Burnham confirms West Midlands to take public control of local bus network – UK politics live

• The prime minister, Andy Burnham, has confirmed a new partnership between the government and the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) to take local control of bus services in the region. Burnham said the “absolutely massive†move would protect thousands of jobs, which were threatened after the parent company behind local operator National Express indicated it was leaving the market.

• Speaking to the media earlier today, Burnham said “nothing of consequence†was exchanged when he was text messaging somebody impersonating Donald Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles. “All politicians are receiving these pressures and these challenges, but I did everything right. There was a minimal exchange of information of zero consequence, and it was quickly reported,†he told reporters.

• Burnham has said he will present findings on a review of the early release scheme in England and Wales when parliament returns in two weeks' time. Justice secretary Alex Norris is drawing up plans to “maximise public safety and minimise the early release of prisonersâ€, the prime minister said.

• Moscow has threatened the UK with “consequences†after reports that British drones have been used to strike targets on Russia's mainland for the first time. Ukraine used drones made by two UK companies as part of a so-called deep-strike campaign, the Sunday Times reported.

• Ofcom needs to “show more teeth†to stop young people seeing extreme content online, the children's commissioner for England has said. Rachel de Souza said she wants the media regulator to take its responsibilities “seriously†and crack down on companies allowing inappropriate material to be on their sites, PA reported.

• The green energy entrepreneur and Labour donor Dale Vince has urged the prime minister to allow more drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea, in a reversal of his previous position. Vince, who has given more than £5m to Labour over several years, said he had told Andy Burnham that the Rosebank and Jackdaw projects should be approved as long as the oil and gas produced were subject to price controls to make them cheaper than energy imported from overseas.

• Great Britain risks running out of gas in the 2030s despite its growing clean energy sources, unless ministers take “unprecedented†action to guard against a future gas supply shock, according to an official assessment of the country's gas security. The government is considering plans to provide direct financial support to safeguard the country's ageing gas infrastructure after a consultation found that a “high stress scenario†could mean homes and businesses run out of gas within the next decade.

• Burnham is under pressure to intervene in a privately run prison that is seeking to recruit custody officers on zero-hours contracts for the first time across England and Wales' prison estate. Managers at HMP Millsike, a category C prison for 1,500 prisoners near York operated by the outsourcing company Mitie, have signed off online adverts for £25-an-hour prisoner escort roles “on a flexible, task-based basisâ€.

• Forty prominent progressive academics are urging Burnham's government to join a new global push to tackle inequality. The experts include Nobel winner Joseph Stiglitz, University College London professor Mariana Mazzucato, vice-chancellor of the London School of Economics Larry Kramer, and Kate Pickett, co-author of The Spirit Level.

• Disabled bus pass holders in England will be able to travel for free at all hours from April next year, the government has announced. Currently, disabled bus passes are valid for travel only on weekdays from 9.30am to 11pm unless local authorities fund an extension, as Greater Manchester did earlier this year when Andy Burnham was mayor.

• The former head of the civil service Chris Wormald received a record payout, in the region of £500,000, when he was forced out of the top job in Whitehall by Keir Starmer, it has emerged. The unprecedented payment was made after Wormald served just 14 months in the role of cabinet secretary before being replaced by Antonia Romeo.

These are the doggiest of dog days. Times when hours turn into days and almost nothing happens in between. Days of precious R&R, when only a few politicians venture out, and then only to fend off accusations they are doing next to nothing and prove they are still alive. Much like the rest of us. The silliest days of the silly season. Days that are made for men like Richard Tice.

There are some politicians who have the gift of sounding as if they know what they are talking about. There are those who you suspect are bullshitting but still give the benefit of the doubt. Then there are the ones you only have to look at to know they are completely clueless in every way. Never within the same postcode as plausibility. A walking miracle because somehow they have managed to persuade their party association and constituency voters that what they really need is someone who is visibly dim and incompetent. August gives us space to celebrate these men and women. None more so than Dicky. The apex male of stupidity. The idiot's idiot.

It's not clear if there has ever been much point to Dicky. Other than to encourage other halfwits that they can make half a name for themselves in public life providing they are blessed with plenty of cash and a total absence of self-awareness. Dicky likes to moan about diversity, equality and inclusion policies while remaining totally oblivious to the fact that were life to be a genuine meritocracy, he wouldn't even make it to the starting line.

But that's not to say Dicky doesn't have his uses. A man with no idea of his own limitations could be just what Nigel Farage was looking for. The perfect beta supplicant who could be relied upon to do whatever he was told. Just as long as the instructions were crystal clear. There were no complaints from Dicky when just before the 2024 general election, Nige decided he was going to be Reform party leader after all.

Ofcom needs to “show more teeth†to stop young people seeing extreme content online, the children's commissioner for England has said.

Rachel de Souza said she wants the media regulator to take its responsibilities “seriously†and crack down on companies allowing inappropriate material to be on their sites, PA reported.

The commissioner published a report on Tuesday which said some young people were becoming “intoxicated by extremism†and warned of “closed doors and dead ends†for many education providers when they refer young people to the government's anti-terror programme, Prevent.

Her office's analysis suggested seven in 10 (71%) referrals to the programme involved children who did not have a clear ideology, with many linked to exposure to harmful content online such as videos of violence, discussion of weapons and sharing of extreme pornography.

Speaking on Radio 4's World At One, she said:

Most of the material we're talking about these children accessing and seeing is illegal under the Online Safety Act, and I want Ofcom to take its responsibilities seriously and deal with the companies who are allowing this material to be on their sites.â€

Asked if she thinks Ofcom is fit for purpose, she added:

I think Ofcom needs to show more teeth, needs to be stronger. It needs political support behind it. I'm hoping that there is a political will to make sure that Ofcom are stronger on this.

Great Britain risks running out of gas in the 2030s despite its growing clean energy sources, unless ministers take “unprecedented†action to guard against a future gas supply shock, according to an official assessment of the country's gas security.

The government is considering plans to provide direct financial support to safeguard the country's ageing gas infrastructure after a consultation found that a “high stress scenario†could mean homes and businesses run out of gas within the next decade.

A range of measures to support Britain's gas sector is now being considered after most respondents said the industry was not likely to prepare for “low probability, high-impact events,†which could see gas supplies run dry as North Sea supplies continue to deplete.

Three-quarters of respondents agreed with a warning issued last year by the National Energy System Operator that an “emerging risk to gas supply security†could mean that by 2030 homes and businesses would be left without gas during a prolonged period of cold weather.

The green energy entrepreneur and Labour donor Dale Vince has urged the prime minister to allow more drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea, in a reversal of his previous position.

Vince, who has given more than £5m to Labour over several years, said he had told Andy Burnham that the Rosebank and Jackdaw projects should be approved as long as the oil and gas produced were subject to price controls to make them cheaper than energy imported from overseas.

“If we price-control wholesale energy across the board like we have retail, we have to do this to reform our energy system,†he told the BBC's Newsnight programme, adding that the move could help bring down people's energy bills.

“If we are going to use fossil fuels we might as well make them here as to bring them from abroad – that makes more sense and comes to the fore. We will use fossil fuels for a number of years to come and it makes sense to make them here if we can also save money here and create some jobs. I'm up for it.â€

Dale told The Sunday Times in April that allowing new North Sea drilling would be a “betrayal†and urged the then energy secretary, Ed Miliband, to honour Labour's manifesto pledge against new drilling.

The decision on whether Rosebank, Britain's largest untapped oilfield, and another planned North Sea development, the Jackdaw gasfield off the coast of Aberdeen, can go ahead will be a key environmental test for Burnham and risks the first revolt of his premiership. The proposals are both now in the hands of ministers, with the consultation on Jackdaw having closed a week ago.

While no final decision has been made, the prime minister has said he will take a “pragmatic†approach to oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, suggesting he is at least open to the prospect. This is despite warnings that any new drilling there will worsen the climate crisis and leading economists saying that new fields in the North Sea will not bring down UK fuel prices or stimulate growth.

Forty prominent progressive academics are urging Andy Burnham's government to join a new global push to tackle inequality.

The experts include Nobel winner Joseph Stiglitz, University College London professor Mariana Mazzucato, vice-chancellor of the London School of Economics Larry Kramer, and Kate Pickett, co-author of The Spirit Level.

In an open letter, they call on Burnham to sign the UK up to help create a new International Panel on Inequality (IPI), which is being developed at the UN.

“The organising principle of the prime minister's policy agenda – the Makerfield test – aims to ensure that places forgotten by Westminster finally receive fairness after decades of neglect,†they say in the letter.

“While these efforts are commendable, inequality is also a global issue, becoming more entrenched as the geopolitical climate destabilises.â€

They say the IPI will provide “an independent, trusted global evidence base on the causes and consequences of inequality, alongside analysis of the policies that can reduce itâ€. By backing it, they argue, Burnham could “cement the organising principles of his politics globallyâ€.

Speaking to the media earlier today, prime minister Andy Burnham said “nothing of consequence†was exchanged when he was text messaging somebody impersonating Donald Trump's chief of staff Susie Wiles.

“All politicians are receiving these pressures and these challenges, but I did everything right. There was a minimal exchange of information of zero consequence, and it was quickly reported,†he told reporters.

The BBC is reporting that a 62-year-old man who lives near Norwich, and who works at Serco, appeared at Ipswich magistrates court yesterday, charged with misconduct in public office.

Police said he was charged in connection with the release of information related to the location of asylum seekers in Thetford, places which “were later targeted during several nights of violent disorder in the townâ€. He was remanded in custody.

Andy Burnham has said he will present findings on a review of the early release scheme in England and Wales when parliament returns in two weeks' time.

Justice Secretary Alex Norris is drawing up plans to “maximise public safety and minimise the early release of prisonersâ€, the prime minister said.

After weeks of media pressure, Burnham pledged to do “everything possible†to ensure Pc Andrew Harper's killers Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole aren't eligible for early release, PA Media reports.

Pressed on reports ministers are considering exempting prisoners who committed “unlawful act†manslaughter from the scheme, he said “at this moment in time, this is speculationâ€.

A former leading judge has warned it would be “unlawful†to block solely Bowers and Cole from early release while freeing other prisoners convicted of the same offence.

The prime minister has also commented on the announcement that local buses are to be brought under public control in the West Midlands (see post at 12.04 for more details).

Speaking to reporters in Wolverhampton, Andy Burnham said:

This is the single biggest act of public control since I came into office. And the reason I'm here supporting the mayor of the West Midlands, a very big day for the West Midlands, is to prevent services from collapsing, because the bus service here was close to collapse.

And the first reason is to protect what is the backbone of the public transport system here across the West Midlands, serving millions of people. We needed to step in to secure services in the short term.

But longer term, we are now building to a model under full public control, so that people here can get the benefits of that.

Andy Burnham responded to Russia's warnings against London after reports of Ukraine using British-made drones to strike Russian territory. Burnham told reporters:

“This is the UK ​doing what ‌it has ‌long said it would ‌do, which is to support Ukraine 100% against this illegal war led by Vladimir Putin.

“We are providing ‌support so that Ukraine can defend itself, and that's ​been the British position all the way through this conflict by previous prime ministers, it â remains the case with me … We ​are not ​fair weather friends. We ​will be ‌there in ​Ukraine's ​hour of need, and that won't change.†You can read more in our Europe live blog here: