From welfare and defence spending to cost of living and geopolitics, we look at the key issues left over from Starmer

Andy Burnham is expected to become prime minister in less than two weeks and has promised to significantly change Labour’s agenda and deliver improvements for all parts of the UK.

But he will arrive with a bulging in-tray of challenges and issues left over from Keir Starmer – from geopolitics to the cost of living. Here is what Burnham can expect to find behind the Downing Street black door.

Collieries turned into retail parks, manufacturing in the doldrums. The problem is vast, but at least the PM-in-waiting sees it: and in that there is hope

In the autumn of 2005, Tony Blair gave one of his most unhinged and fascinating speeches as prime minister. “I hear people say we have to stop and debate globalisation,” he said. “You might as well debate whether autumn should follow summer.” He went on: “The character of this changing world is indifferent to tradition. Unforgiving of frailty … It has no custom and practice. It is replete with opportunities, but they only go to those swift to adapt, slow to complain, open, willing and able to change.”

In the hall, his characteristically messianic delivery ensured this argument landed, but anyone listening from one of the UK’s deindustrialised areas must have received it as yet another punch in the face. For decades, change and adaptation were what they had been living through and reeling from – but where were the rewards? Where, indeed, was any real sign of even the beginnings of the 21st-century prosperity Blair seemed to be offering?

John Harris is a Guardian columnist

Andy Burnham needs the Treasury to serve devolution, raise living standards and renew the economy. The energy secretary meets that test

There are few things on which this column would agree with George Osborne. Voting to remain in the European Union was one. Backing Labour’s Ed Miliband to be the next chancellor is another.

Mr Osborne, whose austerity programme redistributed pain downwards while protecting privilege at the top, had only a week ago on his podcast, Political Currency, dismissed Mr Miliband as too difficult a sell to business and the press. He now recognises what should have been obvious: if Andy Burnham is serious about governing differently, he needs a chancellor with the authority, knowledge and political relationship with the prime minister to bend the Treasury to the project.

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Exclusive: Burnham-aligned thinktank calls for devolution of public services including social care, childcare and skills

Mayors should be given power over a wide range of public services, including social care, childcare and skills, according to a paper written by one of the people helping shape Andy Burnham’s devolution plans.

JP Spencer, the head of devolution policy at the thinktank ThinkLabour, calls for mayors to take control over large parts of service provision in a paper that gives an indication of how the probable next prime minister could seek to shift power out of Whitehall.

The country’s likely next prime minister sketches a post-Thatcherite state built on radical devolution. The test is whether Whitehall yields

Andy Burnham is not prime minister of the UK – yet. His speech on Monday at the People’s History Museum in Manchester might be read as campaign fodder. But given his lack of opponents, the race to be Labour leader looks already over. If he enters Downing Street, the oration would be the most serious challenge to the Thatcherite settlement attempted by any prime minister since 1979. In office, it will only become that if he turns the language of devolution and public control into institutional power.

For decades, Britain has privileged markets over public provision. It weakened local government and organised the state from the centre. And it treated utilities, housing and industry as best disciplined by private ownership and competition. The financial crash forced Gordon Brown into a necessary repudiation of some of those ideas. But that was an emergency. Since 1979, no prime minister has taken on all three pillars of Thatcherism at once. Mr Burnham’s speech does.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

UK’s likely next PM says Westminster system is ‘broken’ and he will oversee a devolution of power and resources

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Andy Burnham will set up No 10 North as the “nerve centre of a rewired Britain” to oversee a devolution of power and resources across the UK that he said would deliver the change the country desperately needed.

The prime minister-in-waiting said the Westminster system was “broken” and that a “more of the same” approach would neither improve living standards or restore people’s faith in how politics worked for them.

Makerfield MP and hopeful prime minister says he will ‘bring about biggest rebalancing of power the country has ever seen’

• Andy Burnham vows to set up No 10 North as ‘nerve centre of rewired Britain’

Asked what she thought of Andy Burnham not taking questions this morning, Badenoch said:

Andy Burnham doesn’t like questions. Nigel Farage doesn’t like questions. Even Keir Starmer in parliament, he doesn’t like questions here.

If you want somebody who can answer questions, please come to me. I will answer all of your questions.

I know that it should not be Ed Miliband. He is the single person who has done the most to deindustrialise our country and make us poorer. He should not be rewarded with an even more powerful job where he can completely bankrupt the country.

Makerfield MP on course to be PM will argue for more decision-making in regions and communities as he sets out 10-year platform for government

Andy Burnham will pledge to deliver “good growth in every postcode” by overseeing a significant transfer of power out of Whitehall to local communities as he sets out his case for a decade as UK prime minister.

In his first major speech since winning the Makerfield byelection, Burnham will argue for decision-making to be devolved to regions and communities to drive economic growth locally, replacing the current top-down national model.

Labour deputy leader says she thinks energy secretary would suit Treasury but ‘tittle-tattle’ over posts ‘unedifying’

Ed Miliband would make a “good” chancellor to Andy Burnham, Labour’s deputy leader, Lucy Powell, has said, before the likely next prime minister’s first major speech on the economy since he returned to Westminster.

Powell, who served as Miliband’s chief of staff in opposition and is close to the former party leader, appeared to endorse him to run the Treasury – although some in Burnham’s camp acknowledge such a move could be politically risky.

Makerfield MP considering northern base for PM’s office among measures to devolve power away from London

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Andy Burnham is planning to move parts of the No 10 operation to Manchester as part of measures to devolve power away from London.

The Makerfield MP will say next week he wants to transfer parts of the prime minister’s office to the north should he become prime minister later this year.

Experiments show 29 animals moved towards a treat-filled bucket 60% of the time when guided by a researcher

When it comes to following human cues, it seems the greatest of all time might actually be the goat.

Researchers have discovered that, like young children, goats are able to follow the direction of a human voice to find an item.

Co-creator of Walking with Dinosaurs returns with Surviving Earth, a blockbuster new series that shows ‘how life bounced back’ from deadly events throughout history

Almost three decades have passed since producer Tim Haines reimagined natural history with Walking with Dinosaurs, using CGI and animatronics to bring to life the beasts that roamed these lands millions of years ago.

With his latest project, Haines is applying that same visual magic to look even further into the past. Surviving Earth, a docuseries premiering on Thursday on NBC, explores eight mass extinction events going back 450m years through the lives – and eventual annihilation – of the creatures that preceded or existed alongside the dinosaurs.

Darren Jones says release will be ‘one of the largest government publications ever laid in this house’

On Friday parliament’s intelligence and security committee issued a damning statement about the government’s response to the humble address requiring the release of documents relating to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US. It said the government was not fully complying with what is in effect an instruction from the Commons. For good measure, the committee also accuses the government of not keeping proper record of its decisions and of doing far too much business by WhatsApp. Here is our story, by Henry Dyer and Paul Lewis.

At 12.30pm Jeremy Wright, deputy chair of the committee and a former Tory attorney general, will ask a Commons urgent question about this. He is asking Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the PM, to reply.

The prime minister said he wouldn’t be setting out a timetable to stand down if Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield byelection

Jakub Krupa writes the Guardian’s Europe live blog.

The European Commission has been asked about its response to the renewed talk about Britain’s potential future attempt to rejoin the European Union – but did not take a bait.

At this stage, there are discussions on closer cooperation in a number of areas, that’s where we are, and that’s what we are doing precisely in preparation for the next summit rather than speculating about big or renewed issues.

We are not there. If we ever are in that situation, I will gladly reply to [this question].

I just wanted to come here to Labour party headquarters to say a big thank you to you. The election results were not the ones that we wanted, they were really tough. But you worked your socks off.

It’s not been easy circumstances in the last 10 days. But you have just got on with the job that we asked you to do.

If you look at just some of the figures that came out last week. We had growth figures that were the best in the G7. That’s because of the hard work that we’ve done in government. On the economy we’ve got ourselves into a good position, having inherited a real basket case from the last government.

The NHS figures were really good, which again vindicates what we did, which was invest in the NHS, which is what we said we would do.

And that’s on top of all the other things … The Employment Rights Act. The biggest upgrade in renters’ rights in a generation.

And then of course all the work that we are doing around child poverty, of which I am really proud. What a game changer that will be for a whole generation and will be measured for years and years to come because the children will feel the impact for the rest of their lives. They will have chances they wouldn’t otherwise have had.

The election results tell us that people are frustrated, they don’t feel that their lives have changed quickly enough.

We need to build up the urgency of what we do. We need a bit more hope in there. And we need to remember at all times what we are here to do. We were elected to government to serve the people of this country.

And I remind myself every day that in July 2024 millions of people voted for us to come into government, to get on with the job, to govern, and to bring about the change that they want.

So I am focused on the job that I was asked to do, which is to serve my country and to carry out my duties as prime minister of this country. Delivering for the very many people who voted us into office, who are saying, ‘just get on with it, get on with the job, get on with the change that I need to see in my life’. And that is what I am going to be doing.

We now have an important by-election coming up. It is Labour versus Reform. We will know very shortly who the candidate is. Whoever they are I am going to support them 100% and I want every member, everyone in our movement, to support them. A Labour candidate to beat Reform. That is the fight that we are in.

You may think you know when someone’s trying to deceive you, but there’s a clever trick very few people are aware of – one that has eluded AI and Traitors contestants alike

Can you tell if someone is lying?

Close your eyes. You’re already twice as good as you were before.

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• Report: Andy Burnham has path to challenge PM but must win byelection first

Al Carns, the defence minister first elected in 2024, will launch his own leadership bid if a contest starts, Sky News is reporting.

Asked about this last night, Carns told Sky: “I’m just a humble junior minister.”

Unless Labour understands that insecurity on an emotional level as well as on an economic one, we will continue to lose voters who would naturally align with us. Working-class voters have not simply left Labour. Many feel Labour stopped understanding their lives, and so they looked elsewhere.

What is the point of Labour if it does not represent Sheffield, Stoke-on-Trent, Barnsley, Swansea and Aberdeen? What is the point of the Labour party if it cannot replace despair and frustration with hope, stability and purpose? The party was founded to give ordinary working people security, dignity and bargaining power over their lives.

Molar found in Siberia features deep hole that appears to show earliest known evidence of dental treatment

Neanderthals used stone drills to treat cavities almost 60,000 years ago in what is the earliest known evidence of dental treatment.

The single molar, which was unearthed in a cave in southern Siberia, features a deep hole that appears to have been created using a sharp, thin stone tool during the lifetime of the tooth’s owner.

Progressive nationalist parties now hold power in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. That will be a challenge for the United Kingdom’s overcentralised state

When the Scottish and Welsh parliaments were created on the eve of the millennium, the then Labour government in Westminster believed that it had engineered a win-win situation. Devolution, it was hoped, would see off any nationalist threat in Scotland and Wales. Meanwhile, the Labour party’s longstanding political dominance in both nations would see it take comfortable control of the two new parliaments.

That was then. Last week’s devolved elections left Scottish and Welsh Labour battered, bruised and humiliated. Plaid Cymru’s historic victory in Wales, and a fifth successive triumph for the Scottish National party (SNP), mean that pro-independence governments are now set for the first time to rule in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast (where Sinn Féin won in 2022). The starting gun has been fired on a new and constitutionally contested era in the politics of the UK.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.