lowest turnout since first Greater Manchester mayoral election
Counting is under way in the byelection to choose Andy Burnham’s successor as Greater Manchester mayor. Polling stations closed at 22:00pm last night, with the count taking place from 09:00am this morning. We are expecting a result early this afternoon.
As of 14.05pm on Friday, the turnout was revealed as being 25.14%, with 538,659 votes cast from an electorate of more than two million people.
The turnout was the lowest on record for a mayoral role in the region, reflecting widespread voter apathy and disillusion with politcians. At the 2024 election, the turnout was 32%, in 2021 it was 34% and about 28% in 2017 when the first Greater Manchester mayoral election took place.
The contest was triggered by Burnham’s election to parliament last month, after he was elected as the new MP for Makerfield on 18 June, winning 55% of the historic vote.
Polling ahead of Thursday’s vote suggested Labour candidate Bev Craig, the leader of Manchester city council, was on course to win by a comfortable margin.
Her main rival is likely to be either Reform UK’s Sian Astley or the Green party’s Geraldine Coggins. Other candidates were Phil Eckersley (Conservatives), Richard Kilpatrick (Lib Dems), Marlon West (Restore Britain) and Marcus Farmer (Independent).
PM backs stronger regulation of funeral home sector after jailing of disgraced funeral boss
The government has announced a crack down on rogue funeral operators in order to better protect bereaved families after Robert Bush’s sentencing.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will work alongside other departments, including the Ministry of Justice, to develop proposals to improve regulatory standards in the funeral sector. In a press release, the DHSC said:
As part of this work, the Law Commission will undertake a review of the criminal law in relation to the deceased, consider any gaps in existing legal protections and make recommendations on the creation of new offences, if they are needed.
For bereaved families, there can be few things more painful than knowing a loved one was not treated properly after they died. The deceased cannot speak for themselves, which is why clear safeguards, stronger oversight and consistent standards are needed to protect their dignity and give families the reassurance they deserve.
During a visit to Sheffield on Friday, the prime minister said he backed the regulation of funeral homes and mortuaries as he extended his sympathies to the families of victims of the disgraced funeral director Robert Bush, who was jailed for 20 years this afternoon for offences carried out at his business, Legacy Independent Funeral Directors.
“I do back those calls, and there were recommendations in the Fuller Report that will be implemented because we have seen appalling situations like this before,” Burnham said, in reference to the official inquiry into the double killer David Fuller, who was found to have abused more than 100 bodies in an NHS mortuary over a 12-year period.
“I feel for the families and I know it’ll be a difficult day for them with these matters in court again,” the prime minister added. “I was truly horrified when I heard what had happened. Appalling for any family to go through that. This needs a proper response in terms of the regulation needed, to make sure no family goes through that again.”
“People, I think, would assume that the highest standards apply to this area and we’ve got to make sure that they do apply and that there can’t be any repeat of what we’ve seen.”
Priya Bharadia
A funeral director has been jailed for 20 years for leaving dozens of bodies – including a miscarried baby – “rotting” in his mortuary and giving bereaved families the wrong ashes.
Robert Bush, the owner of Legacy Independent Funeral Services in Hull, pleaded guilty to 67 offences spanning 12 years and affecting hundreds of families, including 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial.
Over a five-day sentencing hearing at Hull crown court, more than 80 victims recounted their horror at learning their loved ones had been left “rotting away” inside his funeral parlour. Many broke down sobbing during their statements.
Sentencing Bush, the judge, Mr Justice Hilliard, said: “The defendant was so preoccupied with his own enrichment that he behaved in a shocking and disgraceful way towards the deceased.
“The awful truth is that anyone whose loved one went through Legacy at any time when it was operating can now have no confidence as to how they were treated or whose ashes they have. Unless, of course, they were one of the 30 bodies recovered in March 2024.
“Culpability is of course high because of the gross breach of trust in respect of people who were vulnerable as they were bereaved.”
Zoe Wood
The price of petrol has hit a new Iran War high at UK forecourts, adding to the financial pressure on millions of households about to embark on their annual holiday.
The RAC said that in “very unwelcome news for drivers” the average pump price had reached 160p a litre, reversing the drop down to 151p in early July that followed the announcement of a fragile Middle East ceasefire.
That is the highest level since November 2022, when prices were soaring in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Andy Burnham said the government had offered help to Spain tackling a surge of migrants crossing from Morocco into its Ceuta enclave.
The crisis was “a matter for the Spanish government first and foremost, but it is a cause for concern,” Burnham told reporters.
“And we are making contact with the Spanish government, the Spanish authorities, to provide support but also to understand the implications of that situation.”
Burnham calls on Fifa president to resign over World Cup sell-off plans
Josh Halliday
Andy Burnham has called on the Fifa president Gianni Infantino to resign over his “outrageous” plans to sell a stake in the World Cup.
Asked about the Fifa proposals during a visit to a community centre in Sheffield on Friday, the prime minister said:
“My view is strengthening – this was an outrageous suggestion. The idea that it could even be brought forward, in my view, shows that the Fifa general secretary is the wrong man to lead the organisation.”
When told the Fifa president was sticking to its plans despite a furious backlash from Uefa and other membership bodies, Burnham said: “Oh wow. Have they actually done that? Oh wow.”
Mayors given fast-track route to build new trams and transport links, transport secretary says
The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, has said mayors will be given a fast-track route to build new tramways, roads and light rail in their local areas.
Large transport projects put forward by local leaders need to have Department for Transport approval before they are built.
The cost threshold at which mayors need to seek approval was set at £200m – but Alexander says this will increase to £500m, which will mean mayors can bypass the queue for Whitehall approval on their projects if they cost less than half a billion pounds. These could include tram schemes, metro extensions and station upgrades.
“Today we’re giving local leaders more power to shape transport in their community,” the transport secretary wrote in a post on X.
“Locally funded transport schemes up to £500m no longer need Whitehall approval, meaning fewer projects get bogged down by bureaucracy, and you get the services that make your life easier.”
The new threshold was announced as Andy Burnham unveiled plans to let mayors use a share of the income tax and business rates raised in their areas as part of his devolution push (see opening post for more details).
As we reported in an earlier post, the long-serving Labour MP Diane Abbott has been let back into the party after she was suspended last July after repeating comments about racism for which she had previously apologised.
In a statement posted to X late last night, the MP for Hackney North & Stoke Newington said: “Today, following a process conducted in line with party rules and approved by the independent review process I have been readmitted to the Labour party.
“I have been issued with a formal warning for a tweet I previously posted. By inadvertently referring to the Israeli Defence Force as the ‘Jewish Defence Force’, I used wording that conflates the actions of the state of Israel with the Jewish community. I am deeply sorry for any hurt caused by that conflation and apologise for any hurt caused by it.”
Abbott was first stripped of the Labour whip in April 2023 after writing a letter to the Observer in which she argued that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people experienced prejudice rather than racism. As my colleague notes in this story, she apologised and withdrew the remarks, saying an earlier draft had mistakenly been submitted for publication.
She was readmitted to Labour before the 2024 general election but in a BBC interview last year she defended her original remarks. Seperately, in July 2025, Abbott, 72, referred to the Israel Defense Forces as the “Jewish Defence Force” in a social media post she published. She was given her second suspension last summer, which meant she was forced to sit as an independent MP instead of a Labour one.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the largest body representing British Jews, reacted to Abbott’s readmission to Labour in a statement posted on social media.
“This is an early test of resolve for the Burnham administration,” the group’s president, Phil Rosenberg, said. “It is hard to conceive of the whip being restored unless there is clear and sustained evidence of genuine remorse”, he said, adding that an “unequivocal recognition that antisemitism is racism” is also needed.
