Andy Burnham to embark on UK listening tour in first weeks as PM

Andy Burnham will undertake a summer tour across the UK during the early weeks of his premiership, visiting areas including Port Talbot in south Wales – a town that saw the closure of its last steel-making blast furnace in September 2024. Described as a “listening tour of the UK”, the newly elected prime minister will travel across the country in August while Parliament is in recess. Several Welsh Labour MPs have told BBC Wales that they understand Burnham intends to visit Port Talbot, once home to the UK’s largest steelworks which has seen 2,800 job losses as it transitions to greener steel-making. The former Greater Manchester mayor will become prime minister on Monday but will not face MPs until September when the Commons returns from its six-week recess, unless he decides to recall Parliament. Some Welsh politicians have accused Labour of double standards after it stepped in to save the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe in 2025 but did not do the same for Tata Steel’s Port Talbot plant. Health minister Stephen Kinnock, whose Aberafan Maesteg constituency includes Port Talbot, said Burnham was “very welcome” to join him there. “He’ll be interested to learn about the many exciting projects that will shape our future in Aberafan Maesteg,” Kinnock added. Tonia Antoniazzi, Labour MP for Gower, said: “I’d love him to visit for a pint and a dip and hear first hand from my constituents what matters to them.” There are also reports that Burnham will visit Aberdeen, a city at the heart of the debate around the UK’s energy future and home of GB Energy – the government’s fledgling publicly-owned energy company. The Conservatives won the recent by-election for Aberdeen South, held on the same day as the Makerfield election which Burnham won. In a speech in Manchester at the end of June, Burnham made the case for more “powers to areas undergoing industrial transition, like Port Talbot, Scunthorpe and Aberdeen”. The Welsh Government has raised concerns that this might mean undermining devolution to Wales, with Plaid Cymru First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth saying there were “signs” Burnham might want to bypass the Senedd and the Welsh government. Separately, from August 3 to August 9, Tesco shoppers will be asked an important question when they reach the tills: whether they want to round up their bill to the nearest pound, with the funds split between Felix and Trussell to support their work over the summer. The supermarket is also selling pre-filled food donation bags in all large stores from July 6 to August 16 in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and July 20 to August 30 in England and Wales, containing healthy long-life food that goes directly to Felix and Trussell. Online customers can donate through a link on Tesco’s grocery home shopping website. Tesco is also running its Kids Eat Free scheme in its 317 cafés across the UK over the school summer holidays, expanded this year to run longer and include weekends – one free Kids Hot Meal Deal, Kids Breakfast or Kids Pick ‘n’ Mix deal with each adult item bought from as little as 60p, when showing a Tesco Clubcard. From July 20 to August 30, children can pick up free apples at checkouts in more than 800 large stores and 77 large Express stores; Click & Collect customers also get free apples at selected stores. Christine Heffernan, Chief Communications and Sustainability Officer at Tesco, said: “We want to be able to support our charity partners to help those needing a little extra support this summer. Our partnerships with Felix and Trussell are central to this aim.” The moves come as a recent survey by Felix found that 41% of local charities receiving food via its nationwide redistribution network have experienced an increase in demand in the last 12 months; for 13%, demand more than doubled.