Consumed by gilts

London political editor Andrew McDonald’s briefing focuses on Andy Burnham’s return to the Commons at noon for another round of PMQs, framed as his debut at the despatch box. The report notes PMQs had already lasted more than four hours following a night that reportedly ran 3 hours and 24 minutes, with Burnham facing 125 questions, including from Kemi Badenoch. It describes the political optics—body language and style—while listing a range of policy signals Burnham made the previous evening, including possible moves on FPTP, a water-sector shake-up, a hint about raising defense spending to 3% of GDP by 2030, and keeping the door open on council tax and taxes in the next budget. The central constraint highlighted is the state of public finances, with gilt yields surging to the highest since 1998 and Bloomberg’s economics team estimating about £12bn less headroom from the government’s £23.6bn buffer against fiscal rules due to higher costs and inflation.