Welcome to Number 10, Andy

Andy Burnham inherits an economy running on one cylinder. GDP crept up just 0.1% in May, saved from contraction only by services — more than 80% of output, up 0.3% — while manufacturing slid 0.8% and the Iran war kept oil near $120 a barrel. The OECD reckons growth limps to 0.9% this year and warns debt could hit 105.4% of GDP by 2027 without reform. The high street is already sending its bill: Britain's retailers say they've swallowed £6.5bn of new costs since 2024, business rates up £1.8bn in two years, and now hand over roughly 75% of profits in tax. Their ask of the incoming PM is blunt — cut the rates, or watch the shutters keep coming down.

And the in-tray got heavier still. Ministers nationalised British Steel on Thursday, seizing the Scunthorpe plant from Chinese owner Jingye without a deal once a public interest test cleared the way. The rescue is real: it keeps Britain's last two virgin-steel furnaces lit and thousands of jobs intact, in an industry that still underpins construction and defence. The catch is everything after. The plant has bled money for years — the very reason Jingye wanted out — and public ownership changes none of that overnight: an ageing site, punishing energy costs, a world awash with cheap steel, and a compensation bill an independent valuer has yet to set. Britain has kept its steel; making the business worth keeping is the longer fight, and it belongs to the state now.

Anaemic growth, a high street pleading for relief, and a loss-making steelworks freshly on the books — quite the welcome mat for the new tenant of Number 10. To the rest of the issue. — M.B.

The UK economy grew in May — but only just, and only because one part of it did all the work. Official figures show GDP up 0.1%, a whisker from contraction, as a resilient services sector masked steep falls elsewhere. Manufacturing shrank, production shrank, and the Iran war kept its boot on activity. This is UK GDP running on a single engine, and it lands on the desk of whoever inherits the Treasury next.

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Britain’s retailers have absorbed £6.5bn in new costs since 2024 — and now they are handing the bill to Andy Burnham. As he prepares to enter Number 10, the industry’s biggest lobby group is pressing the incoming prime minister to slash business rates and rescue youth employment, warning that a decade of rising costs has left shops fighting to survive. The message is blunt: back retail, or watch the high street keep boarding up.

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Spare a thought for whoever picks up the keys to Number 10. The growth figures turn up running on one cylinder, the retailers turn up with an invoice, and British Steel turns up as a going concern its last owner couldn't wait to stop concerning himself with. Quite the housewarming. — M.B.