𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Boy oh boy, what a week! So where do we start, at the beginning, I guess.

There was huge anticipation ahead of Andy Burnham’s first “proper” week as Prime Minister. After meeting with his Cabinet in Downing Street, the Labour leader headed to the Commons for his first appearance at the despatch box in 16 years.

Shortly beforehand I bumped into Wes Streeting – the onetime wannabe PM and now Defence Secretary – breaking the news to him that his former boss, Sir Keir Starmer was stepping down as an MP.

After initially being taken by surprise, Streeting – who helped force Starmer’s downfall by quitting as Health Secretary in May – suggested that Zack Polanski would be a serious danger if he stood in the upcoming by-election.

The Green Party leader has subsequently confirmed that he will stand for the Holborn and St Pancras seat vacated by Starmer.

It was a final U-turn from the ex-PM who had been adamant that he was planning on sticking around until the next general election at least.

Anyway, back to Burnham.

Salivating Labour MPs cheered and hollered as he arrived in the Commons chamber for what they hoped would be the moment of their lives.

Setting out his Left-wing vision for the country, the Labour leader blamed “a series of wrong turns” in the past 40 years for sluggish economic growth.

He blamed everything from Margaret Thatcher to Brexit.

Kemi Badenoch was having none of it, warning: “He is living in the past and wants to take us back to the 1970s.”

Burnham, to his credit, then spent more than three hours in the Chamber answering MPs questions.

One of those MPs in the Commons was new – a certain Nigel Farage.

He was sworn in again after winning the Clacton by-election against Count Binface in the summer.

More about the Reform UK leader later on.

Burnham and Badenoch were back at it the following day.

You can read all about Wednesday’s PMQs in my sketch here. Let’s just say it was a bit saucy!

The following morning I jumped on the train to Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre for Reform UK’s annual conference.

It was supposed to be a bit of a reset moment for the party where they set out what the first 100 days of a government led by Farage would look like.

That was until Channel 4 News aired their bombshell investigation into Reform party funding.

I was having drinks with Farage moments before the news broke on Thursday evening.

He appeared, on the surface at least, to be non-plussed by the looming storm which has resulted in a police investigation and two of his senior aides stepping down.

In fact, Farage was in a relaxed mood as we chatted in a private suite inside the gargantuan exhibition centre. He looked fresh after a summer of turmoil over his party’s donations and personal security threats.

Quite where this scandal leaves him now is hard to predict. I’m told he did some deep thinking after the Clacton by-election but never thought about jacking it all in.

But that was before the latest scandal.