I know today's incident near RAF Fairford will be deeply concerning for local residents and for many people following developments across the country. My thanks go to Gloucestershire Police, Counter Terrorism Policing, our Armed Forces and all those working to keep the public safe. I am especially grateful to those residents who have been asked to leave their homes while precautionary checks are carried out. The safety and security of the public is our first priority, and I want people to know that we will always take every step necessary to protect our communities and keep our country safe. The investigation remains ongoing, and I would urge people not to speculate while the authorities establish the full facts.

Misogyny has seeped into every part of our society, so we must drive change in every part of our society. This weekend, our ENOUGH campaign is at Reading & Leeds Fest, speaking to hundreds of thousands of people about violence against women and girls. mirror.co.uk/news/politics/r…

The Manchester Model. What It Actually Looks Like Up Close. Andy Burnham is asking the country to trust him with Downing Street on the strength of what he calls the Manchester Model. Eight years of integrated public services and progressive governance that he says Britain should adopt nationally. Before the country decides, it should know what that model actually produced. Start with the money. £578 million in public money was lent by Burnham's Greater Manchester Combined Authority to a single developer, Daren Whitaker of Renaker. A tribunal found that GMCA failed to obtain a statement of assets and liabilities from Whitaker before lending, exposing taxpayers to a risk the tribunal described as potentially wiping out the public funds. A meeting between a senior GMCA officer and Whitaker at which loan terms appear to have been agreed produced no minutes or notes. Court papers allege Renaker presented high profit figures to the GMCA when seeking loans and low profit figures to Manchester City Council when seeking exemption from affordable homes requirements. The Court of Appeal is considering judgment on whether the loans were lawful. Out of 11,000 homes built with that public money, 503 are classed as affordable. Less than five percent. Whitaker's personal fortune grew from £140 million to £698 million during Burnham's mayoralty. The luxury towers were marketed to Chinese buy to let investors through Hong Kong estate agents. Hundreds of flats have been sold to Asian investors according to Telegraph analysis of Companies House filings. Now the transparency. In April 2026 the Information Commissioner issued a practice recommendation to the GMCA for failing to publish Freedom of Information compliance statistics. Greater Manchester Police, under Burnham's authority as Police and Crime Commissioner, was separately issued with an ICO enforcement notice for 850 overdue FOI requests, more than 800 over six months old. The oldest had been waiting two and a half years. Now the transport flagship. The Bee Network has absorbed a £30 council tax precept increase in two years to subsidise its operation. The £115 million Clean Air Zone was scrapped after £211 million in public funds was received and only £22.5 million returned. Burnham's own transport commissioner acknowledged the network remains twenty two years behind London. The board of Be.EV, the company holding the Bee Network's public EV charging contract, includes Burnham's wife, who joined the company six years into his mayoralty and was appointed to the board as his Westminster ambitions became increasingly visible. Now the promises. Burnham pledged to end rough sleeping by 2020. Rough sleeping rose. Today 18,000 people across Greater Manchester have no permanent address. He promised Platt Bridge a flood solution by 2018. The area flooded in 2015, 2021 and on New Year's Day 2025. The projected solution is now 2028. When asked on Question Time why he would not apologise, he said it was before his time. He became Mayor in 2017. The promise was made in 2018. Now the politics. Labour's candidate to replace Burnham as Mayor is Bev Craig, leader of Manchester City Council, the body that accepted Renaker's low profit figures and granted the affordable homes exemption. The mayoral by-election on 30 July will be fought under the supplementary vote system rushed through the Lords two days before Burnham's Makerfield victory, designed to consolidate left of centre second preferences and lock out Reform. 108 Labour councillors lost their seats in Greater Manchester in May's local elections. The region Burnham governed for eight years delivered the most devastating local election result in Labour's history. This is the Manchester Model. These are its documented facts. The country is being asked to implement it nationally. It should read the small print first. Bev Craig. Labour's candidate to replace Burnham. Leader of the council that granted Renaker's affordable homes exemption.

I never met Jason Arday, and know nothing about him beyond what I have read, seen and heard in the media. As the debate around him raged in recent weeks, I stayed out of it, precisely because it struck me as one of those occasional frenzies in which facts get lost and humans cease to be treated as humans. I now wish I had reached out to him, tried to encourage him that “this too shall pass.” Many people today, those who knew him above all but also many like me who didn’t, will be feeling sadness and anger that this has all led to his death, a family suddenly without a father, parents without a son. None of us will ever know exactly what was going through his mind, but it is hard to disagree with @MayorofLondon that Jason Arday faced “an unacceptable public hounding and campaign of abuse … pernicious public shaming that other people in his position wouldn’t have faced.” Whatever the truth of the allegations against him, would he have suffered such a hounding had he been white, with short hair? I doubt it. The zeal with which the Trumpian anti-DEI brigade in the U.K. leapt on this story to try to push back the wheel of progress towards genuine equality was horrible. Again, Sadiq is right to say “His death was a tragedy but it should be a wake-up call for all of us.” RIP Jason. And to all of us, if ever you think someone you know may have cause to be suicidal, reach out to them.

I never met Jason Arday, and know nothing about him beyond what I have read, seen and heard in the media. As the debate around him raged in recent weeks, I stayed out of it, precisely because it struck me as one of those occasional frenzies in which facts get lost and humans cease to be treated as humans. I now wish I had reached out to him, tried to encourage him that “this too shall pass.” Many people today, those who knew him above all but also many like me who didn’t, will be feeling sadness and anger that this has all led to his death, a family suddenly without a father, parents without a son. None of us will ever know exactly what was going through his mind, but it is hard to disagree with @MayorofLondon that Jason Arday faced “an unacceptable public hounding and campaign of abuse … pernicious public shaming that other people in his position wouldn’t have faced.” Whatever the truth of the allegations against him, would he have suffered such a hounding had he been white, with short hair? I doubt it. The zeal with which the Trumpian anti-DEI brigade in the U.K. leapt on this story to try to push back the wheel of progress towards genuine equality was horrible. Again, Sadiq is right to say “His death was a tragedy but it should be a wake-up call for all of us.” RIP Jason. And to all of us, if ever you think someone you know may have cause to be suicidal, reach out to them.