July 2026

On June 22nd, Keir Starmer resigned as the Prime Minister after a tumultuous two years in post. His successor would, of course, be Andy Burnham. But since then what else has happened?

Lets break down some of the biggest political moments of July.

July 7th

Nigel Farage, under increasing scrutiny following an undeclared £5m donation from Christopher Harborne, holds a press conference where he announces he will be resigning as an MP or Clacton-on-Sea and in turn forcing a by election he will stand in. He tells everyone watching “ I have done nothing wrong”, insisting this is another attempt by the media and his political rivals to target him unfairly. Farage tells his Clacton-on-Sea constituents it will be a “people versus establishment by election”. Unfortunately for Mr. Farage, Labour, the Conservatives, the Lib Dems and the Green party have all refused to stand a candidate in the by election meaning now his only real competition is Count Binface.

Kemi Badenoch had this to say “We will not be standing a candidate in the fake by-election that Farage is causing to distract people from what is happening.”

July 15th

Keir Starmer attends his final PMQ`s as the Prime minister. This was unfortunately overshadowed by England’s loss to Argentina in the World cup semi final and the stunt from the Argentine players that immediately followed on the pitch.

Speaker of the House Lindsay Hoyle commends Starmer for his steadfast support for Ukraine during his two years as Prime minister. Starmer begins his address by paying tribute to Anne Widdecombe following her murder on July 10th. While praising her “vivid and fearless character” he acknowledges the fact that during the 11 yeas he has been an MP there have been three three sitting or former MP`s murdered “we must do more to defend our democracy”.

Similarly, Kemi Badenoch echoes his tribute to Anne Widdecombe, sharing her belief that Anne had “an honesty that made our politics better”. The two rivals set aside their combative streak for the PM`s final appearance and instead spent the rest of the hour sharing jokes, admittedly most of which were at the expense of Nigel Farage. In the end he addressed Mp`s on both sides of the house, “can I wish you good health and happiness”.

July 17th

Andy Burnham becomes labour party leader. Speaking at the Trades Union congress in London he delivered his first speech as the Labour Party leader where he told his audience that there had been a call for change and that his new constituents in Makerfield had acted “on behalf of forgotten places everywhere”

He also took time to praise Keir Starmer for putting “Labour back in a position to change peoples lives” but admitted that “this generation of politicians - myself included - have failed” . He vowed To change the political direction and “work with other parties where we can”.

He ended his speech working to solidify himself as the man of the people “I am FOR US. for all of us.”

July 20th

Starmer delivers his resignation speech outside Downing street before travelling to meet the king and offering his resignation. In his speech he says “I am confident that Britain is now stronger and fairer than it was two years ago.” He also uses his final speech as the Prime Minister to hit out at Russia and its war with Ukraine. He stated his belief that we have enemies (Russia) that in part wish us harm “because f our unflinching resolve towards the brave people of Ukraine.” After the resignations of John Healey as Secretary of State for Defense and Al Carns as Armed forces Minister, defense has been highlighted as Britain’s top priority and Starmer speech is a reminder of this. Russia is one of our biggest threats and Burnham must act.

Later in the day Andy Burnham arrives at Buckingham palace to meet the king, after which he arrives at Downing street and delivers his first speech as the Prime Minister. Notably he delivers his speech without the lectern that has become synonymous with incoming an outgoing PM`s, but also he appears to deliver his first speech without an autocue.

The rest of the afternoon and early evening is dominated by news of the cabinet reshuffle. Burnhams hires and fires. Unsurprisingly, Rachel Reeves was sacked as Chancellor. Surprisingly though, it was John Healey that took over the most coveted role in Burnhams government. David Lammy, Darren Jones and Steeve Reed were among the other Starmer loyalists to be shown the door while Angela Rayner made a stylish return to government and resumed her role as housing secretary. Wes Streeting of course made a return, but to defense rather than as Health secretary. Shabana Mahmood retained her position as Home secretary and Ed Milliband has been moved from Net Zero to foreign Secretary.

July 21st

Burnham announces his first initiatives: first is a 20% reduction in Tax for eligible hospitality venues effective from April 2027. He has also announced that from October 2026 he will scrap the VAT on electricity bills for each household and from January 1st 2027 until the end of the year all single bus tickets will be capped at £2.

July 24th

No10 North opens in Manchester and government proceedings will operate from Heron House. It is Andy Burnhams desire to propel devolution further and remover more power for London and instead reposition power in the North. The cost of doing this has not yet been made public but it will involve Burnham splitting his time between London and Manchester so the Taxpayer can of course expect to be paying for this.

July 25th

NCA announces it is investigating whether officers illegally leaked financial information about Reform party members, such as Richard Tice.

July 27th

Zack Polanski makes a collaborative post on Instagram containing several images, one of which depicts a man wearing a t-shirt with an image of a guillotine and the words “we`re only making plans for Nigel”. Reform confirmed that they had reported Zack Polanski to the police as they feel this is - as Zia Yusuf wrote on X - “inciting murder.” and “It must be treated as such by the police”

July 28th

Zack Polanski appears on Newsnight following the uproar caused by the post he shared which appeared to take aim at Nigel Farage. Victoria Derbyshire gave Polanski numerous opportunities to apologies for what he aid was a genuine mistake. But he was unmoving in his opinion that he had not “done anything wrong here” but as he believes in “authenticity” it would be false to apologise.

July 30th

Greater Manchester Mayoral election.

July 31st

Labour win the Manchester Mayoral election. Bev Turner is the new mayor with a total of 309,525 votes while Sian Astley from Reform came second with 157,178 votes. For this election a new voting system, SV (supplementary vote) was used. This is a process where voters select their first and second preference candidates, all the votes are collected and if no one has enough overall votes in the first round then the voting is taken into a second round until one candidate holds the majority of the votes and thereby wins the election. The voter turnout was shockingly low. Only 25.1% of all eligible voters actually went to the polls compared to the 32.05% in the previous Mayoral election in 2024.