Andy Burnham has been confirmed as Labour leader following Keir Starmer's resignation, putting him on course to become prime minister with a handover at Downing Street expected on Monday [2]. Separately, Reform UK is facing scrutiny over its finances after a £5m donation to Nigel Farage reportedly triggered money-laundering alerts, and this is feeding into wider debate over a Guardian columnist's call to cap political donations as Labour's "clean up politics" bill returns to the Commons [4, 6]. There's also news that former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe has died, with a man arrested on suspicion of murder [5].