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In the Guardian today:
Half a million trees will be planted across England in the next three years to protect against extreme weather, the environment secretary, Angela Eagle, will pledge on Wednesday morning.
Mayors, local authorities, charities and grassroots groups will be given new funding and responsibilities for restoring natural landscapes such as wetlands, river edges and meadows, which can provide natural flood management and reduce the damage done by droughts.
The £79m package, to be set out in Eagle’s speech to the Labour party conference in Liverpool, will include £53m for tree-planting and £26m for “local nature recovery strategies”.
Scotland has planted substantially more new woodland than England over the last decade, typically accounting for the majority of UK woodland creation. Official statistics measure this primarily in hectares of new woodland (woodland creation), not individual trees; tree numbers are estimates that vary with species mix and planting density (often roughly 1,000–2,000 trees per hectare).
Once more the Labour spads struggle with the sums. Half a million trees over three years, 170 000 per year, says Mrs Eagle. England plated 7.8 million new trees last year so that is a 2.2% increase per year.
In 2025/2026, the UK Labour government funded 5 250 hectares, around 7.8 million trees: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a3bca5230b491f55b3c487e/FC-Key-Performance-Indicators-Report-2025-26.pdf
In the same year, John Swinney’s government funded the planting of 7 220 hectares, 38% more, around 11 million trees.
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If you want to look further back, it gets worse:
Last 3 planting years (2023–24, 2024–25, 2025–26):
England: about 25.3 million trees
- 2023–24: 7.1 million
- 2024–25: 10.4 million
- 2025–26: 7.8 million
These are official Forestry Commission totals and include both new woodland and trees planted outside woodland.
Scotland: about 61 million trees
- 2023–24: ~30 million (15,040 hectares)
- 2024–25: ~17 million (8,470 hectares)
- 2025–26: ~14 million (7,220 hectares)
Scotland’s figures are converted from official woodland-creation hectares at roughly 2,000 trees per hectare, the rate used in Scottish Government reporting.
Together: roughly 86–87 million trees. Scotland planted more than twice as many as England over those three years.
So, over the last 3 years, Scotland plants more than 60 million and England only manages just over 25 million, less than one-third.
That half a million in three years, Angela, is not gonna look at it,
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“UK Labour promises” you say ?
Much of which is communicated via their leaders.
In May 2026 , prior to being elected as the MP for Makerfield, Andy Burnham said in his election campaign for that seat that:
“He was not proposing the UK considers re-joining the European Union“.
He also conceded that Brexit had been “damaging”
However in his opinion it seems that decision could not revisited nor reversed as he said:
“Britain will be stuck in a permanent rut if we’re just constantly arguing” and so he noted that “”My view is that Brexit has been damaging, but I also believe the last thing we should do right now is re-run those arguments.”.
He added:
“I am not proposing that the UK considers re-joining the EU”.
He then said:
“I respect the decision that was made at the referendum and it is going to undermine everything I have said about strengthening democracy if we don’t respect that vote.”
Fast forward to September 2026 Labour Conference and Burnham’s speech and this is what he says now:
“Brexit referendum ‘possible’ in Labour election manifesto, says Burnham”
“Andy Burnham has said it is “possible” a future Labour election manifesto could promise a new in-out referendum on the European Union”.
How similar is this U-turn aka betrayal by Andy Burnham to that of Keir Starmer.
Both campaigning to be elected saying any old S**** then when elected looking to reverse what they both had previously said.
Starmer also pledged that he would do a lot of things when he was campaigning in the Labour leadership election , then he too ended up not doing one thing that he had promised he would do , as and when he became the new Labour leader.
Burnham pledged in May that he would:
“Respect the (EU referendum) vote” (as in the result).
He also said that he was:
“Not proposing that the UK considers re-joining the EU“.
As apparently , according to him, that was the “last thing” he thought we (the UK State) should do, as in ” re-run those arguments“.
It’s amazing how duplicitous certain politicians can be when they want to be elected, then once elected they then assume that they need not uphold their former promises and pledges.
So Burnham previously said in May that he respected the EU Leave “decision that was made at the referendum” .
He also said that:
“It is going to undermine everything I have said about strengthening democracy if we don’t respect that vote“.
So in him now, in September, saying that there could be a new “Brexit referendum ‘possible’ in the Labour election manifesto” does that mean he now seeks to “undermine democracy” ?
Also if he does indeed include another Brexit Referendum in the next Labour manifesto ( as an enticement to some gullible Remain voters) then why not another Scottish Independence Referendum as well, as fair’s fair surely ?
If leaving the EU can be revisited then why can we also not see the Scottish Independence Referendum also being revisited ?
So then we too in Scotland should also get another opportunity , based on things having greatly changed for us within the UK since 2014 .
( That is greatly changed for the worse , as the BT pledges that were made to Scotland in 2014 have unquestionably turned out to not be what they (BT) said on the (their NO campaign) tin !
I predict Burnham’s time will likely go **** up, just like Starmer’s did.
The people of all four nations within the UK State badly need and want stability, decisiveness and consistency and not a succession of volatility, indecision and inconsistency as we have all seen, first with the Tories in charge and now with Labour , that is since they won the UK GE in 2024 and beyond, as it seems with their new leader, Burnham , well to quote Theresa May “Nothing has changed” .
#Labour’s-Words-Are-Cheap
You cannot, as a party, pretend to now offer “hope and change” when your party’s actions and their words created doubt and also feelings of what amounts to being regarded as mere continuation (for many) in all that was (badly) done and (badly) said before . (by both the Tories, then Starmer and now I suspect also by Burnham)
Leopards – spots – can’t- change – springs to mind , whenever I think of the Labour party.
Liz S
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Has he even taken into account the reality, that the rEU might not want England in their club…at all, or if they would accept them, they’d need to sign up to all sorts of very strict rules, that England would have to abide by this time. Oh dear.
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The Thames will flood
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