Wes Streeting has called for the UK to rejoin the EU as he laid out his bid to No 10 in a much anticipated speech this weekend. The former health secretary said he will be running for Labour leader after dramatically quitting his role as a Cabinet minister earlier this week. He said leaving the EU was a “catastrophic mistake” as he stressed it was time for the UK to build a new “special relationship” with the Union. Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, accused Mr Streeting of “re-opening the Brexit wars” in a move she found “a bit odd”. It comes as Andy Burnham said he is standing in the Makerfield by-election to "save" Labour, warning that the party has "not been good enough". Mr Burnham is expected to drop his call to reverse Brexit, as allies of the mayor are reported to have been told he is not going to be “going big on Europe” in his pitch to voters and the country.Ms Nandy said the Makerfield by-election will be a "tough fight" for the Greater Manchester mayor. Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 May 2026 11:05Badenoch 'shocked' Reform UK deputy leader refused to condemn racist commentsConservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said that she was “really shocked” that Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice refused to condemn comments made by a council candidate that Nigerians should be melted and used to “fill in the potholes”. The remarks were reportedly made on social media in 2024 by Glenn Gibbins, who was elected as a Reform councillor in Sunderland in the recent local elections. Mrs Badenoch told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “I think that was a disgusting comment that that Reform candidate made, and the Reform (deputy) leader… Richard Tice, wouldn’t even condemn it. “That’s what I’m worried about. People say all sorts of stupid things, they should get slapped down when they do that. “We cannot have a climate of violence against people based on their ethnicity in this country, but you need the leaders of the party, you need the senior ones, to be able to say that’s not what we’re about, that we’re very much against it. When they don’t say that, then we need to be worried. “And I was really shocked when Richard Tice was interviewed that he would not condemn those comments.”Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 May 2026 10:47Jess Phillips said Starmer should not fight to remain Labour leaderJess Phillips said the prime minister should not fight to remain Labour leader if there is a contest. The former minister told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg she believes there should be a leadership race, but when asked if Sir Keir Starmer should stand, she simply said: “In my opinion, no.”(PA Archive)Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 May 2026 10:31Lisa Nandy rules out standing in a Labour leadership contestLisa Nandy has ruled out standing in any Labour leadership contest. Asked if she would rule out standing in a future contest by the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, the culture secretary, who ran in the last Labour leadership election, said: “Yeah, I would. I said at the time that never again. I mean, I can’t say it’s an enormously enjoyable experience.” The senior Labour figure added: “I honestly think that Keir, I mean he won that contest fair and square in 2019, he won the election. We owe it to him to pull together as a team. “But I make no apology for saying, and he agrees, that Andy Burnham and other people from other parts of the country are really important voices of all of that. “I think now is the time to demonstrate to the country that we can reflect the whole country, that we can be bigger, more urgent, more fundamental, bolder in the change that we offer, and that we are the answer to the problems in people’s lives.”Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 May 2026 10:15Labour leadership speculation has been 'froth and nonsense'Speculation about a Labour leadership contest has been “froth and nonsense”, a senior Cabinet minister has said. Lisa Nandy was asked on Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips whether she believed Sir Keir Starmer will resign as prime minister by the summer holidays. The culture secretary replied: “No, I don’t. “I have spoken to the prime minister several times over the last week and he was very clear with the Cabinet on Tuesday that if people want to challenge him there is a process for doing that, there is a way to trigger a leadership contest, to be leader of the Labour Party and to succeed him as Prime Minister. “Nobody has done that yet, despite the absolute feverish speculation. “Every hour on the hour for the last week I’ve read that Wes Streeting was about to launch a challenge; that Andy Burnham was about to contest every seat in Greater Manchester, including my own; that Angela Rayner was written off, that Angela Rayner was now challenging; and most of it has turned out to be just froth and nonsense. “We’ve got to get on with the job.”Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 May 2026 10:00Revisiting Brexit debate is like saying: 'Let's go back to 2015'Revisiting the Brexit debate is like saying “life was fine in 2015, we just need to go back there”, Lisa Nandy said in a rebuke of her Labour colleague Wes Streeting. The culture secretary told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “I like and respect Wes a lot, and I listened carefully to what he had to say yesterday, I think you know I have a different perspective on this, and we do as a government.”(PA)Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 May 2026 09:40Labour should 'come together' to support Burnham- Josh SimonsLabour MP Josh Simons, who announced on Thursday that he would give up his seat to make way for Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham to return to Parliament, said the party should “come together” to back him. He told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “If Andy wins the by-election, my view is that the different bits of the party should come together behind Andy.” Asked if that would mean “the end of Keir Starmer”, Mr Simons responded: “By implication, yeah.”(AFP/Getty)Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 May 2026 09:25Nandy accuses Streeting of re-opening Brexit wars and dubs his rejoin call ‘odd’Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, has accused Wes Streeting of “re-opening the Brexit wars” as she became the first Labour sitting cabinet minister to be tackled over his call to rejoin the EU. She told Sky News that the government was “trying to take a far more pragmatic approach” to bringing the UK closer to the bloc. That was about “repairing some of the damage that was done from a poor Brexit deal to people's living standards in parts of the country like mine, rather than re-opening the Brexit wars”. She added: “I just think it's a bit odd, if I'm honest.” She said that last week parts of the country like Wigan, which she represents, lost a huge amount of councillors to the pro-Brexit Reform. She added: “If rejoining the EU is the answer, then essentially what we're saying to people is life was fine in 2015 we just need to go back there. I know Wes is coming up to campaign in the by-election quite soon. He will hear loud and clear from people in places like Wigan… that is absolutely not the case, and the answer has to be bigger. It has to be the sort of things this government is focusing on, around good jobs, housing, living standards, costs of energy, opportunities for young people.”Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 May 2026 09:01Former Communities Minister says Labour needs to include Burnham in leadership raceFormer Communities Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh, who was the first minister to resign from Keir Starmer's government after the elections, said she doesn’t think Labour can have a leadership race without Andy Burnham.Speaking to the BBC's Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast on Saturday, she said: "I don't think you can have a leadership race without him in because... he commands so much support within the Labour movement."She added that his track record in the city "suggests that you can have a vision, you can have a project, and you can execute it in the way that can lift your communities up".Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 May 2026 08:45Dozens arrested as tens of thousands join rival London protestsTens of thousands gathered in London for Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom march and a pro-Palestine Nakba Day rally, as police mounted a £4.5 million operation to prevent clashes between rival groups.At least 43 people were arrested across both demonstrations for a “variety of offences”, the Metropolitan Police said, adding that while the number “may seem high, to this point both protests have proceeded largely without significant incident”.More than 4,000 police officers were deployed to the capital with 660 being drafted in from forces outside the Met to prepare for an “unprecedented” security operation. Armoured vehicles, police horses, dogs, drones and helicopters were also on the scene.Read more here:Maryam Zakir-Hussain17 May 2026 08:30