but is his own party, let alone the country as a whole, ready for his brand of radicalism? andy burnham, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much. now, mr mayor, you have had six years in thisjob and you came to it with very big ambitions. do you think you have made a difference? i hope so. i think manchester today, in 2023, is different from the city i came to in 2017. you just need to look at the skyline of manchester city centre to see that difference.

the city is growing in stature, physically, but i think also in terms of its reputation, both in the uk and around the world. this was, obviously, the home of industry going back a couple of centuries. hit a decline in the second part of the 20th century, but manchester is most definitely back. and i think there is a lot of energy flowing around the city right now. but i guess we have to measure your performance against promises, and you made some key promises. one was on housing — tackling manchester's housing problems but, in particular, tackling the number of people sleeping rough on the streets, the number of homeless people in the city. sure. if you look at the latest report from the respected housing charity shelter, they say that the number sleeping rough have gone up in the last year, that manchester's rate of homelessness is far worse than the national average, and that, as they put it, it is the most problematic city

in the north—west of england. so, you failed? no, i don't accept that. when you are a successful city that brings extra pressures and extra challenges, but, no, the commitment i made was on rough sleeping. and on rough sleeping, we do a count every month. we are holding the numbers, in the high double figures, that position has been maintained through the cost of living crisis. to be honest, we thought the numbers would go up but they have not and the reason why they have not is as mayor i came in and said i wanted to offer everybody forced to sleep rough the chance of a bed every night so we have that scheme in place. it supports around 600 people every night in our city region. and the point is this, i cannot stop people going onto the street because those are circumstances beyond my control, but what i can look you in the eye and say everybody who goes on the street currently, we can offer them

accommodation on the same day. and i believe that honours the commitment i made. obviously, the bigger question of homelessness and housing shortages is something, again, that i do not have the full means to deliver, but on rough sleeping we have made a real difference. that phrase you used "i don't have the full means to deliver", that's a very interesting phrase. does that apply, too, to your promises to clean up manchester's air? because if we look at manchester today, again, its record over the last six years is poor, and the scheme that was supposed to be put in place this year, a clean air zone, has basically been suspended. well it's because the pandemic changed things. so, we were required by the government to put in place a scheme to clean up the air across our ten boroughs because all ten boroughs received a legal direction to act from the government, and we worked with the government in good faith. but what we found was, through the pandemic, the cost of vehicles shot up, the order books became full

so people could not buy vehicles, and what we would not do here is hit people with the tax they could not avoid. so we went back to the government said, look, this scheme can't proceed now because the world has changed, post pandemic, and we are currently in that position where the scheme is under review. you are in a crazy position. where you've got signs across manchester telling people there is going to be a clear zone and they need to be aware if they are driving a commercial vehicle of a certain age they will get a charge and those signs are completely redundant now because the scheme is not happening. you are the mayor, you have these excuses, but the people of manchester will think, "this guy, he's failed". they are not excuses, to be honest. we were required to take measures to clean up the air and have a clean air zone, but we went back and said, "we cannot do this without punishing people who are already struggling in a cost of living crisis". it was myjob to stand up

for the people of greater manchester and i did in that going back to the government saying, "look, not now, and actually we think the right way to net zero is not to hit people with a big stick and hit them with taxes they cannot avoid, the best way to do it is to do it via incentives, support people who want to make the change to make the change". i think more broadly there is a big point there, if, as the uk or as a world community, we try and punish people to net zero with taxes or say, "no, you cannot do that thing, like doing any more", then i think we may not get the level of pace on this journey that we need. i believe in an incentives based approach, and that's what we're trying to do here. it depends how you look at a problem like environmental clean—up. isn't the biggest punishment for the people of manchester they are still breathing an unacceptably dirty, polluted air? you are implying we're doing nothing and that is not true. we are undertaking, in greater manchester, we are months away from the start of it, the biggest transformation

of public transport in england outside of london in three decades. i have already taken the decision, i am the first mayor in england, outside of london, to take the decision to put buses back back under public control and as it stands today, i am purchasing electric buses in large numbers because they will come in to a reform system that starts in this september called the b network. and my officials tell me the buses in our ten boroughs are the biggest cause of polluted air and those buses will be changing dramatically later this year. are you, these days, seeing yourselves as much more of the mayor of manchester, committed and driven by that sense of commitment to place, than you see yourself as andy burnham, the senior labour party politician. in other words is political partisan politics less important to you now,

and this commitment to manchester, fundamentally what drives you? that is perceptive, absolutely, that's the way i do see myself. when i came to the end of my 16—year journey in westminster, i tried to advocate for the north of england within that system and perhaps people may remember, some people may remember, that alongside others i worked to have the truth told about the hillsborough disaster. the very fact that an entire english city was crying injustice for 20 years, tells, and nobody at whitehall as far as i could tell was listening, tells you that the north does not get heard in the same way in the westminster system as other parts of the country. right. cos it's interesting to me that while you have been in power in manchester, the conservative party, the enemy as far as you are concerned in terms of your partisan political colours, the conservative party has made

commitments to levelling up, to the northern powerhouse, political program as they call it. and there are people like michael gove in government whom you have said, "makes important things happen". "when michael uses his power to try to get things done, it is a pleasure to work with him". so you are now giving this conservative government quite a lot of credit? i will always give credit where it is due. when i left westminster i took a vow that i would notjust play the usual point scoring game. i said publicly that where the government gets it right, i will say so. but when they do not, i will call them out with all of my political, sort of, experience and knowledge. and i did that during the pandemic when they tried to treat greater manchester citizens as second—class citizens. i will never stand for that, and i called them out as loudly as i could. but, no, where they get it

right, i will do that. i learnt in my time in westminster and i have talked about the experience of working on hillborough. when i reached across the house and worked with theresa may, that was when progress gets made. and my experience in politics has shown me that. when i came into this role, i decided it was time to do something different. there was no point repeating the point scoring of westminster through these new devolved structures, so i decided to take a place first rather than party first approach. when you speak with a place first perspective, i think you can get more authority, i guess, in what you're saying because you are speaking for everybody here, the way the vast majority of people here feel, however they vote. and i'm conscious the two elections i have stood to be mayor of greater manchester, people beyond my own party have given me their support. so i am ever conscious of that when i speak for this city region. but i think that gives the voice more, if you like, more authority because of that place first approach.

what you did say earlier this year which was interesting in terms of this debate about partisanship and how it works is, earlier this year you said "i do not think any of the parties", you meant the two main parties, labour and conservative, "i don't think either of them are cutting through to the extent that is needed to give true voice to the feelings that people have at the moment." you said that early this year do you still think that is true? do you still think that your party, the labour party, is not truly, truly, cutting through and giving voice to the feelings of the people of the north—west, for example? i think it was a reflection of where we where last year, and the part of the cycle we are in, the mid—term cycle. always oppositions will say more and more the closer we get to a general election. but would you accept that in politics what you need especially as an opposition party after the enemy has been in power for a number of years,

what you need is a big, a galvanising idea? do you think the labour party today has that big, galvanising, idea? yes, i do, and i will come onto it. i also believe people are going back to labour. the polls show that. people are ready to, well, people want change, i think. the next election is going to be a change election. i think the galvanising idea is around more devolution, that has been a very... really? that is the galvanising idea? more power for people and places to improve the things that they care about. i think that is a galvanising idea. i think there is a lot of unhappiness, and we saw this with the brexit referendum. that, i think, revealed a sense of alienation, neglect, in large parts of the country. i think the idea of giving more

places and the people who live in those places more power to change things, i think can be a galvanising idea. i do not think you can run the world top—down in the way it used to be run, that was a very 20th—century idea. i think in the 21st century its cities like this one that we are sitting in now that are leading the way, that are, kind of, bringing forward new ideas, the new thinking. and the more you empower these places, the more they will do. and, actually, that will mean a resurgent north of england, and people do get excited about that. you know american politics quite well. look atjoe biden. joe biden, a moderate, a centrist democrat, has committed $400 billion to his inflation reduction programme, which, essentially, is mostly about investment in green technologies. where is keir starmer�*s equivalent of such a big idea? you mentioned it, i think the whole drive to a green economy. but it's been delayed!

it has got to be credible, hasn't it? it has been delayed by a couple of years. is that a great slogan to put on the next labour election campaign? "we have a big idea but by the way, we're not to do it for a while." it's a balance, you have to have a big idea that is deliverable, and that is the reality of it. if you think about that issue and what it could mean for the north of england, if you were to really proceed with that change it could re— industrialise the north of england in a way that brings jobs that will last the rest of this century. now that is a very big prize. it is only the labour party that is talking seriously, on a biden—like scale if you like, as to how that is actually done. there's other big proposals out there,. there is a commitment from the labour party to renationalise the railways, that is a very welcome commitment. that is a pretty big idea. but there was a much bigger idea in the last labour party manifesto, which wasn'tjust to nationalise the rail industry but to nationalise

key utilities as well. kier starmer supported that at the time but he has walked away from it. the problem being, that manifesto, to make my point, had good things but too many things, and it therefore lacked credibility with some people. just to be clear, you still support the idea, do you not, of putting back into public ownership key utilities, energy provision, water as well? in a realistic way because i think we sold off control of the basics in this country. as i say, we deregulated buses, we privatised trains, energy systems, and people are paying high prices for energy now because there is not enough public control over prices. take another example. water, where, again, privatised without the necessary regulatory control. we have reached a position in britain today where people cannot afford buses nor trains,

cannot afford energy, and we see raw sewage pumped into our rivers and in our seas. tell me that that is a good place to have ended up. we need more public ownership and more public control of essentials. let's briefly discuss brexit. you were a remainer. keir starmer was a remainer. but kier starmer, in recent months, has made it plain that he is not interested in reopening, not just the debate about whether britain should one day return to the eu, but he is not even interested in opening up a debate about whether britain should try to get a deal, a bit like norway or switzerland, where it is in an economic area with the eu and itjoins the customs union, the single market. he does not want to discuss any of that. do you think that's mistake? i don't think it is quite fair, if i am honest. there definitely has been a signalling of a different, less sabre rattling tone.

well, forgive me, but i will give you a quote from starmer. "britain's future is outside the eu, it is not in the single market. "it is not in the customs union, it is not in a return to freedom of movement. "all those arguments are in the past where they belong." absolutely. we cannot keep rerunning this debate and ignore some of the other issues that need to be addressed. if britain does get into a position where we are constantly debating, we will not move forward. but you mention those things, you can leap back to those things. they have been settled in this period that we are in, but you can have a different relationship with europe than the one we have seen in recent times where it was all about positioning against the french and challenging the irish government. unhelpful rhetoric when you sit in a position like i do where we want good relationships with ireland, a place that has strong bonds with the north—west of england. or we do want to work with our

colleagues in germany, as we do. we need to move beyond that phase that we have been in where there is this pointless posturing in europe and get to a more practical space where we get arrangements that work better for people. before we end, let's talk about the way the labour party works. you are now looking at it from manchester, not from westminster. but what we see in london, and in starmer�*s party headquarters, is an obsession with discipline. jeremy corbyn, for example, the left of the labour party, the leader, as you said, in 2019, led labour to a significant defeat. he's been told he cannot fight his constituency. and people who support him in the party, are it seems, being either rooted out or being told they cannot stand for significant position. do you worry about a witch—hunt

being led by starmer and his loyalists? i worry that things become too factional between left and right of the party, and i have often felt in my political career that i have lived in the middle of those two groups. i came into politics as somebody who was, if you like, a loyal labour background and arrived in parliament and was a little surprised at times at the ferocity of the to—ing and fro—ing between, if you like, factions on both side of the party. and i think the risk in this moment is that the party becomes trapped in that kind of situation and misses people in the middle who want to focus on what it is we need to do to answer the concerns that people here in greater manchester and beyond have. i think the focus needs to stop being internal and become relentlessly external,

and it needs to be about all sides of the labour movement starting to pull in the same direction towards, hopefully, a labour victory in 202a. do you think there a degree of insecurity in the leader's office right now? not so long ago you appeared to be blaming unelected people in their 20s and 30s around kier starmer who think they know it all and think they are the bees knees. "it would be nice", you said, "to have support here in manchester from the national office". i think what happens is, because i've been there, is that there is an anonymous briefing culture in westminster that is one of the most unattractive things about it. have you been briefed against? recently, yes. why do you think they do that? i am not going to be so poker—faced as to say

did not happen in the past. it did happen in the brown and the blair governments, it happens, but it is not attractive particularly where you have elected politicians out and trying to do a job. i made the point that i was out doing a positive thing on technical education, a big reform we have bringing through here, ending the domination of english education by university route and getting focused on technical education. it is hard when you are out there to read some of the stuff in the papers. let's be blunt. do you think some people in the national labour leadership see you something of a threat? you are a very high profile figure with your own platform here in manchester, and they see you as a threat. i don't think so because i've said i am standing for a third term and i am. i'm making preparations to be here for the long—term. i know you've said that, but you've also said you remain interested in national office and that if the time was right, and conditions were right, you would consider another run for the leadership. i think the difficult thing

is that people, sometimes, in westminster think that i am still talking in the same code that people in westminster. if i am asked a direct question, and i hope i have shown it in this interview, i try to answer it honestly and i will not say that i will rule out going back there one day but there is no intention right now. i am really focused on what i am doing here. i am standing for a third term and i do not know if it comes over but i am more energised and happier in what i am doing than i have ever been because of the nature of devolution. sometimes i felt like an outsider in westminster, something of a fish out of water. for somebody from these parts it was not my natural habitat and at times i felt it hard to fit in, and in my lateryears where i was wanting pursue issues like hillsborough and other issues, the way social care is provided, i often found that i could not speak in an interview like this with my own voice in the way that i wanted to speak, in the way of toeing the line and voting in a certain way.

i feel if you spend a long time in the westminster system, it can make you appear a different person than you actually are because you always have to stick to a certain line. the big theme in this interview has been how you best be a different maker in politics and isn't it the truth that despite all you are committed to achieving in manchester, ultimately if you want to make the biggest difference you will have to return to westminster. this is where everybody in the uk and outside needs to focus because implicit in the question is that westminster is the only show in town. that is implicit, and that is the problem. that is the problem with the united kingdom because we have an over centralisation of political power in one place. and that over centralisation creates the unhealthy culture, the abuse of that power and the anonymous briefing. that is the problem. and i decided to leave that system, with the mayor of liverpool city, we did it together, to create

something new, to rebalance politics in this country, to give the regions of this country and particularly the north that has been long neglected, a louder political voice than it has before. and that is the something new in british politics right now. the places that westminster has always liked to try and pat on the head are answering back. they don't like it but we are answering back and it will not change. 0ur voice is only going to get louder and that is actually the most interesting thing happening in british politics right now. there we have to end but andy burnham, i thank you very much forjoining me on hardtalk. thank you very much.

hello. the warm weather is set to continue, but you might be thinking more about the rainfall by now. it's notjust our parks and gardens that are desperate for the rain, but of course, our wildlife. and there is some rain on the horizon if i show you what's going to be happening over the weekend. well, this low pressure here will continue to push warm air in our direction, but also a lot of moisture and perhaps more widespread storm clouds than of late. but, again, not everybody�*s going to get the rainfall. hopefully, it will be a little more widespread and hopefully it'll fall at the right time and not on your barbecue. anyway, let's have a look at the forecast for the short term. so a lot of clear weather first thing in the morning. temperatures will be around the mid—teens at 7am on thursday. and then basically it's blue skies steady as she goes through the course of the morning and into the afternoon. now, fairweather clouds will be bubbling up and some of them will form locally,

at least, into a few storm clouds. and we could see some thunderstorms developing around the north and the west highlands. temperatures in glasgow up to 26 degrees celsius. a warm day for northern ireland, too. also, perhaps, one or two showers and the odd rumble of thunder, maybe across wales, maybe the midlands and also in the southwest of the country. but the vast majority of us are in for another very warm and sunny day with highs approaching the high 20s. now, here's the weather map for thursday into friday. low pressure to the west and south west of us is nudging in. it's pushing that energy in, that moisture, those clouds. but you can see there's not too much rainfall at all. in fact, we'll see a few maybe reaching parts of northern ireland and western areas of the uk. but, again, many of us are in for a dry and very warm day on friday with temperatures typically in the mid 20s. and notice just how much warmer it's also getting because of a change in the shift in the wind direction across the north sea coast. now, here's the weekend. that low pressure

is much closer to us. but look at that. some storm clouds coming in from the south, and this could bring some appreciable rain to at least some parts of the country. it's not guaranteed, but i think quite a few of us will get the rainfall. so we'll have to wait till saturday, some of us sunday, and into next week. but in the very short term, it remains very warm and of course, very sunny. bye, bye.

welcome to newsday. reporting live from singapore, i'm monica miller. the headlines. almost 80 migrants have died and more than 100 have been rescued after their ship capsized off the coast of greece. thousands gather for a vigil at nottingham university for the victims of tuesday's attack that left three people dead. we have an exclusive report from inside north korea, where people tell us that food is so scarce, their neighbours are starving to death. and football fans in beijing prepare for a visit from lionel messi and his world cup—winning team.

live from our studio in singapore.