Andy Burnham latest: Greater Manchester mayor set to launch Labour’s Makerfield by-election campaign

The business secretary said “many of the circumstances” in the Labor Party over the last few weeks were “shocking” after Wes Streeting quit as health secretary and called for Sir Keir Starmer to resign.

Peter Kyle has previously insisted Mr Streeting has no plans to challenge Sir Keir Starmer.

Asked whether the decision to resign surprised him, the business secretary told Sky News: “A lot of the circumstances at that moment were shocking because we were at a turbulent time in our politics.

“The Labor Party was shaken by what happened in this election. That was a very clear message.”

He added: “But look how we’re responding. This week alone, we’ve had the highest growth rate in the G7. Small boat arrivals into our country have fallen by a third in the year. Overall net migration to Britain has fallen by two-thirds since the peak.”

Peter Kyle suggested the government would provide targeted support through energy bills in the autumn, but refused to guarantee support.

Asked whether the government could commit to providing energy bill support at a time when oil prices are soaring due to the war in the Middle East, the business secretary told Sky News: “The chancellor has already said that we are looking very closely at the energy costs that arise in the autumn… What we will not do is make the mistakes of Liz Truss, because she has spent £100bn and we haven’t even paid her package yet in terms of the debt she has accumulated.

“But we will be looking, and we are looking incredibly closely, at where these challenges will arise, how we can do this in a targeted and cost-effective way, but also without contributing to the inflationary problems that have persisted for a long time, of course, after the Liz Truss intervention.”

A government minister has insisted that the EHRC’s guidance on the Supreme Court decision on biological sex will be “fairly easy to comply with” and argued that “most businesses will find it quite straightforward”.

This comes despite trans campaign groups arguing the law has been left “confused” by guidance.

“I think the directive is quite sensitive. It’s a very common sense approach and it won’t affect the vast majority of businesses because they will comply anyway.

“There will be facilities that are compliant anyway. In areas that are not compliant, I think the majority of the changes will be pretty light touches like signage.

“So I think it will be pretty easy to adapt to that, and I think the guide is a pretty long guide, but I think most businesses will find it pretty straightforward.”

Responding to the UK borrowing figures, Treasury Undersecretary Lucy Rigby said: “Earlier this week the International Monetary Fund agreed that we have the right economic plan to reduce the deficit.

“We are reducing borrowing and debt through our actions that reduced government borrowing by over £20bn last year, and we are also boosting growth through £120bn of additional capital investment through Parliament.

“Working families have benefited from declines in inflation and cuts in interest rates, and as we face the consequences of a war in which we played no part, our non-negotiable fiscal rules will be even more important to continue protecting them.”

UK government borrowing jumped to a higher-than-expected £24.3bn last month, the second-highest April level in history, official figures show.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said borrowing was a quarter, or £4.9bn, higher than the previous year.

This was also £3.4bn above the £20.9bn forecast by Britain’s independent fiscal forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Latest figures showed interest costs on government debt reached £10.3bn; This was a record high for April and £900 million more than a year ago.