The Press Association has reported that a byelection in Makerfield could cost the taxpayer up to £226,000, the most the area’s returning officer can claim from the Treasury to cover the cost of running the poll.

The cost of a mayoral byelection in Greater Manchester would run into the millions, with the 2024 mayoral election costing the taxpayer £4.7m.

Former health secretary Wes Streeting has voiced his support for Andy Burnham to compete in the Makerfield byelection, describing him as one of Labour’s “best players on the pitch”.

In a post on X, Streeting, a potential Labour leadership challenger, said:

We need our best players on the pitch. There is no doubt that Andy Burnham is one of them.

The Makerfield byelection will be tough. Votes will need to be earned.

Andy is the best chance of winning and that should override factional advantage or propping up one person.

If successful, Burnham is widely expected to challenge Keir Starmer for the party leadership.

Eleven foreign far-right activists have been banned from coming to the UK ahead of tomorrow’s march by supporters of Tommy Robinson, as the prime minister said there was a “fight for the soul of the country”.

Downing Street said Keir Starmer was taking action to “protect British communities from vile hate” amid bans on foreign activists including the US-based extremist Valentina Gomez.

Tens of thousands are expected to attend the self-styled “Unite the Kingdom” march promoted by Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon.

Visiting the Metropolitan police’s command and control special operations room today, Starmer said:

We’re in a fight for the soul of this country, and the Unite the Kingdom march this weekend is a stark reminder of exactly what we are up against. Its organisers are peddling hatred and division, plain and simple.

We will block those coming into the UK who seek to incite hatred and violence. For anyone who sets out to wreak havoc on our streets, to intimidate or threaten anyone, you can expect to face the full force of the law.

My government will always champion peaceful protest but will act decisively against hatred. We all have a responsibility to speak out against those spouting vile divisive views wherever we see it.

We are a country built on decency, fairness and respect, at our best when people from different backgrounds come together in common purpose. That is what we must fight for.

Starmer met police chiefs earlier this morning. Downing Street said that he “made clear he recognises that the majority expected to attend are law-abiding citizens, who want to protest peacefully, and urged everyone attending a protest to act with decency and respect”.

Tomorrow is expected to be one of the busiest days of the year when it comes to policing in London. Many are expected to attend a pro-Palestine protest, while there will also be a presence by anti-fascist protesters organised by Stand Up to Racism.

Keir Starmer spent the morning visiting a south London police station, where he met London mayor Sadiq Khan and Metropolitan police commissioner Mark Rowley ahead of major protests taking place in the capital tomorrow.

Labour’s deputy leader, Lucy Powell, has backed Andy Burnham’s efforts to return to parliament, saying there will be no attempt to stop the Greater Manchester mayor from fighting an upcoming byelection in Makerfield.

Speaking at a Fire Brigades Union conference in Coventry, she said

We could have further to fall as a party and we absolutely need to come back together as one team, because we’ve got to take the fight to [Nigel] Farage. We are at real risk of Nigel Farage walking up Downing Street in a few years time, and we can’t let that happen.

But we’ve got to do our politics differently. We’ve got to end the factionalism. We’ve got to embrace all the different traditions of the Labour party, all the different voices, and bring one team back together.

And that means having Andy Burnham as a key player in that team, in my view. He has now expressed … his view, his desire to come back to parliament … I supported Andy last time he wanted to come back to parliament, and I fully support him wanting to come back to parliament again.

She added that she had it “on good authority” that there is “going to be absolutely no attempt to stop” Burnham from standing, which was met with applause from the audience.

Matt Goodwin, the Reform candidate who came second to the Greens in Manchester’s Gorton and Denton byelection, has ruled himself out of running in the upcoming Makerfield byelection.

Goodwin told the Guardian that he looked forward to supporting a “local Reform candidate” in the contest which emerged as Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s best hope of returning to the House of Commons.

Nigel Farage has said that Reform will “throw absolutely everything at” the contest, which has opened up after the Labour MP Josh Simons stood down on Thursday to allow Burnham to try to challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership.

Simons had a majority of 5,399 in the 2024 general election, with Robert Kenyon taking 12,803 votes for Reform.

Kenyon, who was elected to Wigan Council earlier this month, could stand again and has particularly strong credentials. A plumber, like the Green party’s victorious Hannah Spencer in Gorton and Denton, he has also served in the British army, worked for six years in the NHS and grew up in a staunchly Labour family.

Goodwin said: “I look forward to supporting a local Reform candidate and doing whatever I can to bring Andy Burnham back down to earth and inflict another defeat on this rotten Labour government in their own backyard. Vote Reform.”

In today’s episode of Today in Focus, Guardian columnist Rafael Behr talks through a frantic day that started with Wes Streeting’s resignation as health secretary and ended with the very real possibility of his rival – Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham – returning to parliament.

But what, asks Nosheen Iqbal, do the runners and riders actually stand for? And is there any evidence they could take Labour out of the mess it’s in now?

You can listen to the episode here:

In other news, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper is heading to China in early June, according to Reuters, citing three sources.

The trip to Beijing is reportedly scheduled for 2 and 3 June, where she is expected to holds talks with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. Her trip will also see her in the southern tech hub of Shenzhen for meetings with businesses, Reuters reported.

The Foreign Office has been contacted for comment.

Keir Starmer and Chinese president Xi Jinping announced a reset in UK-China relations in January, pledging greater cooperation on trade, investment and technology after the government approved of plans for Beijing to build its largest embassy in Europe in London.

Luke Akehurst, Labour MP for North Durham and a member of the national executive committee (NEC), said he expected Andy Burnham to be granted a waiver to stand in the Makerfield byelection.

“I don’t want to pre-judge [the NEC’s] decision, but everything I’m hearing suggests they’re going to give him a waiver to allow him to stand even though he’s a metro mayor,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“My sense is things have moved on from the previous byelection in Gorton and Denton and that the obstacles to [Burnham] running are not there if the local party members want to pick him.”

Burnham was prevented by Keir Starmer from running in the Gorton and Denton byelection earlier this year, to the anger of his backers in the party.

UK government borrowing costs have jumped at the start of trading, and the pound has fallen, as City traders respond to the news that Andy Burnham now has a chance to become Labour’s next leader.

UK bond prices have dropped at the start of trading, which pushes up the yield (or interest rate) on these gilts, while the pound has dropped against the US dollar.

Yesterday, UK bond yields hit their lowest level since Monday after Wes Streeting failed to launch a leadership challenge as he quit the cabinet.

This morning, the yield on UK 10-year bond is up 11 basis points (0.11 of a percentage point) to 5.11%, suggesting concerns that the UK could aim to borrow more under a new prime minister.

Thirty-year bond yields are up 11 bps too to 5.76% – not far from the 28-year high of 5.81% hit on Tuesday.

Other government bond yields (such as the US and Japan) are rising too this morning, but UK borrowing costs are moving somewhat more sharply.

The pound has hit its lowest level in five weeks, down more than half a cent at one point to $1.333.

For more updates and other financial news, follow our business live blog here:

What would potential Labour leadership candidates do differently to Starmer?

Wes Streeting’s resignation as health secretary, and the resignation of former minister Josh Simons as an MP to clear a path for Andy Burnham to return to parliament, has brought the prospect of a Labour leadership race one step closer, even if he has not triggered a contest himself.

Almost every critic of Keir Starmer has accused the prime minister of not being sufficiently “bold” in his policy choices. But what would his possible replacements actually do differently? In this explainer, the Guardian’s policy editor Kiran Stacey looks at the stances on key issues of Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting, Angela Rayner and Ed Miliband:

The new health secretary, James Murray, was pictured in Downing Street this morning on his first full day in the role.

He was appointed last night after Wes Streeting stepped down from the position, saying it would have been “dishonourable” to remain in post after he had lost confidence in prime minister Keir Starmer.

Labour MP Josh Simons, who stood down from his seat in Makerfield to pave the way for Andy Burnham’s return, said his decision was one of the “most difficult” he’s made, but that he’s “absolutely” confident the Greater Manchester mayor can win a byelection.

He told the BBC he spoke to Burnham’s team “for the first time seriously about this earlier this week”, adding: “It’s all been incredibly fast.”

The outgoing MP, whose wife recently had their third child, said he will spend more time with his family and help Burnham with his campaign.

To find out more about Simons, who has only been an MP for two years, the Guardian’s Whitehall editor Rowena Mason has put together a profile here:

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics.

Housing secretary Steve Reed, a close ally of Keir Starmer, has been on the media round this morning urging Labour colleagues to put the “country first, party second”, even as he admits the prime minister is “unpopular”.

When asked by Sky News whether replacing an unpopular prime minister is something the party should consider, he said: “Each of the last four prime ministers, in turn, has been the most unpopular prime minister we’ve ever had.”

He added: “What we need to do is all of us come together behind the prime minister and focus on how we can deliver the change the British public want to see faster.”

A leadership challenge seems all but inevitable, with Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham potentially throwing his hat in the ring, but Reed rather bluntly stated “there is no leadership challenge” and hit out at the “internal-facing nonsense” plaguing the party.

He told the BBC: “If people wanted to gather the nominations then it’s open for them to do that – they would need to find enough Labour MPs that wanted to endorse them but nobody has done that.

“It’s been a very difficult week but we need to take a breath now, take this weekend to reflect on what’s going on, and come back next week and focus on the country we were elected to serve.”

Commenting on reports suggesting Starmer was considering his position last night, Reed told Times Radio “that isn’t true”, adding: “The Labour party will not copy the chaos we saw under the Conservatives.”

Labour MP Josh Simons announced yesterday that he would stand down from his constituency in Makerfield to make way for Burnham to stand as a candidate in a byelection.

Simons said he believed Burnham could “drive the change our country is crying out for”.

“We have lost the trust of those our party was built to serve. It is my unwavering belief that nothing short of urgent, radical, courageous reform will make a difference,” he told BBC Radio Manchester this morning.

Read more here: