Some say party risks ‘looking twee’ by focusing on small fixes amid growing nervousness that budget lacks ambition

In the days since Labour’s annual conference, party insiders have been sharing a word cloud produced by the pollsters More in Common, which shows the phrases voters most associate with Andy Burnham.

Such polling is rarely flattering for politicians, and the prime minister’s version had its fair share of negatives. But one of the most prominent words in the cloud – and the one that has caught the imagination of Labour strategists – was “trying”.

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© Photograph: Zeynep Demir Aslim/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Zeynep Demir Aslim/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Zeynep Demir Aslim/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Only ‘very small number’ of people already in Lebanon or Jordan will be referred, says organisation running scheme

The Home Office is facing claims it gave false hope to the people of Gaza after it emerged that a new safe route for Palestinian refugees will only be open to those who have already escaped to Lebanon or Jordan.

Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, announced the reopening of a resettlement scheme for refugees at Labour’s annual conference last month. A statement from her department said: “Around one in four referrals will be for Afghan women and girls and Palestinian refugees, fleeing war and persecution.”

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© Photograph: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu/Getty Images

Party now polling 15 points above Greens, who had been ahead of Labour before Keir Starmer resigned as PM

Labour is starting to win back voters on the left who became disillusioned under Keir Starmer’s leadership, the party’s deputy leader has claimed after it saw off Zack Polanski and the Greens to win the Holborn and St Pancras byelection.

Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali took 45% of a relatively low turnout to keep Starmer’s old north London seat for the party, pushing Polanski, who had stood for the party he leads, into second place on 33%.

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© Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

© Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

© Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

Everywhere the PM turns, he finds generous adversaries. They have made his early days in No 10 so much easier

I don’t know where Andy Burnham found his magic lamp, but I hope he’s taking good care of it. In the early hours of Friday morning, the genie that’s looked so kindly on him these past few months granted him yet another wish, with a byelection win in Holborn and St Pancras. It was just the latest gift for a prime minister for whom things keep going right – and who is especially blessed in his choice of opponents.

Let’s start with that win in London, where Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali defeated the Green party leader, Zack Polanski. It’s easy to miss how rare such a victory is. As the veteran psephologist Peter Kellner pointed out, this was a win that “defied history”. If the past half-century were any guide, Labour should have lost, thanks to a “truly dreadful record” defending its own seats when in government and facing a byelection challenge from the left or centre-left, the likes of the Greens or the Lib Dems. The average swing against Labour in such contests had been 24%. “On those figures,” wrote Kellner, “Polanski should have won at a canter.” But he lost.

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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© Photograph: Sean Gallup/Reuters

© Photograph: Sean Gallup/Reuters

© Photograph: Sean Gallup/Reuters

A byelection win is a fillip for Andy Burnham and shows Zack Polanski must confront the failures damaging his party’s credibility and appeal

By holding Holborn and St Pancras, Andy Burnham’s Labour has shown it can attract liberal and left-leaning voters. The seat has substantial numbers of young adults, students, professionals and Muslims – offering fertile ground for the Greens’ ecopopulism. However, Labour prevailed. Having won leave-voting Makerfield in June, Mr Burnham can now claim an appeal that bridges Labour’s divided electorate. It’s worth noting that turnout in London was low and Labour’s vote share fell 3.7 points. But that compares with an average 19.3-point fall in four byelections under Mr Burnham’s predecessor. The new leader clearly has bought Labour breathing space and checked the Green advance.

The Greens more than tripled their vote share in the constituency to 33%. But they were beaten. Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali took 45% in Sir Keir Starmer’s former seat, leaving Zack Polanski’s ambition of entering parliament unfulfilled. For a party that began the year promising to turn voters’ hunger for change into a serious challenge to Labour, this was a sobering moment. The passing of a motion declaring “Zionism is racism” at its conference probably cost the party support – though the result in central London alone cannot definitively say that. There is a separate question of leadership. Mr Polanski now says he would have voted against the motion. Why, then, did he not make his opposition clear when it mattered last weekend?

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© Photograph: Toby Shepheard/Reuters

© Photograph: Toby Shepheard/Reuters

© Photograph: Toby Shepheard/Reuters

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© Illustration: Martin Rowson/The Guardian

© Illustration: Martin Rowson/The Guardian

© Illustration: Martin Rowson/The Guardian

While the Labour and Conservative leaders will be delighted with their showing, Nigel Farage, Ed Davey and Zack Polanski have less reason for cheer

Andy Burnham

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© Composite: various

© Composite: various

© Composite: various

Sagal Abdi-Wali defeats Green party leader Zack Polanski to retain the Holborn and St Pancras seat for Labour

• Labour fends off Green party to win Holborn and St Pancras byelection

Activists in Camden have suggested the Greens’ decision to back the anti-Zionism motion has cost them votes in the byelection.

Councillors for both Labour the Liberal Democrats told the Press Association that voters had informed them they would not be backing the Green party after it passed the motion last weekend calling Zionism racism.

It is clear now we will come a close second in this by-election. Taking the fight to Labour in one of its safest seats shows just how far the Greens have come.

Voters want us to keep Labour’s feet to the fire on affordable housing, public ownership of water and the climate crisis. Greens will be there every single day, holding Labour to account and demanding the change people voted for.

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© Photograph: Toby Shepheard/Reuters

© Photograph: Toby Shepheard/Reuters

© Photograph: Toby Shepheard/Reuters

More research into the troubling rise in early onset cancers is needed. But we already know that food is among the culprits

The latest findings about the rise in cancers in people under 50, from the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), are extremely concerning. While a cancer diagnosis is bad news at any time, it is a particular blow for those in younger age groups where most people are in good health. Overlapping trends observed in England, the Netherlands and the US include a troubling rise in the incidence of colorectal (or bowel) cancer. Other diseases that have increased in England include uterine and kidney cancers.

These diseases are still rare in young people: 10 times more adults in their 50s, 60s and 70s are diagnosed than those in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Earlier detection is thought to be one factor behind the rise in younger patients. Diagnosing more cancers sooner is an explicit policy goal in England, where late diagnosis and lower uptake of screening are two reasons for mortality rates that are higher than elsewhere in Europe.

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© Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

© Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

© Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

Campaigners and Send parents including Chris Packham, Carrie Grant and Sally Phillips urge ministers to work with families and organisations to preserve individual provision and improve accountability in the system

The legal rights of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) are still under threat. The government’s proposed Send and education otherwise than at school (Eotas) reforms would significantly reduce existing legal rights to enforceable education, health and care plans (EHCPs), parental choice of educational settings and independent routes of appeal.

We support the government’s ambitions for a more inclusive education system. Better teacher training, earlier identification of need, greater specialist expertise and a properly staffed workforce are all necessary. But none of these initiatives require children and families to surrender the legal protections they currently have.

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© Photograph: Roger Askew/Alamy

© Photograph: Roger Askew/Alamy

© Photograph: Roger Askew/Alamy

Court hears former justice minister Shahid Malik had only ‘very limited’ role in business that made £6.67m in three weeks

• UK politics live – latest updates

A former Labour MP and justice minister has been found not guilty of charges around his role in a fraudulent Covid-19 testing company.

Shahid Malik, 58, was MP for Dewsbury between 2005 and 2010 and served as a minister in three departments in Gordon Brown’s government.

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© Photograph: Nigel Roddis/REUTERS

© Photograph: Nigel Roddis/REUTERS

© Photograph: Nigel Roddis/REUTERS

Zack Polanski has led energetic campaign for the Greens, while Labour will hope to hold on to Starmer’s old seat

Voting has opened in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, a contest seen as a key gauge of Andy Burnham’s ability to energise voters and whether Zack Polanski’s Greens can still peel off support from Labour’s left.

Polanski, who leads the Greens in England and Wales, is standing for his party in the north London constituency, previously held by Keir Starmer before he stood down as an MP shortly after resigning as prime minister.

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© Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

© Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

© Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

Readers respond to an article in which Larry Elliott argues that Andy Burnham must challenge neoliberal nostrums

Larry Elliott’s column on the rightwing economic myths constraining Andy Burnham’s government should be required reading before John Healey’s budget (Rightwing economic myths could derail Burnham’s project – to destroy them, look to Keynes, 1 October).

I spent 20 years trading bonds, and agree that the household budget analogy bears no relation to how the UK state finances itself. Parliament votes on the spending, the Treasury instructs the Bank of England, and the Bank credits accounts in the private sector. Taxes withdraw money afterwards.

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© Photograph: Tim Gidal/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tim Gidal/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tim Gidal/Getty Images

Steven Kay says Britain should act independently and in a role consistent with its status as a member of the UN security council

Patrick Wintour’s report (Libyan unity talks upended as warlord’s son linked to drone attacks on fuel facilities, 3 October) should not surprise anyone concerned with the attempts to end conflict and seek the unification of Libya. Saddam Haftar, like his father, Khalifa, has been backed by the US to support its aims and ambitions in Libya. There is no logic, if democratic elections are the goal, to be backing a member of the Haftar clan for any role in the future of Libya.

The Libyan population want nothing more than peace, security and to use constructively the wealth that could be generated from their extensive natural resources for the improvement of their society. Instead, their resources are being dissipated in corruption and conflict, a state of affairs that benefits only the warmongers.

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© Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

Energy and housing costs threaten biggest decline in modern times unless bold action taken, says thinktank

Soaring energy and housing costs mean Labour is on course to preside over the worst parliament for living standards in modern times, a stark analysis warns.

Three weeks ahead of John Healey’s budget, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said Britain faces a “dire” outlook unless the government takes “bold policy action”.

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© Photograph: Simon Dack/Alamy

© Photograph: Simon Dack/Alamy

© Photograph: Simon Dack/Alamy

On the eve of the byelection, Polanski’s pledge is to keep the government ‘in check’. It may not be enough to stop a drift back to the political margins

Only a few months ago, in the spring, there was a sense of giddy possibility about the Greens. Zack Polanski’s radical new leadership felt fresh and dynamic, especially compared with those of the other parties. Former Labour supporters, in particular, were switching to the Greens in huge numbers, Green candidates were winning across the country, and the party was second behind Reform UK in some national polls.

Like Reform, the Green party presented itself as a revolt against a failed status quo. Unlike Reform, the Greens’ urgent stance on the climate crisis gave them a potent moral authority: even many people who did not support them believed that the Greens were right about the most universal issue.

Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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© Photograph: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Minister says they could not see parties cooperating, while official says coalition should be formally ruled out

Senior Labour party figures said it was very unlikely their party would cooperate with the Greens in the future after they adopted a policy treating Zionism as a form of racism.

One Labour minister said they could not foresee how the two parties could work together, while a government official said Labour should formally rule out a future coalition or other arrangement.

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© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

A piece from Growing Up Transgender about having a trans kid and choosing to leave the UK. It's very sad but I think it's worth reading.