Now is the moment of “maximum danger” for Sir Keir Starmer, Harriet Harman has warned.

The Labour peer told Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast “everyone really wants Keir Starmer to succeed” after Greater Manchester’s Labour mayor, Andy Burnham, said Labour MPs have been urging him to challenge Sir Keir’s premiership.

Baroness Harman, who was a Labour MP for 42 years, said this was always “going to be the most difficult time” because people are “fed up” with hearing it is the Tories’ fault, “yet they’re not feeling better off”.

“So this was always going to be the moment of maximum danger,” she said.

“But I think that what people want is for Keir Starmer to succeed. And they don’t want, I think at this point, the turbulence of a leadership challenge.”

She said Mr Burnham, who was in Gordon Brown’s cabinet with her, is “not hiding his light under a bushel in any way, shape or form”.

But added: “I do not want the drama and chaos of a leadership election.

“It’s like ‘this guy hasn’t done it, so we’re going to try somebody else’. You know, everybody really wants Keir Starmer to succeed.”

Read more: Could Andy Burnham be a serious threat to Starmer?

Baroness Harman said she thinks the “anxiety” around Nigel Farage getting into Number 10 is “fuelling” the push for Mr Burnham to challenge Sir Keir.

“Keir Starmer would come out absolutely swinging,” she added.

But she admitted Mr Burnham is “something of a vote whisperer” and is a very different person from when he served in Gordon Brown’s cabinet with her.

She said: “He has actually grown in that position [as mayor] and is something of a vote whisperer.

“Every single ward which was up for contest in the mayoralty of Greater Manchester, he won, including the die-hard Tory areas.

“So you know, he has grown, and it’s good to see people grow in politics.”

This week, Mr Burnham said Labour MPs had contacted him over the summer when asked if they had encouraged him to try to challenge Sir Keir.

He told The Telegraph: “I’m not going to say to you that that hasn’t happened.

“But as I say, it’s more a decision for those people than it is for me.”

He added: “I stood twice to be leader of the Labour Party. And I think that tells you, doesn’t it?”

As he is not currently an MP, Mr Burnham would have to win a by-election to be able to challenge Sir Keir.

There are none on the horizon, yet.

Fans will see a series of changes to Ticketmaster sales practices after an investigation into Oasis concert prices.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has secured a number of commitments from Ticketmaster after its investigation found it did not offer fans enough clarity on pricing.

Money latest: Ticketmaster forced to change sales process

It identified that Ticketmaster did not tell Oasis fans waiting in lengthy queues that standing tickets were being sold at two different prices – and that prices would jump as soon as the cheap tickets sold out.

It also said Ticketmaster sold some “platinum” tickets at almost 2.5 times the price of ‘standard’ tickets – without sufficiently explaining that they offered no additional benefits over some ‘standard’ tickets in the same areas of the venue.

Ticketmaster will now be required to:

• Tell fans 24 hours in advance if a tiered pricing system is being used. This means fans will know beforehand if there are multiple prices for the same type of ticket, and that more expensive ones will be released once the cheapest sell out;
• Provide more information about ticket prices during online queues, helping fans anticipate how much they might have to pay;
• Give additional information to help fans make the best decisions, and give more information about the prices of tickets sold using tiered pricing;
• Not use any misleading ticket labels, giving the impression that one ticket is better than another when that is not the case;
• Provide regular reports to the CMA on how it has implemented the changes over the next two years to ensure robust compliance.

Failure to implement these measures could result in enforcement action.

Separate to the CMA report, Ticketmaster have now also stopped using “platinum” labels in the UK.

The CMA said it hopes the measures will send a “clear message” to other ticketing websites, adding: “If Ticketmaster fails to deliver on these changes, we won’t hesitate to take further action.”

“Fans who spend their hard-earned money to see artists they love deserve to see clear, accurate information, upfront,” said CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell.

“We can’t ensure every fan gets a ticket for events as popular as the Oasis tour, but we can help ensure that next time an event like this comes along, fans have the information they need, when they need it.”

Responding to the findings, Ticketmaster said: “We welcome the CMA’s confirmation there was no dynamic pricing, no unfair practices and that we did not breach consumer law.

“To further improve the customer experience, we’ve voluntarily committed to clearer communication about ticket prices in queues. This builds on our capped resale, strong bot protection, and clear pricing displays, and we encourage the CMA to hold the entire industry to these same standards.”

The watchdog launched its investigation following widespread complaints about the sale that saw over 900,000 tickets purchased through the site.

Some ended up paying as much as £355 for tickets originally advertised for £148.

The CMA had made it clear, in an update in March, that it was seeking a series of remedies that were yet to be agreed.

It explained then that Ticketmaster labelled certain seated tickets as “platinum” and sold them for nearly two-and-a-half times the price of equivalent standard tickets, without explaining why they were more expensive.

It found that it “risked giving consumers the misleading impression that platinum tickets were better”.

The regulator also concluded that Ticketmaster did not inform fans that there were two categories of standing tickets at different prices, but it said there was no evidence that dynamic pricing – a form of surge pricing where costs can rise depending on levels of demand – was used.

The UK leg of the Oasis tour will end at Wembley Stadium this coming weekend.

A major test of the CMA’s agreement with Ticketmaster could come soon, however, as it is widely believed that Oasis plan to return to Knebworth House in Hertfordshire next year for a gig to mark the 30th anniversary of their celebrated 1996 concert.

A US vaccine firm has opened the first mRNA manufacturing plant in the UK, against a backdrop of increasing anti-jab rhetoric back home.

The new facility outside Oxford is part of a £1bn investment in the UK by Moderna, which specialises in mRNA.

The novel vaccine technology delivered some of the most effective and fastest-to-develop jabs during the COVID pandemic.

Several pharma companies, including Germany’s leading mRNA pioneer BioNTech, are now racing to develop new therapies.

Moderna says the plant will produce up to 100 million doses of its existing vaccine products each year. It has also been designed to scale-up production to 250 million doses a year in the event of a new disease outbreak.

“God-forbid, if there is another pandemic, we can switch the facility any day,” said Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel.

The UK investment deal was agreed by the previous government, but the plant’s opening is welcome relief for the current one.

In recent weeks, four major pharmaceutical companies have halted planned investments in the UK following disputes over drug pricing and profitability in the UK.

‘A great statement’

It also promises to restore domestic vaccine manufacturing capability in the UK, the lack of which was exposed when dangerous supply interruptions threatened the early COVID response.

“It’s a really fast way of getting new vaccines discovered,” said Lord Patrick Vallance, former chief scientist and now science minister.

“It’s also a great statement of confidence in the UK that [Moderna has] chosen to base themselves here.”

Moderna: UK ‘still believes’ in vaccines

The mRNA molecule is the same used by our cells to order the production of new proteins, and allows vaccines to be produced using just the genetic code of a virus or other biological target.

Moderna’s investment decision pre-dated Donald Trump’s return to the White House, but the Moderna CEO said its operation in the UK – a country that “still believes in vaccination” – may pay dividends if anti-vaccine rhetoric translates into a lack of demand for its products in the US.

“If there is less appetite by governments around the world, including in the US, to use vaccines, we might invest less in vaccines,” said Mr Bancel.

“We have to invest where there’s a demand for our products.”

Read more: All health claims made by Trump – and what experts say

The UK presents other attractions for the company which has suffered substantial losses as demand for its COVID vaccine has fallen.

It’s betting that leading UK universities and a large patient population will make for successful clinical trials.

The company has ongoing NHS trials of new jabs against seasonal flu, a combination COVID and flu vaccine, cancer vaccines and mRNA therapies for two inherited childhood diseases.

Moderna says it is now the largest private commercial sponsor of clinical trials in the UK.