Prime Minister.

I do, because I'm not.

I'm trying to get a better deal for Britain at the summit that we're about to go to.

And she's mentioned things said in the past.

Can I remind her of what she said? [laughing] Well, I'm going to.

I'm sorry.

Because she said it was a mistake, Mr.

Prime Minister.

So will the Prime Minister now overturn Labour's ban on all new oil and gas licences?

Mr Speaker, can we get something straight at the start of Prime Minister's questions today? We have made a decision that her government messed up.

That's why there was the delay, because they didn't do the process properly.

And we've made a pragmatic decision, Mr.

Speaker, that will allow us to do two things.

Firstly, build a bridge to a renewable future, because the resources that come in now from this decision will allow us to invest in renewables, bring forward clean energy, and in this Parliament, substantially de-link gas and electricity prices so that we can bring bills down.

And it will also allow us, Mr Speaker, to do more to help people with bills.

Minister.

So will the Prime Minister now overturn Labour's ban on all new oil and gas licences?

Mr Speaker, can we get something straight at the start of Prime Minister's questions today? We have made a decision that her government messed up.

That's why there was the delay, because they didn't do the process properly.

And we've made a pragmatic decision, Mr.

Speaker, that will allow us to do two things.

Firstly, build a bridge to a renewable future, because the resources that come in now from this decision will allow us to invest in renewables, bring forward clean energy, and in this Parliament, substantially de-link gas and electricity prices so that we can bring bills down.

And it will also allow us, Mr Speaker, to do more to help people with bills.

Minister.

Mm-hmm.

Because people are going into hospital unnecessarily, adding to the pressure.

But then, if you, you take any given day, uh, in hospitals in England, you're, you're looking at, I think it's thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of people medically fit to leave hospital, but unable to go home because the care isn't, isn't there.

Prime Minister.

Uh, thank you, and [laughs] it's been hard just because, um, you know, when I walked up that street for the first time to come into this place- You know, I knew that my dad was, you know, reaching the end of his journey, and it was hard.

And I, you know, my mom was on the street and every...

You know, so the coming together of those two things-

[laughing] Isn't he too busy appeasing his MPs, excusing his own mistakes, and avoiding difficult decisions to give the country the leadership it needs? [shouting]

Well, Mr.

Speaker, I used my conference speech to face up to difficult decisions.

[shouting] I faced up to a difficult decision about supporting older people in later life, related to adjusting the triple lock so that we can lay the ground for a national care service.

I took a difficult decision about developing closer ties with Europe, supported by a majority of people in this country.

Why? Because we've got the chance to do a deal, Mr.

Speaker, before the end of the year that can add growth to the British economy, support our farmers and our food industry.

Hear! Hear.

What are we gonna do about that?

Well, Rory, it's a good question, and it takes me back to what I was saying before about an honest broker, because on this issue particularly, I think that is where we can play this particular role.

We've had a situation where this conversation about AI has elevated, even in my two months, it's moving right up the, uh, agenda.

I did appoint an AI minister to attend cabinet, Kanishka Narayan.

Uh, we have now started to have cross-government discussions at the highest level about the implications of AI, not just from a defense and security point of view, fr-from a societal point of view as well.

And what I've found recently, particularly at the UN General Assembly, is feeling in the middle of different worldviews on this issue.

You do have the US and China going at things at great pace, as you, as you correctly describe, and, you know, such pace perhaps that some people then become alarmed by it.

The word I would come back to, Rory, that unites all of it is more control

Why do you think they should view Andy Burnham and the Labour Party more broadly as the vehicle for hope in this country?

Well, there's a number of ways I could answer that question, but I have always been somebody who has prioritised young people in what I do.

So as Mayor of Greater Manchester, I said when I came in, I was never going to make young people my target for cuts, as politicians have sometimes done.

They would be my priority for investment.

So I gave them a free bus pass and...

I brought in work place.

You know, we did a whole amount of things to support young people.

Because I think there are a couple of things, maybe like Europe, but also things like voter reform and water, kind of having the ability to nationalise water, where some voters will have got a sense of hope from, but might have gone, why don't you just sort of do it, Andy? What would you say to them?

Can we start off here a little bit broad and just go, why should young people vote for you in the next election when we've seen two years of a Labour government already and the ship doesn't feel like it's turning around that quickly?

I'm going to answer that question by saying something that I said when I came in as mayor of Greater Manchester.

That's a decade ago.

I said then that young people would be my priority for investment rather than my target for cuts.

And I meant it because I've been in Westminster where young people were often made the target for cuts.

There was a feeling down there that older people are the ones who vote at elections, therefore make all of your promises to older voters.

Oh, and pay for it by trebling tuition fees, cutting, um, youth services.

No, I love it.

Are you less open to that than you were a month ago after they've bent your ear?

It's about looking at the case, isn't it, rather than taking a fixed view.

I don't think people would expect me to take a fixed view or even, let's say, an overly political view.

I'm not saying that's what my colleagues were doing.

I just need to look at it on the merits of the case.

I'm the Prime Minister of all of the UK, including Wales.

I have to respect the governments in the nations of the UK, and I will, and give fair hearing to anything that is put to me.

Are you prepared to speak to those government departments to ask for that exemption to be

So is the Prime Minister unable or is he just unwilling to get that money by 2030?

2030?Mr.

Speaker, this Chancellor, of all Chancellors, will be willing to provide that funding, uh, to our armed forces.

Back our defense investment plan.

This com- this Government's commitment, Mr.

Speaker, to the defense of this country is absolute.

We've taken the strongest possible stance in supporting President Zelensky and Ukraine.

So will the Prime Min- uh, tell the country, where is he going to find the money to fund our defense? Hear! Hear!

How does he plan to tackle the government's rising debt costs?

Mm.

Well, can I, uh, say to my, uh, to the honorable lady, um, right honorable lady.

[laughs] I've worked with Jim O'Neill for 10 years.

Jim O'Neill always gives me candid advice.

We don't always agree, but he and I worked together to turn Greater Manchester- Oh ... from a former industrial heartland to the fastest growing city region in the country.

They complain, Mr.

Hear.

Mm-hmm

... uh, was.

The hard thing was leaving and coming back here.

That, well, that was the hard thing because you've just had a glimpse of a, a different world and people who've got different connections in their kind of world and their social life, and I came back here, and it was the summer of 1991.

Um, oh, there was loads going on in this city at the time music-wise.

You know, it was a great place to be.

But the reason the music scene was booming was because it had kinda come through into the empty factories and the empty warehouses because The rest have, had gone.

... to feel at home.

Why does this issue matter so much to you? We're only on week two here.

We are only on week two, but I wanted to get stuck into this straight away.

I just don't feel we've got an education system that offers a path for everybody.

It's all focused on the university route, and that's great for those who want to go on that route.

But there's a lot of young people who are looking for something different, and school often isn't giving them that something, something different.

So it is a huge priority for me.

And when you've been the mayor of a big city region like Greater Manchester, you just see how our economy can't function if you have an education system that, that doesn't, you know, work to support all parts of the economy, get all young people engaged.

Sea container world?

That's not, that's not the same

... of social care.

Well, it's not, because a whole new system, which is what you asked, uh, takes time.

I think there are major changes you can make before, uh, the next election, and the reason why I say I'll go as quickly as I can is because I believe broken social care is the biggest cause of corridor care in the NHS.

It's the biggest cause of billions being spent on people unnecessarily going into hospital from, uh, care in their home or in a residential care home, uh, because sometimes the care workers supporting them just feel they've no choice but to ring 999.

Let me make this point, 'cause it's very personal to me.

And then people have long stays in hospital, which never should have happened in the first place, and then they end up fit to go home, but unable to be discharged because the social care isn't there.

Um, would you take a call from Vladimir Putin?

[laughs]

... uh, you know, we, we have no problem really.

I, you know, I, I, uh, I work with both clubs.

Um, it's just i- i- in many ways, joking aside, a, a sort of privilege really to work in a, in a city that has two football clubs of, of their stature.

You know, they, they, whether we [laughs] whether the people like it or not, they're, they're huge, aren't they, in terms of their, their, their, their, their reach.

And particularly at the moment working with United potentially on, you know, a either refurbished or rebuilt, uh, Old Trafford.

You know, I, I put- as a football person, I consider that, I consider that a, a privilege.

When you look back, do you look back fondly on his Everton reign and his Everton sides?

What does that mean?

You aim high, you will achieve.

So I don't know if you know my backstory, Harriet.

I started as a lowly milkman in a tiny village where we had no electricity.

We had no still water, let alone running water.

And I was a milkman.

I used to deliver that milk every day.

You left him on two blue ticks.

That interview was in April 2016, two months before the Brexit referendum, and he said something that seems quite prescient now.

I think there is a concern that may even be kind of brought on by the European referendum that, you know, Labour is losing its, its connection, its grip with its traditional, uh, supporters.

You know, if y- you do have a London-centric approach to politics, it's not surprising that over time people just hear that, that perspective through the national media-

But some of the frustrations that led him to leave Westminster were starting to bubble up again.

PPE, for goodness' sake.

You know, we bought 19 million items of PPE, uh, completely separate to the national system.

We ran a mutual aid system across health and social care for PPE.

There's loads of things that we've done purely off our own back.

Mm

... to power, and the patronage sometimes that comes with power or the favored, uh, relationship that some, some parts have with it.

I also, um, remember very vividly, um, the kind of policymaking process in Whitehall being too driven by the agendas of certain parts of the media.

I think the reason we've ended up in this country with a quite- Punitive, distrustful benefit system that more often than not is tripping people up rather than helping people out is because policy has been designed over many governments over decades to please certain newspapers in that space.

Do you think the current government understands some of the things you're saying?

I think they do, uh, and they've made some really positive moves, renationalising rail and some of Angela Rayner's moves on housing.

But I would say go with that, but go m- go even more, uh, with that.

You know, move decisively, work with the mayors, get delivery going more quickly.

And can you recall that moment?

I can.

I can remember it vividly.

And as you say, it was hairs on the back of your neck moment, wasn't it? Absolutely phenomenal thing to witness.

And it's interesting, isn't it? Because in that moment, rugby union kind of went from being a sport that kind of seemed to belong to one social class, particularly in that country.

and almost overnight became everyone's sport.

And that one man did that in terms of that image that he cast around the world.

Because I think a lot of people, sadly, certainly back in the day, put off... by sport at school because of that, you know, complete competitive element.

[laughs]

But what happened was I ra- ...

You know, so it came to the thing, and Gordon says, "Right, okay.

Andy, you know obviously you had a difficult day yesterday, but you asked could you brief the cabinet on, on it.

And, uh, it, the floor's yours." And I just remember saying to him, "Look," I said, "It's not just I had a tough day yesterday.

I was there because I know that they are right and we are wrong.

There is a massive injustice here.

Mm.

But what we're not seeing is action.

Well, I agree.

And, you know, we used to have regulatory protections.

It used to be called Rule 34 that the FA used to have in its rulebook.

And it was a rule that prevented the asset stripping of football clubs and protected them as rules.

community institutions that promoted the interests of the game.

And you look back to the early mid-90s where that was all jettisoned and the year of the PLC arrived.

I've got friends who are Bury fans who they say the worst time of the week is three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon because what was central to their lives for so many years has been stolen away from them from people who've got no love for the game.

Now, if that were to happen, what are you telling them that you need in terms of that apparent historic giveaway of power?

Well, I, I'm really encouraged, um, by what Lisa Nandy i-is saying at the moment.

She gave a terrific speech recently at the, uh, Convention of the North.

I, I'm encouraged because Labour's been a bit late to this, if I'm honest.

You know, the, the, the English devolution issue has kind of-- it, it's, the party has not known at times, uh, or looked as though it's not fully known what to do about it.

But it's now clearly moving into a different phase following Gordon Brown's, uh, review.

And I think the way to make this country work better is to, is not just to sort of dip your toe, but to fully go with it.

And yet actually there hasn't been a great focus on why it has been such a calamity, um, in terms of there are times perhaps when you put the case for public ownership as you have, uh, in your role as mayor, but, but, but Labour, you don't hear much about this as a basic issue.

Go on.

The, the, the, the, the tutor or director of study said, "To what extent do you think The Canterbury Tales is like a modern-day package holiday?" And I just sat there with this sherry in my hand and looked at him.

I'm not sure I spoke for [laughs] about three...

I always say I, I, I was still pondering the question when the, the rejection letter landed on the door.

I just...

There was nothing in my life to that point that had prepared me for that experience.

Nothing.

[laughs]

Mm.

Um, my dad was, um, a telephone engineer.

My mum was, was a telephone operator of the old school.

You know, and they met, they met at Maghull Telephone Exchange.

And my dad got his, like, first promotion but Manchester.

So I was born here, lived my first year here, but then we moved.

They, they wanted to go halfway, so the Lee area, which in the end I represented in parliament.

Yeah

Uh, Andy, let's start with you.

It's by changing the way we do politics.

I can't give you any other answer f- and I mean fundamental change.

I was in Westminster, as you may remember.

I did represent part of this constituency.

Uh, it was in the old Leigh constituency, Hindley Green, Bickershaw, Hindley was in.

And I found that I went down there and I was speaking in to parliament, and in the end, it took me a long time to realize that the system just simply was not set up to support places like ours, and it treated us as the bottom of the list rather than the top of the list.

That is the question.