A row has erupted within Britain's Labour Party after Manchester's mayor, Andy Burnham, was blocked from running in a special election.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to take on the “alliance of naysayers” and the bureaucratic “nonsense” that have hampered construction projects in the U.K. Starmer outlined a series of new pledges that he will hope will change the narrative on his five-month-old government following a slide in its approval ratings.

British Transport Minister Louise Haigh has resigned over a decade-old fraud conviction for claiming her cellphone was stolen.

LONDON A Royal Air Force plane used by U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on official trips is getting a red, white and blue paint job at a cost of almost 1 million pounds ($1.25 million). The Voyager also carries other senior ministers and members of the royal family on overseas trips, and is used by the air force for air-to-air refueling. Johnson complained in 2018 about the drab official plane, asking why does it have to be gray? and saying he would like a Brexit plane to help promote the U.K. around the world. Johnsons office said the paint job, estimated to cost 900,000 pounds, wouldn't affect the planes military role. But opposition Labour Party lawmaker Louise Haigh questioned the wisdom of spending almost a million pounds redecorating a plane which in all likelihood has been grounded for months because of the coronavirus" pandemic.