The future of Greenland’s sovereignty remains a matter for the Arctic territory and Denmark, Andy Burnham has said, in a signal that he will continue Keir Starmer’s approach to threats from Donald Trump to annex the island.

New PM Burnham outlined his position on Greenland in his first call with his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen earlier today, PA reports.

Trump created a rift between America and its European Nato allies at the start of the year, when he suggested he wanted to take over Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. The US president last spoke of his desire for the US to own Greenland at the Nato summit earlier this month.

Giving a readout of Burnham’s call with the Danish PM, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “He reiterated the UK’s stance on Greenland and that its future should only be determined by the people of Greenland and Denmark.

Beyond Greenland, the leaders discussed immigration policy. “On migration, the Prime Minister noted that the UK has learnt a great deal from Denmark’s approach and welcomed the close co-operation between the two countries,” the readout said.

The call between Burnham and Frederiksen was one of several the prime minister held with world leaders on Thursday.

He also spoke with Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, and “outlined his unwavering commitment” to the Aukus submarine programme.”

Burnham and Norwegian premier Jonas Gahr Store spoke about the strong defence relationship between Norway and the UK. Both countries are members of the Nato and Joint Expeditionary Force (Jef) alliances.

Domestic abuse commissioner Nicole Jacobs welcomed prime minister Andy Burnham’s decision to pause the early release scheme for prisoners that was due to start in September.

In a post on social media, she said: “I’m extremely pleased to see the prime minister take swift action to fully pause the early release scheme, which would have seen dangerous abusers released into the community without any protections in place for survivors.

“Ministers should never have underestimated the risk domestic abuse perpetrators pose to their victim.

“They know where they live, where they work and where their children go to school and they will stop at nothing to control, coerce and harm.

“It’s clear the prison capacity crisis is one the government needs to grip, but this should not come at the expense of victims’ safety.”

Ministers have been urged to free non-violent women from prisons instead of dangerous criminals, after the government paused the early release scheme.

Under the new Sentencing Act, set to come into force in September, some 6,000 criminals were set to be released under the early prison release scheme.

In the Lords on Thursday, Labour frontbencher Lord Katz insisted a “sophisticated response” to prison overcrowding is needed, as he was asked “what the hell do [the government] think they’re doing?”

Conservative former solicitor general Lord Garnier said:

There are 3,650 women in prison in England and Wales, and about 2,500 of those people – that’s to say, 70% of the women’s prison population – are in custody for non-violent offences.

If the government thinks it’s better to release violent criminals, child sex offenders, rather than that non-violent cohort of women in prison, and fails to take the opportunity to free up prison places there, by re-rolling those a woman’s prison into a prison for men, what the hell do they think they’re doing?

In his response, Lord Katz said:

It is a complex progression scheme to ensure that we are able to create the capacity that we need in our prison system.

“There aren’t a lot of easy options, but also there are more sophisticated responses to the kind of the very simplistic problem he posed,” he added.

The early release scheme pause comes after Burnham said that he would examine the “the whole of the policy” with the new justice secretary, Alex Norris.

Preparations has been underway for the release of up to 6,000 prisoners across England and Wales from 2 September.

Under the proposals, killers, rapists and sex offenders will be released early into the community and monitored by tags.

The mother of police officer Andrew Harper said on Thursday it was “another letdown” for her son that two of his killers were being considered for early release.

PC Harper was 28 when he sustained fatal injuries while responding to a quad bike theft in Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in August 2019.

Asked about how the family feel about the potential release, PC Harper’s mother Debbie Adlam told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

It just feels like another letdown for Andrew, really. You know, when you look at the horrific way he was killed, we have to live with that, we have to know, you know, that we’ve still got to live a life.

We’ve got to do our best to do a life as best we can for him and in his name, really.

But alongside that, we live with this horrendous… it’s like a double life almost, the way we actually have to go on, because there’s obviously the loss, and then there’s trying to keep a normality about life.

Angela Rayner has defended accepting a nearly £17,000 severance payment when she resigned from government last year, after returning to cabinet as Andy Burnham’s housing secretary.

Rayner received the payment after resigning in September 2025 from her role as housing secretary, deputy prime minister, and deputy Labour party leader over a row about her tax affairs. HMRC has since cleared her of wrongdoing, and she returned to government on Monday to oversee housing once again.

In her first major broadcast interview since her return, Rayner defended not returning the £16,876 severance payment she received when she resigned. She told BBC Radio 5 Live:

No, my severance payment was given to me at the time. I’d worked in government for a period of time, and then I came out of government for just under a year, I think is the timetable, and I’ll be delivering in government again.

Asked about housebuilding targets, she said:

I’m not going to give you an exact figure today because it very much depends on things like section 106. It depends on where you get the start ups. But we’ve already made a start up through the right to buy receipts…

I’m not going to give you a, since 1952 or since 1963, what I am saying is we will deliver on what we said, but I’m also acknowledging that there’s a huge gulf between post-war and where we are today, which is exactly what you said. I am acknowledging that.

So I could say to you today, yes, we’re definitely going to do it. Of course, the bar is really low is what I’m saying. My aspire is to ramp it up.

The British army has been forced to cancel training for its troops in Kenya after the Kenyan government refused to ratify a bilateral defence agreement.

While the UK government wanted to renew the existing agreement, Kenyan lawmakers had sought changes to give local authorities greater powers to hold British soldiers accountable for any offences committed in the country.

According to the Kenyan news outlet the Daily Nation, the dispute centres on which cases Kenya will retain primary jurisdiction over, while the amount of money Britain pays Kenya to host the training camp has also been a sticking point.

The chair of the Kenyan national assembly’s defence, intelligence and foreign relations committee, Nelson Koech, said the two governments are “actively engaging to address these outstanding issues”.

As a result of the Kenyan government’s decision, a planned exercise involving the 1st Battalion the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, which was due to begin in September, has been cancelled.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “The UK highly values its relationship with Kenya, which is underpinned by mutual benefit, respect and cooperation. The UK-Kenya Defence Partnership is one of the great strengths of our relationship. Our joint training and operations with the Kenyan Defence Forces are keeping both Kenyan and British people safe.

“It is with regret that the necessary licences required to allow training to take place in Laikipia later this year have not been forthcoming. As a result, the planned training will now be conducted at an alternative location outside Kenya.”

Andy Burnham will hold his first meeting at No 10 North in Manchester on Friday, PA reports.

Burnham told the Hare pub in Harlow, Essex on Thursday that “the whole purpose of No 10 North is to put more power into every postcode in the land, including the postcodes of Harlow.”

“How do we get power out of Whitehall and Westminster, into the hands of people at a local level, so that they can make a difference and turn things around?”

Gambling arcades may be among the businesses whose business rate relief will be cut in order to fund the 20% reduction for pubs, clubs and live music venues, Andy Burnham said Thursday.

The prime minister told reporters that the reduction for pubs, clubs and live music venues will be funded “from within a change to business rates, because you know you can’t see all businesses the same”, PA reports.

While some businesses “do real good”, other businesses “can cause social harm”, Burnham said. “So adult gaming centres on high streets can often bring real harm to communities. Then people will see the vape shops that often don’t add much to community life and cause other issues too.

“So it’s about developing a business rates regime where we really give incentives to support the businesses that bring benefits, and look differently at those that cause social harm, and that’s the change that we will bring through.”

After the news that Anas Sarwar is heading to Westminster to join Andy Burnham’s government as a trade minister, the search is beginning for Scottish Labour to find a new leader.

By leaving his seat in the Scottish parliament to take up a place in the House of Lords, Sarwar has cleared the way for his former leadership rival, Monica Lennon, to fill the vacancy at Holyrood.

Lennon, who first became an MSP in 2016, stood against Sarwar on a leftwing platform in 2021 but lost her re-election bid in May this year to an SNP candidate. She is set to take up Sarwar’s place on the Glasgow regional list and confirmed that she would not “rule myself out of anything right now”.

PA are also reporting that other candidates may include Scottish Labour’s finance spokesperson, Michael Marra MSP, and the Glasgow MSP, Paul Sweeney.

Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and current acting leader in the wake of Sarwar’s resignation, Jackie Baillie MSP, has already ruled herself out of running for the role.

Andy Burnham must detail how he will pay for his policies including the business rates cut, the Conservatives have said.

Tory shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said:

Whilst any support for Britain’s hard-pressed businesses is welcome, once again this government has been found wanting on both the detail and funding for this policy.

We are days into the Burnham premiership and as yet the government has not been able to credibly explain how it will fund any one of its ‘new’ policies.

That undoubtedly means more Labour tax rises that families and businesses across the country cannot afford.

Only the Conservatives have a fully funded plan, backed by a £47bn savings plan, to abolish business rates entirely for the vast majority of high street businesses.

Badenoch has said she is worried about a lack of co-operation with Israel amid a shift in stance on Gaza under Andy Burnham.

The Conservative party leader told a press conference: “I think that yet again this is a government and a prime minister and a defence secretary and even a foreign secretary that have the wrong priorities.”

Badenoch added: “This excessive focus on what’s going on in Israel and Palestine is because that’s what their backbenchers are concerned about.”

Andy Burnham’s new cabinet is “terrifying” for its lack of private sector experience, Kemi Badenoch has said.

The Tory leader told reporters: “They are all equally terrifying, and they are terrifying because I think apart from one or two people, everyone in Andy Burnham’s cabinet has come from a charity, third sector, trade union, or worked for a Labour MP background.

“These are not the people that are going to turn the country around. You need a much broader spectrum of people.”

Badenoch also said new energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh was “possibly worse” than her predecessor Ed Miliband, because “she wants net zero by 2030”.

She added: “These plans are not possible; they are just slogans.”

Badenoch called on prime minister Andy Burnham to get “serious” about cross-party work as she criticised his lack of response to her letter on the issue.

The Tory leader told reporters after a speech in central London:

We’re very willing to work cross-party to tackle the big issues, but they need to be serious about that.

What I’m not going to do is just write him a blank cheque to do whatever he wants. We need to agree on the things that need dealing with. We need to fund defence. We need to cut welfare. If Andy Burnham doesn’t want to do those things, then I don’t think he’s serious about working cross-party.

I’ve written him a letter offering to work cross-party. As I said in my speech, he hasn’t replied to the letter, although he has replied to the tweets and he’s done lots of memes and jokes. But I think it’s time for him to start getting serious.

Badenoch also said “I’m always ready for an election” and “we have a plan for both” a vote and for government.

Kemi Badenoch is speaking in central London at the moment and is expected to say that Andy Burnham is “still thinking like the mayor of Manchester”.

“Going by what he’s announced so far, Andy Burnham’s ambitions for Britain are too small,” she was expected to say.

We’ll have any interesting news lines from the speech here but in the meantime you can follow along via the video below:

However, a hotel owner has said that the 20% cut to business rates “won’t make any material difference” after the rates were re-evaluated and increased for some in April.

Asked about the new policy, Steve Perez, who owns two hotels, both including a pub and a restaurant, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

Our business rates went up to about 130% [in April].

So this tiny, well, obviously it’s welcome £1,000, but this won’t make any material difference to any pub.

And it’s interesting to know that they haven’t talked about restaurants and hotels because bear in mind most pubs these days serve food, many pubs also have accommodation.

And we’ve had increases in national insurance, we’ve had the EPR, the tax no one’s ever heard of – extended producer responsibility.

And it’s a little bit like the supermarkets putting up the prices and then saying they’ve reduced them.

Tina McKenzie, the policy chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, welcomed the proposal, but said it must be a “downpayment” on further action to help small businesses more broadly at the next budget.

She added:

Failure is not an option.

We are encouraged at the signal from the prime minister today, instructing his government to plan for a significant increase in small business rates relief at the heart of the next budget.

This would deliver on promises made campaigning for the role, and fix the damage caused by business rates decisions that sent bills up and are holding back SME growth and jobs in every postcode.

The cut in business rates has been welcomed by the Music Venue Trust, which acts to protect, secure and improve UK grassroots music venues, and called for the same relief to be offered across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Chief executive Mark Davyd said:

MVT warmly welcomes this announcement from the government, and its recognition that grassroots music venues are essential to our local communities.

The 20% additional reduction on Business Rates from April 2027 is an encouraging first step in a range of opportunities available to Andy Burnham’s new team to not just protect and secure live music, but begin to restore its central role at the heart of our towns and cities.

There remain some issues of implementation of previous reliefs, and we will work with colleagues in government to ensure that all grassroots music venues in England are recognised and eligible.

Davyd called for similar action in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, adding:

We call on Senedd, Holyrood, and the Northern Ireland Assembly to swiftly confirm they will match this much needed support through Barnett formula consequentials. Venues in Wales, Scotland and England must be confident of a level playing field of economic conditions for touring across the UK.

Live music is an ecosystem, and we strongly urge the government to reconsider the limit to the eligibility criteria so that all live music spaces of all sizes qualify, supporting jobs, local economies and communities to access live music.

Reynolds also said she would welcome Gary Lineker and other UK-based millionaires increasing the amount they pay into public coffers after they called for a wealth tax.

But she would not be drawn into whether Andy Burnham’s government will consider what they are asking for. She said:

Well, look, it’s day four of this new government, and obviously any major tax changes would be announced at a budget.

I welcome the fact that people of good means are saying that they want to pay more. They can pay more.

There is a link on gov.uk, but look, we have to look at tax policy in the round, and we only make major tax announcements at budgets.

Iain Hoskins, owner of Ma Pub Group in Liverpool, said that an extra 20% relief on business rates would go some way to “chipping away” at the rising cost but cast doubt on how many venues would be covered by the change.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

The worry has been, obviously, in recent years, I mean, when our venues from last year to this current year got revalued, we saw increases of between 100% and 150% on the rates that we pay.

So that just goes to show how much they went up by. And while 20% – particularly if that 20% is on top of the 15% and other help that’s there – that can be very meaningful for businesses, independent businesses such as mine; I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but the increases were so huge last year that now we’re sort of chipping away at some of those increases.

He added:

We’re not actually … getting better value than we had before. We’re still having to find extra money for these business rates. But you know, it is a relief that actually some of that is mitigated quickly. 20% isn’t an insignificant figure.

Andy Burnham said it was time to support vanishing “cherished local spaces” with his business rates reduction.

The prime minister wrote on X:

I’m giving thousands of pubs, clubs and music venues a 20% cut in business rates.

I won’t stand by while these cherished local spaces disappear, replaced by boarded-up windows and ‘For Sale’ signs.

They’re the heart of our communities and it’s time we backed them.